31 March 1954: At 7:18:08 a.m., Pacific Standard Time (14:18:08 UTC), Joe Claiborne DeBona took off from Los Angeles International Airport, on the shoreline of southern California, in a North American Aviation P-51C Mustang, N5528N, named Mr. Alex. The specially-built racing plane was owned by Academy Award-winning actor and World War II bomber pilot James Maitland (“Jimmy”) Stewart.

DeBona, an experienced racing pilot, flew across the North American continent non-stop, and arrived overhead New York International Airport ¹ at 2:42:25 p.m., Eastern Standard Time (18:42:25 UTC). The total elapsed time for the flight was 4 hours, 24 minutes, 17 seconds. DeBona’s average speed was 560.74 miles per hour (902.424 kilometers per hour).

This was a new U.S. national speed record, certified by the National Aeronautic Association. It broke the previous record, 4 hours, 52 minutes, 53 seconds, set by Paul Mantz, 22 January 1950. Mantz also flew a P-51C.

(On 29 March 1949, five years earlier, DeBona had broken another transcontinental record set by Mantz, flying from Lockheed Air Terminal, Burbank, California, to LaGuardia Airport, New York City, in 5 hours, 0 minutes, 5 seconds. DeBona flew the same P-51C, NX5528N, though at that time it was named Thunderbird and painted in its well-known “cobalt blue” livery.²)

When interviewed after the 1954 flight, DeBona said that he began with 850 gallons (3,218 liters) of gasoline, and had 70 gallons (265 liters) remaining on landing at New York. He made most of the flight at an altitude of 33,000–34,000 feet (10,058–10,363 meters). Although he wore an oxygen mask, the cockpit of the P-51 was not pressurized, and he experienced some nausea during the flight. DeBona wore an Alpaca-lined coat over a business suit.

Joe Claiborne DeBona was born 16 August 1912 at Eagle Pass, Texas. He was the second son of Giuseppe (“Joseph”) DeBona, a merchandise broker and an immigrant from Italy, and Adline (“Addie”) May Claiborne Debona.

Joe DeBona attended Main Avenue High School in San Antonio, Texas, where, in 1928, he was on the track team. He then studied at the University of Texas. He was a member of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon (ΣΑΕ) fraternity, and played quarterback on the football team.

(On 27 May 1935, Joe C. DeBona, an instructor, married Miss Georgia C. Wiley in Los Angeles County, California.)

On 29 August 1940 Joe Claiborne De Bona married Miss Evelyn Lewis, a graduate of the University of Southern California and an interior decorator. The 4:40 p.m.  ceremony in the home of the bride’s family in Beverly Hills, California, was officiated by Reverend Murray McNeil. They would have a daughter, Eve. Contemporary newspaper articles reported that DeBona was a reserve officer in the United States Army Air Corps.

DeBona registered for Selective Service (conscription) 16 October 1940. He was described as 5 feet, 10½ inches (179 centimeters) tall, 175 pounds (79 kilograms) with black hair and hazel eyes. He had a dark complexion and a birthmark between his shoulder blades. At that time, he was employed by the National Cash Register Company in Los Angeles, California, as a salesman.

Joe Claiborne DeBona enlisted in the United States Army 21 July 1942.

During World War II, he served with the 1st Ferrying Squadron, 6th Ferrying Group, Air Transport Command, United States Army Air Forces, under the command of Colonel Ralph E. Spake, based at Long Beach Army Air Field, California.

While flying a Lockheed F-5A-10-LO Lightning photographic reconnaissance fighter, serial number 42-13113, 19 February 1943, First Lieutenant DeBona made a forced landing at Marajó Island, Pará, Brazil. The Lightning was written off.

The Binghampton Press, Binghampton, New York, reported:

Flier Rescued After 14 Days Alone in Jungle

DeBona, Forced Down in Brazil, Suffered Most From Loneliness

By A. T. STEELE

SPECIAL CABLE

To The Binghampton Press and the Chicago Daily News, Inc.

     Somewhere in Brazil, March 10—(Delayed)—Forced down in the Depths of the Brazilian jungle an American pilot has been rescued from a nightmare experience of 20 days. He is Lieut. Joe De Bona who is today speeding back to his home in Beverly Hills, Cal., for reunion with his waiting wife.

