My wife and I attended the Father’s Day Fly-in this year at the Columbia airport in Tuolumne County, CA. One of the highlights this year was the appearance of four P-51 Mustangs. These are the most popular of the WWII warbirds and a poor “fixer-upper” can fetch a million dollars. A couple of hundred of these planes are still flying, and even compete in races.
The P-51 Mustang is one of the most famous of the American planes from WWII, but oddly it wasn’t actually built for the American armed forces. The English contracted with North American Aviation to design and build this fast, long-range support aircraft to accompany and protect their bombers. The “P” designation stood for “Patrol”. Today, the plane would have an ‘F” designation, for “Fighter”.
We were treated to a number of take offs, landings and some incredibly loud and fast fly-bys from all four P-51 Mustangs.
Posted by Sonora Guy on 2010-06-23 20:54:18
Tagged: , Columbia Airport , Columbia CA , Father’s Day Fly-In , P-51 Mustang , Warbird , Airshow , North American Aviation