Florida’s Mustang Alumni
T
he 30th Anniversary of the well-known
P-51 Mustang training operation Stallion
51, based at Kissimmee, Florida, promised
a great feature event at this year’s Sun ‘n
FunasmorethanthirtyMustangshadbeenin-
vited. It would have been the largest gathering
of the type since the ‘Gathering of Mustangs’ in- Unfortunately, the weather and some ser-
viceabilityissuesmeantthatonlyseventeenair-
craftwereabletoattend.However,forthe
Thursday airshow, organisers and participants
pulled out all the stops for what was probably
thebestwarbirdflyingdisplayataU.S.showin
many years. Stallion 51’s Lee Lauderback led the
waywithanaerobaticdisplayin‘CrazyHorse2’.
He then joined another Mustang and a USAF
F-16andA-10foraHeritageFlightflypast.Ten
MustangsandtwoB-25Mitchellsthenflewa
formation flypast to close the day’s proceedings.
Nigel Hitchman
18 |FLIGHTPATH
TOP LEFT: A stalwart of the U.S. scene, the Delaware Aviation
Museum’s B-25J Mitchell ‘Panchito’, representing a 41st BG
aircraft on Okinawa during the last weeks of the war, leads
two Mustangs as part of the formation flypast.LEFT:Six of the seventeen invited Mustangs in attendance to
celebrate thirty years of Stallion 51.BELOW:Stallion 51’s Lee Lauderback, gear out and inverted,
during his display in ‘Crazy Horse 2’.[All images by Nigel Hitchman]