     I met Mr. De Bona at a Brazilian air base shortly after he arrived, bearded and weary from his forest trek. He said he had lost more than 25 pounds and admitted that his long stay in the jungle, fighting the mosquitoes and fever, and worst of all the black solitude had badly shaken his nerves. Mr. De Bona is by no means the first flyer to crash in the Amazon forest but he is one of the very few to come back alive. Mr. De Bona was ferrying a two-motored plane across Brazil when one of his motors suddenly conked out. Twenty-five minutes later the second engine quit and the plane headed steeply for the dense forest below.

     Miraculously Mr. De Bona found a hole in the jungle mass and managed to make a belly landing in the bog. As the radio was still working he ticked out his approximate position to an air base 165 miles away. Then he sat down for a long wait. Three days later an American search plane found him and dropped him iron rations. Mr. De Bona had hoped he might be rescued within a few days but it was not until 14 days after his crash that a small party of natives succeeded in beating their way through the forest to the place where the pilot and his plane waited.

     “I have been to Guadalcanal and I have been through some mighty unpleasant experiences in my life but I’ve never suffered anything like the torture of the fortnight in the jungle,” Mr. De Bona went on.

     “I didn’t dare go far from the plane for I would have been lost in 10 minutes if I tried to penetrate the thick forest which surrounded me. One I started to climb a tree to look over the countryside but I came down in a hurry when I met a snake gazing at me through the branches. The days were blazing hot with occasional squalls of drenching rain. I could do but sit them out under what little shelter my plane could give me. A 6 o’clock night came down with equatorial suddenness. The swamp mosquitoes came on duty, buzzing about me until dawn. I slept or tried to sleep in the tail of my ship, using my rubber raft as a mattress and my parachute as a mosquito net.”

     Mr. De Bona exhibited a leg flecked with spots—ant bites. Unlike the mosquitoes, jungle ants worked 24 hours daily.

     Mr. De Bona said much of his suffering was psychological. The loneliness, the black nights, the long hours of waiting with nothing to read and nothing to think about except his own difficulties, had a cumulative effect as the days passed. Then there were the jungle noises which mounted in crescendo after the sun went down. Sitting in his lonely swamp he saw monkeys, buffaloes, brilliant plumaged birds and snakes. The creatures he liked least were the black scavenger birds which soared continuously over the forest looking for dead meat.

     Mr. De Bona developed a fever a few days before his rescue and was soon “hearing imaginary voices” and talking to himself/ When on the 14th day a Brazilian rescue party of four men driving saddled oxen broke into the clearing, De Bona wept with relief.

     “I never believed anything like this possible outside Hollywood,” Mr. De Bona said. “But now I know Hollywood sometimes is right.”

—Binghamton Press, Vol. 64, No. 283, 13 March 1943, Page 11, Column 2

The Courier-Journal, Louisville, Kentucky, reported:

Ferry Pilots Learn World Hardest Way

Get Aquainted With Geography At First Hand

By JOHN FRYE

     Cincinnatti, June 26 (AP)—The cables said 300 United States planes poured bombs on Italy, another 150 were over Germany, General MacArthur’s Lightnings shot down a hatful of Zeroes over New Guinea.—

     First Lieut. Joe C. DeBona of Beverly Hills, Calif., learning geography the hard way, licked the jungle dew off the cockpit canopy because he was thirsty.—

     Lieutenant DeBona’s connection with the ships that are making American air power felt over the world is this: He is one of the thousands of Army pilots, most of them anonymous, who take the planes from the factories to the battle. Gen H. H. Arnold, chief of the Air Forces, told West Point graduates the other day that 1,800 planes were taken out in May alone.

Engines Died Over Jungle.

     One of the incredibly few who have accidents, Lieutenant DeBona didn’t get there on this particular trip. Both his engines quit over the jungle. He got back alive two weeks later to add the the data that is making the Ferrying Division of the Air Transport Command one of the world’s greatest repositories of geographical information.

     The Ferrying Division’s headquarters told Lieutenant DeBona’s story as an incident in its operations, which are greater than those of all commercial airline put together.

     DeBona had to drop out of a formation of six pursuit ships. He landed in country he described as “jungle, marsh, and swamp, all combined. Because it is combined, you have the jungle with marsh and swamp beneath it, then you have marsh and swamp out in the open, thick groves of tall trees resembling our oaks, much bamboo and tall grass resembling our Johnson grass and alfalfa, growing in water from six inches to a fott deep. Water ranged throughout the land except in dry spots, anywhere from six inches deep to over my head.

Water, Water Everywhere.

     “This was brackish water which I did not touch, being informed in the pilot’s briefing that this water, even though boiled, is sometimes dangerous, unfit to drink.

