ABOVE:
The late Jaap van
Mesdag, founder
of the Early Birds
and the man
instrumental in
buying the Mustang,
at Gilze-Rijen on 2
October 2014.TOP:
Rob van Mesdag
with the first copy
of the book Doen
about his brother
Jaap, just after
arriving on board
Trusty Rusty with
pilot Edwin Boshoff.52 http://www.aeroplanemonthly.com AEROPLANE JULY 2018years later it was rebuilt and christened
as Tipsy Two, racing at Reno for the
first time in 1982. Competing there
again in 1983 with Chuck Hall at the
controls, an engine failure caused a
belly landing in Lemmon Valley, which
fortunately left the pilot unhurt.
The aircraft was acquired by Gary
Levitz the following year, receiving
a smart red colour scheme, the name
Miss Ashley and the registration N245.
Shelly Levitz became its last US
owner and N6395 its final American
registration before the Mustang was
shipped to the Netherlands.
For various reasons the ‘new’ Dutch
Mustang was not restored rapidly
to flying condition. Upon arrival
in the country it was taken to the
maintenance facilities of national
airline KLM and stripped of allits previous paint by Early Birds
volunteers. The experts in the KLM
paint shop gave the aeroplane its
current metal finish and it was moved
to the foundation’s hangar at Lelystad.
In 2004 it was
finally removed
from its crates
and moved to the
nearby facilities
of Wings over
Holland where,
step by step,
it became a
complete aircraft
again.
In choosing
for the aircraft a new USAAF colour
scheme from the European theatre,
the restoration team found that the
Leiston-based 357th Fighter Groupflew over the Netherlands on no
fewer than 313 missions to Germany
between 11 February 1944 and 25
April 1945. Mustangs from the group,
part of the 8th Air Force, recorded 595
kills in the air and
more than 100
on the ground.
During the Battle
for Arnhem
alone the 357th
brought down 50
enemy aircraft;
43 aces were
counted among
its ranks. One of
its component
units was the 364th Fighter Squadron,
including a P-51D (44-13578) named
Trusty Rusty and flown by Capt
Robert P. Winks, who claimed five-P-51 TRUSTY RUSTY
Initial
expectations that the
restoration would take
a period of six months
or so proved over-
ambitious
50-53_AM_P-51 Trusty Rusty_July18_cc C.indd 52 04/06/2018 10:59