Anyone Want To Buy A 1945 P-51D Fighter Plane?

[Hardrock69]

No, I am not kidding:

P51 MUSTANG DAKOTA KID II • $1,875,000 • YOUR SEARCH IS OVER • This is the one you've been waiting for! Superb condition and flown regularly. 1945 P-51D "Dakota Kid II". 875 Hours since ground up restoration by Gerry Beck, Tri-State Aviation. This Mustang features a fresh Roush engine with all the mods. Special Gerry Beck mods include dual controls, guns with ammo in the right wing, pre-oiler, Heinz detection system, and Spitfire mirrors. Just completed detailed annual includes new tires, and brakes. This plane is authentic in detail to that flown by Capt. Noble Petersen of 355 Fgt. Group. This is a P-51 that you'll be proud to own and fly! • Contact Warren Pietsch - PIETSCH AIRCRAFT RESTORATION & REPAIR, INC, End User - located Minot, ND USA • Telephone: 701-852-4092 . • Posted June 18, 2010 •

1945 P-51D "Dakota Kid II"


Own one of the most highly photographed P-51's! This aircraft has been
featured in numerous magazines, books, calendars and pictorials. And
for good reason....it is beautiful! With a highly polished fuselage
and D-Day markings, it represents Captain Noble Peterson of the 355th
Fighter Group of Steeple Morden, England. Noble was with this airplane
at the Gathering of Mustangs, and his interview was published in the
December 2007 issue of Sport Aviation, as were pictures of the
airplane and him. The aircraft has authentic 8th Air Force history and
was restored by one of the finest, Gerry Beck of Tri-State Aviation.
The restoration was completed in 1997 and certified in the Limited
Category. The prop was overhauled by Maxwell Aircraft Service. It also
includes 2 seat controls that retain the original look of a single
place Mustang.

The following is a list of times and the options:

• 875 Hours - Total Time Airframe since Restoration
• 10 Hours – Roush Modified 1650-7 Engine since Overhaul
• 875 Hours - Total Time since Prop Overhaul
• Prop S/B 664 completed 10/24/06
• Prop Model 24D50 / 7005A-7

The restoration also included guns and ammunition in the right wing.
Gun sight, bomb racks, spitfire mirrors, pre-oiler, coolant system
pressure gauge, oil and coolant door position indicator lights, Heinz
filter with chip light and oil bypass light, Shadin fuel flow.

Radios Include:
• KX135 King GPS/Com
• ARGUS 3000 Moving Map
• KT76A Transponder
• PS ENG PM 1000II Intercom

[Jagermeister]

That's kick ass

[Seshmeister]

I could do with a Heinz detection system myself.

After all these years she suddenly decides to put the ketchup in the fridge last weekend...

[lesfunk]

Here are some good ones!
http://courtesyaircraft.com/Current%...7D%20Specs.htm

http://courtesyaircraft.com/Current%...wk%20Specs.htm

[Nickdfresh]

I wonder what the difference between a Rousch engine, and the original Merlin is?

[Nitro Express]

My father in law was a p-51 mechanic during the Korean war. He gave me all his old mechanics manuals and the pilots manual for the p-51. He worked for Boeing and was a project manager during the Apollo program. He gave me a ton of NASA Saturn V technical manuals as well.

A friend of my dad's raced a P-51 mustang that had counter rotating props. That plan was loud as hell when he fired it up. Sadly he crashed the plan and died at the Reno air races.

[Nitro Express]

I wonder what the difference between a Rousch engine, and the original Merlin is?

My cousin overhauls airplane engines and has done a lot of Merlin type engines. He said the 1650-7 was an American made variant of the Rolls Royce Merlin II engine. Packard made the 1650-7 engine here in the states. The main difference is the 1650 was made from alloys developed by the US auto industry that helped the engines hold up longer. They were very good engines for the time.

[Hardrock69]

My father in law was a p-51 mechanic during the Korean war. He gave me all his old mechanics manuals and the pilots manual for the p-51. He worked for Boeing and was a project manager during the Apollo program. He gave me a ton of NASA Saturn V technical manuals as well.

How cool! Did he know Gene Kranz?

I am right now in the midst of his book "Failure Is Not An Option", about his career as Flight Director for Mission Control. He was there from the very first rocket launches at the dawn of the Mercury program, all the way beyond the Apollo program. I found it in a used book store for 5 bucks. It is a FASCINATING inside look at the birth of NASA and the space program!

http://www.amazon.com/Failure-not-Op.../dp/0425179877

[Hardrock69]

Here are some good ones!
http://courtesyaircraft.com/Current%...7D%20Specs.htm

http://courtesyaircraft.com/Current%...wk%20Specs.htm

Man...a P-40!