     “The ants worked twenty-four hours a day. They never quit, those guys. The ground was covered with ants and ticks. The ticks resemble snails. They pierce the skin with both the head and the tail of the body, then suck the blood.

     “During the night the animal noises were constant. I could hear all kinds of animals being killed or killing. And I, in my own thinking, adopted the saying that jungle life is kill to live. I noticed too that all the animals were terrifically alert all the time, constantly on the lookout.

     “I had only the turbo canvas covers to catch the rain and I did. I guess I salvaged a quart of water, rain water. Whenever it rained, I was up, even if it was the middle of the night.

     “Every morning I would lick the dew off the canopy over the cockpit. I didn’t lick it off the ship because I was afraid it would poison me. But I was tempted on many occasions to lick it off the plane. When one is thirsty—it’s hard for me to explain here—your reasoning is poor, your fears are exaggerated.”

A Home On the Ice.

     First Lieut. Harry E. Spencer, Jr., of Dallas, Texas, and his crew crashed somewhere in the Arctic, learned another branch of geography, which he later reported personally to President Roosevelt in the White House.

     “I learned to keep my fingers away from the fire as much as possible to get them used to the cold. I learned that clothes will dry in the wind, freezing stiff, and the ice evaporating.

     “I found the main thing to keep warm was to keep the wind out and my clothes dry. I learned to keep the heat off the snow house, for the heat would melt the snow on the ceiling and drip on the sleeping bags and wet them.

     “Our snow house—the idea of a hole in the snow is to dig down to solid ice. In the fall this would be only a couple of feet as there would be no soft snow on top. As new comes, the ice level is further beneath the surface. Our first house was little more than three feet below the surface, with just enough room to barely crawl around. Later, when more snow fell, we dug out the ceiling to make more room.”

     Lieutenant DeBona and Lieutenant Spencer both started out from an airplane factory or modification center. One went south and one went north. On the next trip, they might swap directions. Or they might swap types of ships.

     There are few specialists in the Ferrying Division’s great bases scattered over the country. Many pilots may fly anything from a Grasshopper liaison plane to a Flying Fortress or Liberator. The destination may be England or China.

     Like the more familiar cargohaulers of the Air Transport Command, the Ferrying Division pilots are making routine out of trips over vast wastelands, some never before seen by men.

     All but a small fraction of the pilots starting on a delivery complete it.

     Lieutenant Spencer and Lieutenant DeBona had their troubles and came back. Some haven’t. But none is forgotten when he fails to report on time.

—The Courier-Journal, Vol. 177, No. 178, 27 June 1943, Page 8, Column 1

47 days later, 6 April 1943, DeBona was involved in another accident while taxiing a Boeing B-17F-70-BO Flying Fortress, 42-29810, at Morrison Army Air Field (now, Palm Beach International Airport, FAA location identifier PBI). The accident was a result of a mechanical failure. The B-17 was repaired and returned to service. Flown across the Atlantic Ocean to England, it was assigned to Mediterranean Theater of Operations. 42-29810 was salvaged in Italy, 16 June 1944.

On 14 December 1943, Captain Joe C. DeBona, O-483618, arrived at Washington, D.C., aboard a Douglas C-54 Skymaster, 41-20140, from Prestwick, Scotland, via Borinquen, Puerto Rico.

By 1945, Captain DeBona was flying the Douglas C-54 Skymaster on transpacific flights, transporting wounded soldiers back to the United States.

Joe Clairborn DeBona was discharged from the Army Air Forces 6 December 1945.

Joe C. DeBona died at Newport Beach, California, 23 January 1975. He was 62 years of age.

The earliest document in N5528N’s Civil Aviation Administration file, Form ACA 132, contains the hand-written notation, “no service no.” The document states, “THIS AIRCRAFT WAS ASSEMBLED FROM COMPONENTS OF OTHER AIRCRAFT OF THE SAME TYPE.” The aircraft is designated on the form as a North American P-51C, Serial No. 2925.

N5528N, made up of salvaged parts, has no known U.S. Army Air Corps serial number. No North American Aviation contract number is listed in any document. It has no known history prior to the C.A.A. assigning it the civil registration NX5528N. The serial number 2925 does not conform to any U.S. Army Air Corps serial number sequence for P-51 series aircraft, nor does it conform to any N.A.A. contract number sequence for P-51s. It appears that this serial number was assigned to the P-51 by the Civil Aeronautics Administration.

