Whatever happened to Sumthin Else?

[Brian]

Was looking at the drawings from a previous post and was curious, whatever happened to the racer Sumthin Else??

[tow-3]

Re: Whatever happened to Sumthin Else?

the aircraft was damaged before johns death, after johns death it was sold and rebuilt as a TF-51. it is now named kentucky babe. there was an article about the rebuild in sport aviation a year or so ago.

[Shawn Aro]

Re: Whatever happened to Sumthin Else?

Also he had plans to put it back to stock befor it got damage it sat in his hanger for a long time before John died.

Shawn

[speeddemon]

Re: Whatever happened to Sumthin Else?

In June of 1990, John had Sumthin' Else at an airshow at Boeing Field in Seattle. During the warbird fly-by segment, he was setting up to land behind Jerry Janes in his Sea Fury, and got caught in the prop wash at low altitude. The plane hit the ground cock-eyed, and collapsed the left landing gear. Tore up the wing-tip and prop, but it wasn't terribly damaged.

Once they got the plane lifted by a crane, they drove it back to the ramp area. I remember standing by John while he was on the cell phone (not sure who he was talking to), but he said "Well, I guess this is the excuse we've been looking for to convert it back to a stocker."

The plane was at Boeing Field for about a week or two, while repairs were made, and then they flew it out. Last I saw of it.

There were a few pictures in the various av. rags of an 'attempt' to put a stock canopy back on, but not a whole lot happened. After John's death, the airframe was shipped to Square One Aviation, and as in the previous post, it was converted to a TF-51.

[Mark K]

Re: Whatever happened to Sumthin Else?

Well, there are a still a few remnats left of the ole warhorse

[Unregistered]

Re: Whatever happened to Sumthin Else?

What a piece of history!

Leo

[AirDOGGe]

Re: Whatever happened to Sumthin Else?

Here's some info about the plane's past history and it's current info:

http://www.mustangsmustangs.net/p-51/p51who/215.shtml

The damaged prop blades from SUMTHIN' ELSE are listed at this site as souvenirs ($675 each):
http://www.warbird-parts.com/invent/p-51.htm (item # l-288)

The Mustangsmustangs site also mentions 1990, but I could not find anything about N51VC at the NTSB website accident database for the month of June... The only P-51 incident listed was a fatal one in Texas on June 23rd......Looking deeper....


Ahhh...Here it is....July 14th. The N number is listed as NX51VC (I didn't see the 'x' designation listed anywhere else)

text:

THE PILOT OF THE NORTH AMERICAN P-51D ENCOUNTERED VORTEX TURBULENCE WHILE ON FINAL APPROACH BEHIND A HAWKER SEA FURY WHILE CONDUCTING A FORMATION LANDING. THE AIRCRAFT ROLLED 70 TO 75 DEGREES TO THE LEFT. THE PILOT ATTEMPTED RECOVERY, BUT HIS CONTROL AUTHORITY WAS INSUFFICENT TO RECOVER. THE AIRCRAFT STRUCK THE RUNWAY WITH THE LEFT WING LOW AT ABOUT 45 DEGREES LEFT BANK, DAMAGING THE LEFT WING AND PARTIALLY COLLAPSING THE LEFT MAIN LANDING GEAR.

The National Transportation Safety Board determines the probable cause(s) of this accident as follows:

AN ENCOUNTER WITH VORTEX TURBULENCE WHILE ON FINAL APPROACH TO LANDING.