WARBIRD & CLASSIC REPORT • WARBIRD & CLASSIC REPORT • WARBIRD & CLASSIC REPORT • WARBIRD & CLASSIC REPORT • WARBIRD & CLASSIC REPORT • WARBIRD & CLASSIC REPORT
airclassicsnow.com 9
Hannu display his ultra-clean Mustang in RCAF markings. (Doug Fisher)USAAF as 44-72059 at the Inglewood factory on 4 January 1945. Flown to Newark, New Jersey,
the P-51D-20-NA was prepared for sea shipment to England. When it arrived, it was stripped of its
protective covering and put back into flying condition before being assigned to the 384th Fighter
Squadron, 364th Fighter Group, and based at Honington in Suffolk with the squadron code of 5Y*P.
With the end of the war, 44-72059 was one of the many Mustangs made available to friendly air
forces and the fighter was acquired by the Royal Swedish Air Force in 1948. Flown to Sweden to join
the Flygvapnet, the P-51D received the Swedish designation J-26 along with the serial Fv26142. After
years of faithful service, it was sold to the government of Nicaragua where it was coded GN96. It then
became part of a large number of Mustangs and other surplus WWII aircraft purchased by Will Martin
and this amazing adventure is fully detailed in Will’s book So I Bought An Air Force, which is now
unfortunately out of print.
Returned to the USA, the P-51D acquired the civil registration N6150U. It was rebuilt by Aero-
Sport at Chino Airport along with a TF-51D for the Bolivian Air Force during 1966 and eventually
returned to the USA in 1995 as N711WJ before becoming N952HB. It was transferred to Glenn
(continued on page 16)