Various sources attribute U.S.A.A.C. serial numbers to NX5528N, e.g., “43-6822” and “43-6859.” There is nothing in the airplane’s C.A.A. records to substantiate these claims. The record specifically states that there is “no service no.” Some sources also describe Thunderbird as a P-51B or an F-6C photo reconnaissance variant. C.A.A. records specifically identify the airplane as a P-51C.

Thunderbird‘s fuselage was purchased as “salvage & scrap” from the 803rd A.A.F. Specialized Depot, Park Ridge, Illinois, by Allied Aircraft Co., Chicago, Illinois. The transaction is dated 14 January 194_  (the year was left blank on the contract). The purchase price was $27.05. Allied Aircraft Co. was a partnership of Leland H. Cameron and Martha L. Cameron, 5300 W. 63rd Street, Chicago, Illinois.

On 11 February 1948, Cameron purchased a P-51, Serial No. 2925, registration N5528N, from J. Quaine, for $1.00. On 5 April 1948, the Civil Aeronautics Authority (predecessor to the Federal Aviation Administration) registered N5528N to L.H. Cameron, 4619 Sancola Avenue, North Hollywood, California.

Two days later, 7 April 1948, Leland Cameron sold N5528N to Joe De Bona Racing Co., 133 N. Robertson Boulevard, Beverly Hills, California. The purchase price listed on the Department of Commerce Bill of Sale was $10.00. On that date, Joe De Bona applied to have the airplane registered in the name of his racing company.

Interestingly, on De Bona’s Department of Commerce Application for Registration, the serial number of N5528N is listed as “21925.” Information on the application is typewritten with the exception of this serial number, which was handwritten. As above, 21925 does not conform to any Army Air Corps or North American Aviation serial number for P-51B or P-51C Mustangs. This is the only instance in which 21925 appears in the airplane’s C.A.A. records.

The Civil Aeronautics Administration registered N5528N to Joe De Bona Racing Co., 15 April 1948. Joe C. De Bona was an experienced air racer. The company was a partnership between De Bona and James Maitland (“Jimmy”) Stewart.

Over the next several months, N5528N, now named Thunderbird, was prepared for the upcoming 1948 Bendix Trophy Race. Unnecessary equipment such as the self-sealing fuel cells, the fuselage fuel tank, etc., were removed to save weight. The airframe seams were filled with putty and sanded smooth. Many coats of primer were applied followed by the the high-gloss “cobalt blue” paint. Gold decorative trim was applied. Thunderbird‘s airworthiness category, EXPERIMENTAL, was painted under the canopy rail on each side. Sponsors’ logos and crew member’s names were painted on the left side of the fuselage beneath the canopy. (The significance of the anvil logo with the numbers “1853” is not known.) The rudder was painted in a checkerboard pattern and the race number 90 applied to both sides of the fuselage. The registration was painted vertically on the fin, the top of the right wing and the bottom of the left wing.

On 31 August 1948, following an airworthiness inspection, C.A.A. Inspector Homer L. Stamets issued an original Airworthiness Certificate to NX5528N. The “Experimental” classification was used as there was no civil Type Certificate for North American’s P-51 fighters, and the C.A.A. had not tested or accepted the aircraft for any civilian use. The Experimental classification placed severe restrictions on De Bona’s use of Thunderbird. In the Operations Authorized section of the certificate it states, “Certificated for the purpose of Racing and Exhibition flights only; flights limited to the Continental limits of the UNITED STATES. Flights prohibited over thickly populated areas or large gatherings of people.” The certificate was valid for one year.

Noted on the Airworthiness Inspection form is that NX5528N was equipped with a Packard V-1650-3 engine. This license-built version of the Rolls-Royce Merlin 63 engine was standard equipment for early production P-51B and P-51C Mustangs. It was rated at 1,380 horsepower at 3,000 r.p.m. and 60 inches of manifold pressure.

The start of the 1948 Bendix Trophy Race took place on 4 September at Van Nuys, California. Joe De Bona was entered with Thunderbird, but was unable to complete the race. Reportedly low on fuel, he landed at Norwalk, Ohio.

For 1949 Thunderbird‘s engine was upgraded to a Packard V-1650-7. C.A.A. Inspector Stamets again approved its airworthiness inspection and issued another one-year Experimental certificate with same restrictions as previously.