Wonder why it does not have the actual Flying Tiger paint scheme? Ah who cares.


Here is another P-51 for sale in Texas for a little over 2 million:

http://www.aircraftdealer.com/aircra...TANG/24398.htm


Anyone want to buy a 747? $33,000,000 will get this one:

http://www.controller.com/listingsde...00/1160385.htm

About 6 or 7 years ago, an aircraft carrier went up for sale on the internet for $65,000,000.

[Igosplut]

How cool! Did he know Gene Kranz?

I am right now in the midst of his book "Failure Is Not An Option", about his career as Flight Director for Mission Control. He was there from the very first rocket launches at the dawn of the Mercury program, all the way beyond the Apollo program. I found it in a used book store for 5 bucks. It is a FASCINATING inside look at the birth of NASA and the space program!

http://www.amazon.com/Failure-not-Op.../dp/0425179877

A buddy of my's grandfather worked on the Apollo missions. Not too long ago he showed me a medal that was given to people that worked on the project by NASA and that was pressed from parts of the spaceship that was used in the moon landing. When he died, one of his kids broke into the house and stole it, amongst other stuff.. They managed to get it back...Cool stuff..

[Hardrock69]

Glad to hear the family got it back.

[sadaist]

When he died, one of his kids broke into the house and stole it, amongst other stuff..

Nothing quite turns siblings against each other like the death of a parent with stuff or money.

[Nitro Express]

How cool! Did he know Gene Kranz?

I am right now in the midst of his book "Failure Is Not An Option", about his career as Flight Director for Mission Control. He was there from the very first rocket launches at the dawn of the Mercury program, all the way beyond the Apollo program. I found it in a used book store for 5 bucks. It is a FASCINATING inside look at the birth of NASA and the space program!

http://www.amazon.com/Failure-not-Op.../dp/0425179877

He worked at the Marshall Space Center in Huntsville, Alabama and was in meetings with Von Braum. He said Von Braum was very intelligent and an excellent manager but never liked him due to him being in the SS. Basically, my father in law didn't like or trust Nazis. He had pretty damn high security clearance. He could see any launch at the Cape he wanted to. I went to a shuttle launch with him and we stood right next to the assembly building. He has a ton of cool stuff regarding space flight and military stuff. A lot he can't talk about.

[Nitro Express]

He can tell cool stories about a secret bunker in Kent, Washington and how the Russians were spying on their facility. Lot's of spys in Seattle in the 1980's and the Russians had equipment that could pick up the electric signal off a keyboard. So the whole building was in a faraday shield. The FBI busted several Russian spys. He also said there were always Russian subs operating in the Strait of Juan de Fuca waiting for a boomer to come out. Lot's of cold war stuff going on.

[Hardrock69]

Wow. Heavy stuff. I was stationed at Redstone Arsenal in 1977. Always wanted to witness a shuttle launch first hand, and had planned on doing so this year before the end of the program, but recession forces my wallet to say no.

[Igosplut]

There's an old decommissioned AF station that was a Radar base near where I live. About ten yrs back we went all through it with a friend from the government and one of the guys that was stationed there when in was shut down. It (in it's heyday) was a strategic east coast radar point. We went into what they called the 'Operations center" that was a huge bomb shelter. No windows, a two-foot thick concrete building surrounding another concrete building, full living quarters, half a basketball court, a presentation theater, the works. And all with no windows. We came into a room that you had to go through two submarine doors with a sally port in the middle. The ceiling was like fourteen feet and strung with copper screen. Though the room was stripped, there was still piles of 3/4 plywood with copper sheeting tacked to them stacked up. Wire trenches running everywhere in the floors, and PILES of these weird punch cards lying everywhere. Asking what the fuck all this was, he replied "this is the computer room and the copper is to reflect microwave energy from nuclear attack".

The presentation room was just like a small movie theater with the flip-up seats. On the stage there was a thick piece of glass with a painting of the east coast. Marked on it were all the military installations that lights would go out if they were knocked out of commission. On one wall, two big topical maps of Russia and the Soviet Union. On another, a tall box (with the front missing) with six lights divided so that they would illuminate separately. "Whats that" I ask? "A indicator for Radiation levels outside" he says. Beside that was a big chart listing everybody on the base's job/location in the event of an attack. Just really wild cold-war stuff I tell ya....

[Hardrock69]

Wow. Fucking cool!

