Photograph:
Fighter Escort Wings TF-51 VH-WIK (c/n V288) at Griffith, NSW in 2012 (David C Eyre)
Country of origin:
United States of America
Description:
Single-seat (P-51D) or two-seat (TF-51) high-performance sport aircraft
Power Plant:
One 224 kw (300 hp) converted General Motors Chevrolet eight-cylinder VEE (5700 cc) liquid-cooled engine
Specifications:
- Wingspan: 7.77 m (25 ft 4¾ in)
- Length: 6.47 m (21 ft 2½ in)
- Height: 2.13 m (7 ft)
- Wing area: 10.31 m² (111 sq ft)
- Max speed: 547 km/h (340 mph)
- Cruising speed: 338 km/h (210 mph)
- Stalling speed: 92 km/h (57 mph)
- Rate of climb: 610 m/min (2,000 ft/min)
- Service ceiling: 4,877 m (16,000 ft)
- Range: 1,207 m (750 miles)
- Take-off run: 274 m (900 ft)
- Landing run: 305 m (1,000 ft)
- Fuel capacity: 220 litres (48 Imp gals)
- Empty weight: 544 kg (1,200 lb)
- Loaded weight: 907 kg (2,000 lb)
History:
The Fighter Escort Wings P-51D was one of a number of scaled down North American P-51 Mustangs available to amateur builders in the United States. This aircraft, developed and marketed by Fighter Escort Wings at Ardmore Park, Gene Autry, Oklahoma, was a 67 per cent scale model of the Mustang built of composite construction and was available in kit form. Fully aerobatic, and stressed to +6/-6G, it was available in single-seat (P-51D) or two-seat form, the latter being known as the TF-51 and having dual controls.
Power plant was a 5700 cc Chevrolet eight-cylinder VEE liquid-cooled unit driving a four-blade composite propeller via a reduction gearbox. It had fuel injection and electronic ignition. In the United States it has been fitted with modified V-6 and V-8 engines ranging in power from 119 kw (160 hp) to 224 kw (300 hp).
It was designed by a team led by James Kern and John Roncz to be fitted with the Chevrolet V-8 motor car engine in modified form, but it could also be fitted with a modified V-12 Jaguar engine. It was of fibreglass construction and had a fully retractable undercarriage and tailwheel fitted, hydraulically-operated. Dummy machine guns were fitted in the wings, the ammunition bays being available for baggage.
Five kits are known to have been imported into Australia, the local agent being Mustangs Downunder of Coffs Harbour, NSW. The first completed was VH-MRS (c/n V.287) registered in December 1998 to its owner/builder at Moorooduc, VIC painted as ‘Bald Eagle’ , a USAF P-51D with the serial 473029. It was followed by VH-LSD² (c/n V.232) registered to its owner at Newport, VIC on 26 August 1999, this aircraft being fitted with a Chevrolet V-8 383 cubic inch unit prepared by Motivator Racing Engines. A further aircraft became VH-WIK (c/n V288), a two-seat TF-51 registered in September 2008 to Ganot Pty Ltd of Moorooduc. Another example became VH-UET³ (c/n 018) in October 2009 to its owner G Brooker of Watsonia, VIC.