On 29 March 1949, Thunderbird, with De Bona in the cockpit, took off from the Lockheed Air Terminal, Burbank, California, at 6:20:50 a.m., Pacific Standard Time (13:20:50 UTC) and flew across the North American continent to land at LaGuardia Airport in New York City at 2:20:50 p.m., Eastern Standard Time (18:20:55 UTC). This flight was observed by the National Aeronautic Association and timed at 5 hours, 0 minutes, 5 seconds. The official distance flown was 2,453.085 statute miles (3,947.858 kilometers), with an average speed of 490.625 miles per hour (789.584 kilometers per hour). This established a new U.S. national speed record.

The start of the 1949 Bendix Trophy Race was relocated from Metropolitan Airport at Van Nuys to Rosamond Dry Lake, 40 miles (64.4 kilometers) north of Muroc Air Force Base (renamed Edwards AFB just two months later). This year, Joe De Bona was successful. He won the 2,008 mile (3,231.6 kilometers) race to Cleveland, Ohio in an elapsed time of 4:16:17.5, averaging 470.1 miles per hour (756.6 kilomewters per hour).

Paul Mantz did not fly in the 1949 Bendix race but entered two P-51Cs, flown by Stanley H. Reaver and Herman “Fish” Salmon, who placed 2nd and 3rd.

(Leland Cameron, who had sold N5528N to Joe De Bona Racing, also competed in the 1949 Bendix air race. He flew a Martin B-26C-20-MO Marauder medium bomber, serial number 41-35071, N5546N, but he did not finish within the prescribed time limit.)

On 19 December 1949, James Stewart (Sole Owner, for Joe De Bona Racing Co.) sold N5528N to Jacqueline Cochran of Indio, California, for “$1.00 and other consideration.” The C.A.A. issued a new Certificate of Registration to Jackie on 29 December 1949.

That same day, Jackie Cochran flew her new airplane to two Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) World Records for Speed Over a 500 kilometer Closed Circuit Without Payload, and a U.S. National Aeronautic Association record, with an average speed of 703.275 kilometers per hour (436.995 miles per hour). (FAI Record File Numbers 4476, 12323)

Thunderbird underwent another airworthiness inspection, completed 10 November 1950 by Patrick J. Kavanaugh, A&E 402226. C.A.A. Inspector H.W. Kattleman issued a new Experimental airworthiness certificate, valid from 10 November 1950 to 10 November 1951. The limitations were identical to the restrictions described above.

Jackie set another Fédération Aéronautique Internationale record on 9 April 1951, flying NX5528N to an average speed of 747.338 kilometers per hour (464.374 miles per hour) over a straight 16 kilometer (9.942 miles) course at Indio, California. (FAI Record File Number 4477)

The next airworthiness inspection of N5528N was completed 26 March 1952 by mechanic James N. Smith. Once again, C.A.A. Inspector H.W. Kattleman issued an Experimental airworthiness certificate, valid from 31 March 1952 to 31 March 1953.

Jackie Cochran had owned Thunderbird for just over three years when, on 20 January 1953, she sold it back to Jimmy Stewart for “$1.00 and other consideration.” The C.A.A. registered N5528N to Stewart at 141 El Camino Drive, Beverly Hills, California, 9 April 1953.

At about this time, N5528N was repainted and renamed Mr. Alex in honor of Jimmy Stewart’s father, Alexander Maitland Stewart.

Thunderbird received another engine upgrade, this time to a Packard V-1650-9, serial number V381230. (This engine was rated at 1,380 horsepower at 3,000 r.p.m., but could produce a maximum 2,280 horsepower with water-alcohol injection.) The next airworthiness inspection was completed 31 March 1953 by a mechanic with certificate number M-17807. At the time of this inspection, N5528N had accumulated 76:00 hours total flight time (TTAF). The V-1650-9 engine had only 14:10 hours since new. C.A.A. Aviation Safety Agent Ralph C. Olsen approved the next airworthiness certificate.

A major event of 1953 was the Coronation of Elizabeth II on 2 June. American television networks CBS and NBC had arranged to have films of the ceremonies flown across the Atlantic to Newfoundland. From there the film would be flown on to the United States by Jimmy Stewart’s P-51 and another owned by Paul Mantz, NX1204, flown by Stanley Reaver.

Jimmy Stewart asked the C.A.A. to temporarily remove the limitations on NX5528N’s airworthiness certificate so that it could be flown out of the United States to pick up the films at Newfoundland and return with them to Boston, Massachusetts. C.A.A. Aviation Safety Agent Ralph C. Olsen approved this request. A second flight to Montreal, Canada was also authorized. The restrictions would resume when the Experimental category Mustang returned to the United States after the Montreal trip.

