Project Seahorse

"f86sabre" (f86sabre) 12/19/2013 at 22:02 • Filed to: Planelopnik, mustang, P-51

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That is not a P-51. That is a one off US Navy ETF-51D. Created to conduct carrier suitability trials for the Mustang in the hopes of finding a long range bomber escort for the Pacific theater. Critical islands were captured rendering the need obsolete, but its is still an interesting story. You can read more here !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!!

puppyknuckles > f86sabre 12/19/2013 at 22:17

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I'm guessing it was awfully humid for air off the prop edge to be so visible... Amazing picture!

desertdog5051 > f86sabre 12/19/2013 at 22:30

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Fascinating. I look forward to your posts. Thank you for the unique information.

The Transporter > f86sabre 12/19/2013 at 22:36

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Here's another rare one. It's the Bell XFL-1 Airabontia.

So Bell took the already funky looking P-39 Airacobra, pulled out the then unconventional tricycle landing gear, replaced it with a more conventional tail dragger configuration and slapped a tailhook to it. The idea was to see if it could make a useful Naval aircraft. Hint: it wasn't. The Navy preferred radial engines because of their compactness, ease of maintenance, and ability to take battle damage. Allison could never get the turbocharged version of it's V-1710 engine working right, anyway, so it had no real performance advantage over the naturally aspirated R-1830 Twin Wasp radial in the F4F. Then Pearl Harbor happened and the Navy was more concerned with not having its ass handed to it by the Japs than tinkering with an anemic aircraft that had a tendency to nose over after catching a wire on a carrier deck.

The Transporter > puppyknuckles 12/19/2013 at 22:38

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It was a quite common thing to see in the humid tropical air of the South Pacific.

f86sabre > desertdog5051 12/20/2013 at 05:54

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Thanks.