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The North American P-51 Mustang
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P-51 Who?   Case # 78
44-63788     N166G     Closed
Solved by: Martin Kyburz, Jim Church, T.J. Johansen
P-51 Who 78
Case#: 78
Date: Dec 27 2000
By:
Photo: Sarasota, FL Mar.'68
Status: Closed
Serial: 44-63788
Registry: N166G
P-51 Who? Viewer Responses
Martin Kyburz
01/11/2001 10:19
N166G is 44-63788 which flew with 167th FS WV ANG, nicknamed 'Donald Duck'. In 1957 it became N6171C, N335J, N3350, owned by Ed Weiner; sold to Jim Morton (1958), then to Robert Mitchem (1959), then to William Roosevelt (1959) and then to George Whipple (1968) and re-registered N166G. Sold to Bruce DeJager (1972) and A. Buckner (1973) then to Mike Smith (1974) - sold to UK (1979), re-registered as G-PSID in 1981, then sold to France and registered F-AZFI where it perished in a fatal crash in June 1998.
Jim Church
01/12/2001 17:25
The aircraft featured in case # 78 is sadly, no longer with us. It was destroyed in a fatal accident in France when the pilot reportedly attempted a roll at about 1,000ft following take off a couple years ago following an airshow. The pilot and a passenger were both killed and the aircraft was totally destroyed in what seems to have been a senseless accident. It was registered F-AZFI at the time, and was painted in post-W.W.II French Air Force markings. The serial number for this aircraft was 44-63788, and at the time of the photo (sometime between 1968-79) was registered N166G. It had been with Warbirds of Great Britain (and then The Fighter Collection for a brief period) as G-PSID, and during this time it had been used in several feature films, including the Memphis Belle farce and Speilberg's Empire of the Sun. E.D. Weiner had owned it for a while, and during his ownership it carried the regs N335J and N3350. Before this it was N6171C.
T J Johansen
01/16/2001 10:46
N166G In 1979 166G was flown to England together with P-47D N47DE to be included in the late Doug Arnolds Warbirds of Great Britain collection at Blackbushe, Hants. The plane was kept in a pseudo RAF camo paint job but seldom flown until being purchased by Stephen Gray in 1987, and used in the movie "Empire of the sun". It was then sold to Jean Salis who owned it for several years until it was sold to the late Yves Duval, and the plane then crashed fatally a few years ago!
Case Closed!
P-51 Mustang

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