Crashed P-51

[rmoore456]

In the late 1970"s early 80's I was working on the construction of I-39 in Illinois. One morning in the office a coworker mentioned that an airplane had crashed on the road overnight. He said it was a P-51 or something like that. Of course I dashed out of the office and this what I found. The backstory was the plane was found in Australia still in the crate, hence the Australian markings. It was supposedly sent there for a prototype to set up a manufacturing plant. The owner who returned it to the states had sold it and was flying it to the new owner. An oil line had broken and sprayed the windshield and the pilot could not see. He thought he was going to have to belly land in a field but saw the brand new highway and decided to land. He said he sticks with his right hand and was looking out the left side. He did not see the chunk of concrete on the road as this was at night. The right landing gear was knocked off and the plane skidded to where it is.

 

 

The marks in the concrete where the propeller hit and the right landing gear. The marks where filled with tar, were 6-8 inches long and 2-3 inches deep. The wheel pant is a Kangaroo knocking Japanese planes out of the sky.

 

 

Ray

[M1Garandy]

Looks like this one:

 

http://www.warbirdregistry.org/p51registry/ca17-a681.html

 

http://www.mustangsmustangs.com/p-51/survivors/serial/A68-001

 

The 2nd link lists a forced landing in 1983.

[38Driver]

First production Aussie Mustang. The markings are not original. It, along with some others were recovered from an atomic test site if memory serves. It would be nice to see it taken back to it's original Aussie factory condition and markings someday. Oh to win the lottery