Joe De Bona was once again in the cockpit of N5528N. He arrived at Boston 24 minutes before his rival, Stan Reaver, but a third network, ABC, was actually the first to broadcast the films of the Coronation.

On 30 March 1954, another airworthiness inspection was completed by the same mechanic as the 1953 periodic inspection. Once again, the airworthiness certificate was approved by Ralph Olsen. Total flight time for N5528N was now 118:00 hours, with 42:50 on the Merlin engine.

Attempting to set another transcontinental speed record, De Bona took off from Los Angeles International Airport at 7:18:08 a.m., Pacific Standard Time (14:18:08 UTC), 31 March 1954, and flew to Idlewild Airport in New York City. He landed there at 2:42:25 p.m., Eastern Standard Time (18:42:25 UTC). With an official elapsed time of 4 hours, 24 minutes, 17 seconds, the National Aeronautic Association credited him with a U.S. national record speed of 560.74 miles per hour (902.42 kilometers per hour).

On 1 September 1954, Jimmy Stewart sold N5528N to Joe De Bona for $1.00 plus a $7,500.00 Chattel Mortgage. On 14 March 1954, the C.A.A. registered the airplane, which they now designated as a North American F-51C, to De Bona at 339 North Beverly Drive, Beverly Hills, California.

An airworthiness inspection was completed 17 March 1955. The mechanic performing the inspection held certificate number M7427. The V-1650-9 had been removed and replaced with a Packard V-1650-300, serial number V350012. This post-war commercial engine was rated at 1,660 horsepower at 3,000 r.p.m. The airframe now had 150:00 hours TTAF, and the new engine had 30:00 hours.

The following day, 18 March 1955, Joe De Bona sold N5528N to James M. Cook of Jacksboro, Texas, for $18,000 plus a $7,000 Chattel Mortgage at 4% interest, payable on or before 1 January 1956. The C.A.A. issued a Certificate of Registration to Cook on 31 March 1955.

On 22 June 1955, Jim Cook was using the Mustang to seed clouds for a hail suppression program for Valley Hail Suppressors, Inc. Cook, in the cockpit of N5528N, took off from Scottsbluff, Nebraska, at about 6:00 p.m. He discovered that one of the main landing gear would not retract, nor could he lower the other. After trying to solve the problem for about an hour-and-a half, Cook decided that it was too dangerous to attempt a landing and bailed out. At 7:55 p.m., North American Aviation P-51C Mustang N5528N crashed 15 miles (24 kilometers) north and 3 miles (4.8 kilometers) east of Morrill, Nebraska (near Scottsbluff). The airplane exploded on impact and the wreckage burned. A newspaper reporter who was at the scene said that the Mustang had opened a trench approximately 6 feet (1.8 meters) deep and 45 feet (13.7 meters) long. He described the airplane as “totally demolished,” with pieces thrown up to 100 yards (91 meters) away. The Merlin engine was “unrecognizable.”

Although an accident report was completed 13 July 1955, the Federal Aviation Administration currently has no report in its files, nor does the National Transportation Safety Board.

N5528N was deregistered 15 August 1955. (James Cook soon bought another Mustang, P-51D N71L, which he flew for several years as part of the U.S. Weather Bureau’s Thunderstorm Research Airplane Project.)

Warren A. Piestch of Pietsch Aircraft Restoration and Repair, Inc., Minot, North Dakota, purchased a tail wheel assembly and other parts from a wrecked P-51 located in Nebraska, 23 June 1999. He wrote to the F.A.A. and stated that these parts were from P-51 serial number 2925, and that he wanted to rebuild the aircraft. Pietsch requested that ownership of 2925 be assigned to him and that a registration N-number that he had previously reserved, N151LP, be assigned to the airplane. The F.A.A. did as Pietsch requested. That registration was valid until 30 April 2015. On 24 September 2007, 2925 was registered to Pietsch with its original “N number” of N5528N. That registration remains in effect. There is no current Airworthiness Certificate.

AirCorps Aviation of Bemidji, Minnesota, has “restored” a P-51 for the Dakota Territory Air Museum, which they identify as the record-breaking Mustang, Thunderbird. (Warren Pietsch is a member of the museum’s board of directors.)

¹ New York International Airport was commonly called “Idlewild Airport” at the time, but today known as John F. Kennedy International Airport, or simply, “JFK.”

² https://www.thisdayinaviation.com/29-march-1949-2/

© 2025, Bryan R. Swopes