Crashed P-51

[rmoore456]

One day in 1985 when I arrived at work I was told by my boss that an airplane had crashed on the job over night. He said it was a WWII plane but didn't know which. This got my interest and I raced out to the job and this is what I found!

The story is it was a model sent to Austrailia for them to copy and set up their own manufacturing plant. The plant was never built and the plane sat in crates in Austrailia till the 70's. It was found, returned to the US and assembled. The plane was sold and was being flown from Rockford, Illinois to Alabama. An oil line broke and covered the canopy in oil. The pilot thought he would have to belly land in a field, this was in February, when he saw the brand new highway, I-39 was not open yet. He landed and since the canopy was covered in oil he had his head out of the cockpit. He said he sticks with his right so he had his head out of the left side and didn't see the large chunks of concrete along the right edge.

 

 

The four black marks are the gouges the propellar made in the concrete, they were about 8" long and 3" deep.

 

 

Ray

[gwb123]

The plane looks fairly intact. Any idea what happened to it?

[rmoore456]

The plane looks fairly intact. Any idea what happened to it?

 

It was hauled off the highway intact, taken to an interchange infield where it was dismantled. It was loaded onto flatbed trailers and hauled to Alabama. I believe it was repaired but am not positive.

 

Ray