Mustang joins Flying Bulls

摘要

On 6 March, P-51D Mustang 44-74427/F-AZSB was delivered from its former base at Melun-Villaroche, south-east of Paris, where it had been operated by the France's Flying Warbirds collection, to Salzburg Airport in Austria following its sale to the Flying Bulls. The aircraft's regular pilot George Perez was at the controls for the ferry flight. The 1945-built fighter saw no US Army Air Forces service, and was instead delivered in 1950 to the Royal Canadian Air Force with serial RCAF 9592. Retired during 1959, it passed through the hands of many civilian owners in the US, among them the great 'Bob' Hoover, who displayed the aeroplane - which had been given a Cavalier Executive Mustang conversion - in his famous yellow colour scheme, registered N2251D. After major damage was sustained at Oshkosh, Wisconsin in 1970 when the aircraft's oxygen bottles exploded, the airframe was rebuilt using sections of another P-51D, 44-74435.