AEROPLANE JULY 2018 http://www.aeroplanemonthly.com 51J
aap van Mesdag was born in- Eighteen years later and
now a medical student, he
tried to escape the Netherlands
in a small canvas canoe, wanting to
become a pilot and fight the German
invaders. Alas the small boat was not
up to the bad weather encountered.
Using a trumpet he brought with
him, he succeeded in attracting
attention from a nearby vessel, but
sadly the wrong one. No fewer
than 32 months in three different
concentration camps followed until
he was liberated from Dachau.
After the war his flying ambitions
were fulfilled. Jaap became a keen
private pilot and in 1967 the first
Dutchman to fly a single-engined
aircraft, a Mooney, across the Atlantic.
A few years later he started building
a collection of aircraft that covered
the period from aviation’s early days
until a little after World War Two.
Dubbed the Early Birds, it was based
in a hangar at Lelystad Airport and
a group of keen and experienced
technicians and enthusiasts
was assembled around it. Many
restorations were accomplished there,
and a lot of work is still in progress.
Jaap’s younger brother Johannes
Bartholomeus, or ‘Jat’, did become
a fighter pilot, but tragically did
not survive the war. He lost his
life in a North American Mustang
III (KH451) of No 64 Squadron,
RAF, which crashed near Lawshall
in Suffolk on 6 March 1945. This
made Jaap determined to honour
his brother’s memory by adding a
Mustang to the Early Birds fleet and
in 1993 an example of the type was
purchased.
P-51D-30NA 44-74923 was in
military service until 1956, serving
post-war in a wide array of locations.
It started out with US Army Air
Forces and US Air Force fighter
units in California (twice), Texas,
New England, New Mexico and
Arizona. In May 1954 it was assigned
to the Illinois Air National Guard
in Chicago, prior to being declared
surplus during October 1956.
The aircraft’s civil career began in
September 1957. Registered N5438V,
it became a cropduster, operating out
of Sacramento, California. It had two
more Californian owners thereafter.
The fighter started a second military
career in 1969 with the Fuerza Aérea
Salvadoreña, the air force of El
Salvador, serialled FAS 410.
The Mustang was registered in
the States again as N132 in 1974,
becoming N100DD and named
Doubleknit Doon during 1978. Three
Trusty
P-51D 44-74923 of the Stichting Vroege
Vogels (Early Birds Foundation), painted
as 44-13578 Trusty Rusty from the
357th FG’s 364th FS. Here it is in the
hands of Marcel Peerlkamp.50-53_AM_P-51 Trusty Rusty_July18_cc C.indd 51 04/06/2018 10:57