[Igosplut]

When I was a little kid we would ride our bikes up to the main gate. They had armed guards and you couldn't get in without proper clearance and ID. We'd hang around at the end of the road and get the base guys to do burnouts in their new muscle cars. One day about 50 feet from the main gate I was riding along and I see a bag that had been tossed in a drainage ditch by the side of the road. As kids are want to do I rode down and picked up the bag opening it up. There was another clear plastic bag inside that had some weird shit in it. I poked a hole in it and smelled it. Didn't have a clue what it was, so I just pulled the bag apart scattering the contents...

Some years later at the first time I ever encountered pot up close, taking one whiff brought me right back to that day on the base road......

[Hardrock69]

Back in the 70s the military was not very strict about soldiers using drugs. Originally if you were in the Army's drug rehab program, and you failed one piss test, it was an automatic discharge. Then in the late70s, they changed the rule so that it was no longer an automatic out.
Then Ronnie Ray-gun came into office, with the "Just Say No To Drugs" bullshit, and they changed the regulations back again.

[Nickdfresh]

There's an old decommissioned AF station that was a Radar base near where I live. About ten yrs back we went all through it with a friend from the government and one of the guys that was stationed there when in was shut down. It (in it's heyday) was a strategic east coast radar point. We went into what they called the 'Operations center" that was a huge bomb shelter. No windows, a two-foot thick concrete building surrounding another concrete building, full living quarters, half a basketball court, a presentation theater, the works. And all with no windows. We came into a room that you had to go through two submarine doors with a sally port in the middle. The ceiling was like fourteen feet and strung with copper screen. Though the room was stripped, there was still piles of 3/4 plywood with copper sheeting tacked to them stacked up. Wire trenches running everywhere in the floors, and PILES of these weird punch cards lying everywhere. Asking what the fuck all this was, he replied "this is the computer room and the copper is to reflect microwave energy from nuclear attack".

The presentation room was just like a small movie theater with the flip-up seats. On the stage there was a thick piece of glass with a painting of the east coast. Marked on it were all the military installations that lights would go out if they were knocked out of commission. On one wall, two big topical maps of Russia and the Soviet Union. On another, a tall box (with the front missing) with six lights divided so that they would illuminate separately. "Whats that" I ask? "A indicator for Radiation levels outside" he says. Beside that was a big chart listing everybody on the base's job/location in the event of an attack. Just really wild cold-war stuff I tell ya....

Otis AFB? My brother was stationed there, and I recall staying in one of the row after rows of abandoned base housing for a visit...

[Nitro Express]

Wow. Heavy stuff. I was stationed at Redstone Arsenal in 1977. Always wanted to witness a shuttle launch first hand, and had planned on doing so this year before the end of the program, but recession forces my wallet to say no.

It's loud as hell and the ground shakes. We were as close as they will let you get to the launch. My father in law said the shuttle is almost as loud as the Saturn V because it's a big pay load. He got to stand in the cargo bay of the Challenger and he said you could put a big bus in it. He says the shuttles are huge.

[Nitro Express]

Back in the 70s the military was not very strict about soldiers using drugs. Originally if you were in the Army's drug rehab program, and you failed one piss test, it was an automatic discharge. Then in the late70s, they changed the rule so that it was no longer an automatic out.
Then Ronnie Ray-gun came into office, with the "Just Say No To Drugs" bullshit, and they changed the regulations back again.

They certainly weren't in Vietnam but the military isn't the same in war zones and a lot of the rules just get ignored. Nobody wanted anything to do with the military in the 1970's, so I imagine they had recruiting problems. College was cheap enough you could work your way through in those days.

[Nitro Express]

Ronald Reagan and his wife were saying no to drugs while the CIA was smuggling tons of them. I have mixed feelings about Reagan. In some ways he was a good president and in others he was a complete naive fool. I don't think he loathed the American people like the later presidents do. Personally, I don't think Bush Sr., Clinton, Bush Jr., and Obama gave or give two shits about us.

[Hardrock69]

I agree. But then, Presidents are just figureheads, while the government just runs along doing what it does while Presidents come and go.

[Nitro Express]

I agree. But then, Presidents are just figureheads, while the government just runs along doing what it does while Presidents come and go.

Pretty much, but a bad president can do a lot of damage before he's out. The thing is they can't hold onto the power forever.

[Hardrock69]

That is why J. Edgar Hoover was known as one of the most powerful people in the US. He was head of the FBI for thirty-something years? Something like that. Presidents come and go, but the alphabet agencies stay on for forever.