North American P-51D Mustang, N1051S / 122-48124, Spencer Flack
This picture is © Martin Laycock and may not be used or published without permission.
Registration: N1051S
Construction Number: 122-48124
Code Number: 511371 / VF-S
Model North American P-51D Mustang
Operator: Spencer Flack
Airport: RAF Mildenhall (MHZ / EGUN), UK - England
Airshow: Mildenhall - Air Fete - 1992
Photographer: Martin Laycock
Date Taken: 23/05/1992
Date Submitted: 27/05/2010
Part of an interesting array of warbirds at Air Fete 92 billed that year as 'Remembered Skies'. Shown here painted to represent the mount of Colonel Everett Stewart of the 4th Fighter Group, 8th Air Force in World War 2. This Mustang was initially delivered to the California Air National Guard in 1945 as 45-11371 before being transferred to USAF Air Defense Command at Yuma, Arizona in 1952. She passed back into Air National Guard service with the New Hampshire ANG in 1954 then transferred again to the Illinois ANG sometime later in the 1950s. On the 31st May 1958 she was sold to the Fuerza Aerea Nicaragua (FAN) as GN 121, one of twenty-six P-51Ds acquired by Nicaragua, who operated the type until 1964. After service in Latin America she was sold to MACO Sales Financial Corp. of Chicago, Illinois on the 8th July 1963 and put on the US civilian register as N12067. There followed a succession of private owners in the States with the registrations N1051 and N751CB. The late Spencer Flack, well known UK warbird operator and classic racing car driver, bought her in January 1987 registering her as N1051S, she was then delivered to the UK on the 22nd June of that year and based at Southend. She was painted for a time with the name 'Sunny VIII' on the nose. Sometime after this photograph was taken she was sold back to the USA becoming part of the US Army Air Corps Museum in Dover, Delaware until 1995 when she was sold again and registered N51KF. Tragically she was destroyed at an airshow in Malone, New York on the 2nd July 1995 fatally injuring the pilot George Krieger.
Picture ID:1234092