N.A. Mustang P-51S, U.S. Navy, Korean War (DONE! PICS on Page 3)

[TheChronicOne]

Gorgeous.  You wouldn't have thought you would have to weight the tips of the floats would you but my Sea Shepherd Swordfish was the same.
Every seaplane I build form now on is going to get the floats weighted.

Yeah!!     I'm with you on that... and there's plenty of room for it (or should be... if anyone molds a solid float it would surprise the hell out of me)

I never thought it would even be necessary but I should have surmised merely by looking at the undersides of the floats, for one.  It's like a "back heavy" rocking chair..

I'm glad you like the airplane! 

I still want to make a 1943 red-rimmed-roundel version with the tri color Navy scheme.

[ericr]

great ! 

I also sometimes put weights in the floats, but sometimes forget 

[NARSES2]

If I'm honest I wasn't sure if this would work. How wrong can you get ?

Tremendous build 

[Tophe]

Very good result!

[Old Wombat]

Nice work, Brad!

Not sure who or what you could rescue with a single seat fighter but it does look good!

[TheChronicOne]

AH HA!!! LMAO   I was prepared for this!!!  And get this:

THEY RIDE ON TOP OF THE FLOATS.

Hope ya arms ain't broke, Sailor! 


Honestly... I was kind of wonderin about that myself....  According to the Starfighters Decals sheet the Corsairs that I stole the markings from were used as Rescue planes in some fashion.... just guessing I was thinking maybe they were used just as spotters or something and all they really did was find missing sailors floatin' in the Sea of Japan or over N.K. or something then radioed to the actual rescue craft. No idea though... even though the project is over with, I'd still like to look into it.



Many thanks to you all for stopping by!!!      Glad you like my airplane. 

[DogfighterZen]

Love it!! Looks like it was a real thing.

[zenrat]

It's prolly like the breakdown organisations in the UK that send a bloke on a bike to you even though you tell them you need a recovery truck because either you have crashed or you know what is wrong and they are not going to be able to fix it.
The floaty Mustang will locate the downed airmen, land next to them and the pilot will lean out and say "Hi guys.  You doing OK?  So, you've been shot down eh? Hang on in there, someone will be along soon to pick you up soon". And then off he goes to the next customer.

[TheChronicOne]

 


That works for me, man!!!!   

[TheChronicOne]

Love it!! Looks like it was a real thing.

Thanks, I'm impressed all to hell with it myself. I was a bit skeptical about the whole project kind of like Chris but this thing looks really sharp sitting on the shelf.

I should get better pictures from outside!!!  (I always say this though) 

[NARSES2]

There's at least one example in WWII of an RAF search and rescue aircraft being so overloaded with downed aircrew it taxied home as it couldn't take off. Can't remember the type but probably a Walrus ? Mind you it was in the Channel rather than the Sea of Japan.

[TheChronicOne]

Plausible for the Mustang then!! In a pinch, it would get the job done. In the least, it could land, and maybe load up the floats with 6-10 people just to get them up out of the water if they're having problems staying afloat or something. Then, they just wait on a proper rescue craft of some sort.  Or, maybe it could carry an inflatable raft or two to drop off, other rescue supplies, dry blankets or something.... 

Found out what the "Rescue"part of the scheme was. They weren't used AS rescue craft, but, apparently one of the schemes on this Starfighter sheet was for the plane(and pilot) that crashed and the other is the one for the plane (and pilot) that landed to attempt rescue:

Lieutenant Thomas J. Hudner, Jr., flying an F4U-4 of VF-32 off USS Leyte, was awarded the Medal of Honor for crash landing his Corsair in an attempt to rescue his squadron mate, Ensign Jesse L. Brown, whose aircraft had been forced down by antiaircraft fire near Changjin. Brown, who did not survive the incident, was the U.S. Navy's first African American naval aviator."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vought_F4U_Corsair

While I was there I noticed that a Corsair driver was the lone piston aircraft ace of the war:

"For many operations detachments of U.S. Navy F4U-5Ns were posted to shore bases. The leader of one such unit, Lieutenant Guy Bordelon of VC-3 Det D (Detachment D), off USS Princeton, become the Navy's only ace in the war, in addition to being the only American ace in Korea that used a piston engined aircraft.[94] Bordelon, nicknamed "Lucky Pierre", was credited with three Lavochkin La-9s or La-11s and two Yakovlev Yak-18s between 29 June and 16/17 July 1952.[95] Navy and Marine Corsairs were credited with a total of 12 enemy aircraft."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vought_F4U_Corsair

Neat stuff.

[Snowtrooper]

If push came to shove, just how small is the P-51 cockpit - could the rescuee or rescuer sit on the lap of the other?

On a F4U-1 Corsair this would not be a problem - to save weight (and to see through the window in the bottom when dive-bombing enemy bomber formations - yes, this was its intended role) there was no cockpit floor and there was enough space to fall between the seat and the fuselage into if you were not careful when entering/exiting the cockpit, or if your seat harness was not tight enough during a dogfight. The floor was only introduced in the F4U-4 model

[TheChronicOne]

Ain't that something!! I had heard stories similar about this type of thing being done on dive bombers or whatever but had no idea they did that on early Corsairs. 

As for the Mustang passenger issue, I swear I remember a story of just that happening and it may well have been a Mustang. Or maybe I saw it in a movie (Pearl Harbor movie had ol' boy flying his "broad" around in a P-40 I think it was but thats a bit different  ). Or both?  From what I can tell the cockpit in the Mustang is a pretty tight fit but not so much so that someone else couldn't fit inside on the pilots lap.

While I'm here... new pics of this done outside in the sunlight. I thought I did these earlier but I didn't... so.. I did them just now and it's a bit late in the day so shadows played havoc, but whatever...  did the best I could. Some a janky, but some are alright pics! 


























A couple of these may be better than what I submitted to the finished builds thread so I'll do some comparison and update it.

[loupgarou]

Very nice build. And I learned a lot about the problems of fitting floats to a plane from your work in progress.