Les Grant's Mustang

[sierra fox]

Joan Grant (Les' daughter) sent me this link, thought you guys would dig it, check out the Aero Sport gaggle of Mustangs, Miss Candace with the stock bubble, Kessler's in there too, anyone ID the rest of them?

http://www.gradue.com/p51_warplane_photos/p51_squadron.html

[sledge39]

Re: Les Grant's Mustang

.
...Chino 1969......From left to right...

Cliff Cummin's N79111

Les Grant's N5436V

Dave Webster's N117E

Ernie Beehler's N6340T

P. F. Smith's N5410V

Jack Kistler's N6163U


...All the P-51s in AeroSport that were fully assembled were rolled out for the TV cameras...

...Tallichet in N3333E made a low pass (not real low) across there...

...pretty sure (recollection) it was for a news story about Tallichet starting Yesterday's Air Force...

Sledge

[T J Johansen]

Re: Les Grant's Mustang

It's so cool to see the relatives of former warbird owners put up a website with info and photos of the a/c owned by their loved ones. I guess we have all seen Steve Guilford's wonderful galleries of his dad's photos. This way we will all get the possibility to see a part of aviation history which would likely be forgotten if they don't. I found this site in memory of another civilian 51 driver.

http://georgeandrewbrown.com/photo3_2.html

T J

[sierra fox]

Re: Les Grant's Mustang

Thanks alot to you both

[Leo]

Re: Les Grant's Mustang

Sweet! Thanks!
It is so cool to see all these historic galleries popping up.

Sacrilege, I know, but I LIKE the mustang in civvie colors.

[bruce lockwood]

Re: Les Grant's Mustang

Sierra Fox,

Thanks for the nice photos.

I know me of all people should probably know the answer to this..... but hey... you guys are the historical experts...... so did P.F. Smith's Mustang N5410V become Dago Red?? Dago's N# is N5410V

Thanks guys,
Bruce

[Leo]

Re: Les Grant's Mustang

Yep. it was later "destroyed" in a crash out of Buchanan field. the remains were rebuilt into Dago.

[Randy Haskin]

Re: Les Grant's Mustang

Sierra Fox,

Thanks for the nice photos.

I know me of all people should probably know the answer to this..... but hey... you guys are the historical experts...... so did P.F. Smith's Mustang N5410V become Dago Red?? Dago's N# is N5410V

Thanks guys,
Bruce

The photo evidence appears to support that theory.

I seem to remember at one time the Dago team had a photo of the bronze-painted wrecked fuselage that the Dago rebuild started with taped to the trailer at Reno.

Written next to it was some verbiage about the team not even being certain what the identity of the airplane was.

[T J Johansen]

Re: Les Grant's Mustang

sledge39, did N5410V spend a lot of time at Chino at the time? I know that Prevost Smith had a parachute company and was based out of Gillespie Field in San Diego during the 60s. Were all of these 51s based at Aero Sport, or just being worked on by them? I can remember a 1970s photo in Mike O' Leary's book "Mustang, a living legend" where the caption says that a thorough scan of the original photo showed 12 of them inside the hangar.

T J

[Leo]

Re: Les Grant's Mustang

Back in 74 Chino was on my list during a road trip and I spent a whole day hanging there. The POF was a group of old hangars surrounded by rare aircraft sitting outside, there was anything you could imagine all over the field, the Catch-22 Mitchells were in a fenced field moldering away, Tallichet's P-38 was on the ramp and you could not walk through the Aero Sport hanger. They would gladly let you, but it was crammed! Miss Candace, Miss Suzy Q, Stump Jumper, Flying Undertaker,the list was long.
Really sparked a growing interest.

[sledge39]

Re: Les Grant's Mustang

sledge39, did N5410V spend a lot of time at Chino at the time?

Were all of these 51s based at Aero Sport, or just being worked on by them?

T J

TJ...

...working on a list of Mustangs I saw around there in the late 60s and early 70s. So far I estimate 8-10 based at AeroSport and anouther 18-25 in there for rebuild or general maintenance. All in the same place but not at the same time.

I don't recall seeing N5410V after '69.

According to the Snyder Report (1966), there were an estimated 80 Mustangs operational in general aviation (and over 200 registered).

Sledge

[bsmith51]

Re: Les Grant's Mustang

My dad, Prevost Smith, sold N5410V for $17,800 in late 1969 or early 1970 after his parachute manufacturing company at Gillespie Field burned to the ground. He did not believe in, or have, insurance.

[bsmith51]

Re: Les Grant's Mustang

I have a 2-page article called, Tea Time Mustang, from Warbirds International (sorry, no date shown), about the wreck of N5410V at Buchanan Field in Concord. I tried to attach it but the forum says it exceeds my limit. Maybe someone can tell me how to get around this.

[spinner]

Re: Les Grant's Mustang

I have a 2-page article called, Tea Time Mustang, from Warbirds International (sorry, no date shown), about the wreck of N5410V at Buchanan Field in Concord. I tried to attach it but the forum says it exceeds my limit. Maybe someone can tell me how to get around this.

Tom Camp...Speedy pylon burner Wildcat guy and meself watched that 51 crash at the Concord Air Show. He just got too slow in the base to final turn...nose dropped and the rest is history. I chased that wreck for years. Camp had a Waco UPF-7 and I had a N3N-3 with a 300 Lyc up front. Great fun airplane. Long, long time ago.