northamericanp51cmustang

In 1953 - Repainted and sponsored by NBC to fly the film reels of the UK Coronation Coverage. The film would be flown from UK to Goose Bay, Labrador by a Canberra jet bomber. From there, the networks would have to get the film to Boston. The reels needed to get back to the NBC headquarters to be aired asap. CBS, not to be outdone, hired Joe DeBona to fly their reels back in P-51 N5528N. ABC? tried to beat everyone by hiring a Canberra, who's pilot scratched the flight for political reasons. The two P-51s raced and it is rep. that CBS won the flying race, but was not first with the coverage. NBC convinced ABC to share its feed from CBC and both networks aired before CBS. Credit and full history at : www.mustangsmustangs.com/p-51/survivors/serial/42-103831

I believe that this is a P-51B or C. The wing root can be seen in the photo, and it's not "kinked" enough to be a P-51K (or P-51 D). Also, even if you couldn't see the wing root, you'd probably not see a Hamilton Standard cuffed prop on a P-51K ... it came from the factory w/ an Aeroproducts propeller and it looks very different from this one. They did, in the field sometimes, retrofit the Hamilton Standard to the P-51K, but it required changing the governor, controls, etc. This was done because the Aeroproducts prop just seemed to defy balancing and this limited the speed of the aircraft - or so I'm told. I vote for a "typo" on this one. Great photo, though!

This is a P-51C of the 118th TRS, 23rd FG. (black lightning bolt markings).The revetment indicates that the photo was taken in Suichuan, China between November 1944 and January 1945 when the squadron had to evacuate the fighter base and return to their rear area at Chengkung, China.

Robert Bourlier Thank you for the comments!

Flown by Glenn Geyer. Tail number 586.