FINAL EXAM

Flight Journal, Apr 2005 by Klaers, Bill, Busha, James P

IN 1999, OUR SHOP WAS RESTORING A P-47 Thunderbolt for the Flying Heritage Collection when a package arrived. Actually, the "package" was a series of crates that contained a North American P-51 Mustang-not just any run-of-the-mill Mustang, but an honest-to-goodness WW II combat veteran with confirmed victories. The best part, though, was that the pilot who once flew it was still alive.

After conversations with The Flying Heritage Collection, it was agreed that this aircraft would not only be restored, but that it would also be returned to exactly the same standard as it was in when it left the North American Aviation (NAA) factory in late 1944. We set up a program whereby we followed a simple rule: we would restore it and make it conform to the exact specifications that were laid out on the original blueprints.

The easy part was knowing that Paul Allen and the Flying Heritage Collection were there to back us up during every step of the way and that this P-51 would become the collection's centerpiece. The hard part was realizing that a project of this scope, with its minute detail and the need to find long-discarded parts, would be a journey downa road we had never before traveled. It also meant that we had to go back in time to rethink and reevaluate the ways in which we would begin to re-create what the craftsmen of NAA did many years ago. This journey first required a trip to where a moment in time has been frozen: the national Archives in Washington, D.C.

We spent almost a week there gathering everything we could about the NAA Corp., including manufacturing blueprints and employee rosters that included everyone who ever touched or stamped their names or number on this Mustang. Long before the first wrench on this project was ever turned, our company made a determined decision that everyone in the shop would stop what he or she was working on and that we would collectively put our hearts and souls into this one airplane.

The first step was to photo-document every step of the disassembly and to catalog this Mustang's parts and pieces. We took more than 5,000 digital photographs of the entire process, right up to and including its reassembly. Every step was checked and cross-checked against the blueprint. If it called for a specific nut, we went back to its original wartime manufacturer and had another production run made. It was like that with a lot of the required items. Not all were easy to come by, and that's when we turned to the "scrounger."

Our purchasing agent, Bill Barclay, had by far the hardest job of all: locating the hard-to-find items. Using eBay, ILS and a list of private contacts, he came up with a vast collection of rare items. The radio equipment was one of the project's most difficult undertakings. The radio boxes themselves were not the real problem, but all the mounts, tubes and wiring to make it 100 percent original and functioning caused a real heartache! Luckily, Bill and several of those who work for Flying Heritage were able to put the package together. Bill then found a guy in San Diego who had an assortment of WW II radio equipment as part of a radio business. Bill bought everything.

Other hard-to-find items were part of the airplane-the armor plate behind the pilot, for example. The center fuselage tank was also there, but it wasn't serviceable. We had another tank built; it looks just like the original and is 100 percent operational, but it was built to today's FAA specifications. Although installed and functional, it would seldom be used because of the aft CG problems and the adverse flight characteristics. An original item that does work is the computing gunsight.

For this part of the project, we turned to our shop's "gadget man," Dave Gallup. He did a lot of the detail work, including the artwork, the stenciling, the wiring and the radio installation. He built up the gunsight, which is connected to the throttle by means of a small wire. It functions as it did when it was used to sight and compute the position of enemy aircraft.

The project's last 10 percent was by far the hardest. The detail involved in returning this P-51 to its original state was the most time-consuming, laborious work we had ever done. Sadly, most of our efforts will never be seen because the parts are hidden deep inside the Mustang's inner workings. Only the craftsmen who worked on this restoration will know that it exactly matches the blueprint specifications. I never knew what an authentic Mustang looked like until we put this one back together! I have been part owner in one for more than three years, but this one is the real deal and looks just like it did when it left the factory.

Then it was time for its final test.

We delivered the Mustang to Arlington, Washington, in its factory markings, and at The Flying Heritage Collection, we applied the 353rd squadron markings and nose art it wore so long ago. Its original pilot was invited to a reunion with his old mount. He walked around Upupa Epops for a few minutes and then climbed inside. He told us more about how that computing gunsight worked in five minutes than we could have learned from reading about it for two weeks! We were on pins as he touched and felt instruemnts long since seen but not forgotten.