XP-82 Twin Mustang Rebuild

[AeroLogic]

Ah. Here it is...

Don't Shoot!
In the air, it's hard to tell one aircraft from another. A veteran fighter pilot will tell you that Mustangs can look almost exactly the same as Bf 109s from just 1,000 yards away. The reason the first P-47s in Europe had wide white bands on their cowlings was to keep Royal Air Force pilots from blasting them all the time—the P-47s looked too much like Focke-Wulf Fw 190s. Pilots suspected that the muddy, ill-humored soldiers on both sides of the lines shot at everything in the air, just out of spite. The FHC's P-51 and P-47 have an apparatus on their bottom of its right wings to keep the Allied bullets sent skyward to a minimum. These red, amber, and green recognition lights could be toggled on or off from the cockpit individually, showing daily light combinations conveyed to the soldiers fighting below.

 

[flaps]

p-82 trivia
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SAC’s 27th Fighter-Escort Group used the F-82E until August 1950. Beginning in September 1948, the all-weather versions went to the 52nd Fighter Group at Mitchel Field to protect the northeastern states, the 325th FG at McChord AFB to protect the northwest, and the 347th FG in Japan.


The latter group’s F-82Gs became the first American planes to down North Korean aircraft on June 27, 1950. These Twin Mustangs flew 1,868 sorties in the Korean War, including fighter patrol, close support, and night intrusion missions. The last USAF squadron to use the type was the 449th, whose P-82Hs protected Alaska and flew sorties over the Russian coast. Their last Twin Mustang retired in November 1953.

 

[Wudgles]

Walter Soplata had/has a pretty unique backyard - would like to go there one day!

His grandson is one of my best friends from high school, actually. I didn't have a clue about the family history (other than his dad's military flight history) until he told me one day. It was basically about his dad and eccentric grandfather going out to random farms all over the country, disassembling planes they found, putting them into a bus, and driving home. Pretty crazy for just two people to take apart a plane in a weekend.

Great people, by the way.