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Jimmy Stewart's Post-War P-51C???? - Printable Version

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Jimmy Stewart's Post-War P-51C???? - bigarv65 - 26.07.2009

Watching the Discovery channel documentary of Walter Cronkites story this evening, 1953 footage was shown of CBS rushing QE's Coronation film reels across the Atlantic to be the first to air them in the US. Reportedly an RAF Canberra carried it to a certain point, and then the reels were carried the rest of the way to New York in a P-51. Ever so briefly, it was on screen coming to the airport. It looked to have a bare metal finish, a darker colored spear or scallop from the nose area with a CBS-eye logo, and the pegasus logo from that gas company just behind the cockpit glass on the razorback. It looked just fantastic. I cannot find an image of it online, and accounts I have read claim it was Jimmy Stewart's P-51C.

Does anyone have more on this? A skin would be great, but since the footage was black & white, and I wasn't taping the show, all I have is a good guess about what it really looks like.

Anyone? Anyone? Buehler?

Re: Jimmy Stewart's Post-War P-51C???? - US_GRANT - 26.07.2009

bigarv65 Wrote:Watching the Discovery channel documentary of Walter Cronkites story this evening, 1953 footage was shown of CBS rushing QE's Coronation film reels across the Atlantic to be the first to air them in the US. Reportedly an RAF Canberra carried it to a certain point, and then the reels were carried the rest of the way to New York in a P-51. Ever so briefly, it was on screen coming to the airport. It looked to have a bare metal finish, a darker colored spear or scallop from the nose area with a CBS-eye logo, and the pegasus logo from that gas company just behind the cockpit glass on the razorback. It looked just fantastic. I cannot find an image of it online, and accounts I have read claim it was Jimmy Stewart's P-51C.

Does anyone have more on this? A skin would be great, but since the footage was black & white, and I wasn't taping the show, all I have is a good guess about what it really looks like.

Anyone? Anyone? Buehler?

I didn't find anything about Jimmy Stewart flying a P-51, however, I did find that he was a BOMBER pilot during WWII, not a fighter pilot. Of course he stayed in the Air Force Reserve, retiring as a Gneral so it's possible he may have flown a P-51 for some reason or other, but it would not have been his primary acft.

- bigarv65 - 26.07.2009

No, it wasn't Stewart flying it. They didn't mention the pilots name on the show, I read that in at least 2 different accounts online, the P-51C in question being referred to as "Jimmy Stewart's P-51". I don't know if he owned a Mustang after the war. All I can say for certainty is that it was a civilian-liveried Mustang in 1953 that carried those reels. And man was it pretty.

- elbarto - 27.07.2009

jimmy stewarts p-51c race #90 "thunderbird" was flown by joe de bona in the '48 and '49 cleveland races.

http://www.airrace.com/1948%20NAR.htm

http://www.airrace.com/1949%20NAR%20.htm

- MB-BOB - 27.07.2009

elbarto Wrote:jimmy stewarts p-51c race #90 "thunderbird" was flown by joe de bona in the '48 and '49 cleveland races.

http://www.airrace.com/1948%20NAR.htm

http://www.airrace.com/1949%20NAR%20.htm
Yes, I saw this show too. It got my attention when Cronkite referred to the plane as a P-51 "Thunderbird," which is, of course, incorrect. The "Thunderbird" reference is interesting as a possible link to the Jimmy Stewart a/c, but the plane in the show looked nothing like any of the photos at the Cleveland races. Bigarv65's description is as good as mine. It did appear to be bare metal, which I thought odd for an obvious B/C model. Actually, I though it odd that any B/C models survived to that date.

- MB-BOB - 27.07.2009

OK, proof positive that eye witnesses can be wrong... This is obviously not a natural metal finish.

Here is a 1953 photo of the aircraft, ser #N5528N, purchased by Jimmy Stewart from Joe DeBona (in 1953), pilot Cochran shown...

[Image: P51b-c.jpg]

- bigarv65 - 27.07.2009

After looking at it, the canopy looks correct, but the paint job if different. There is a Mobil Oil pegasus logo, located in a different spot though. It could be the same aircraft, perhaps being given a special paint job for the Coronation Run. It DID have a CBS-eye logo on the main painted spear coming back over the side of the engine. Totaly cool watching it fly-by the airport, then taxiing in, then they were pulling the large film reel spools from behind the pilot, you could see them in the glass stacked up.

This is pretty cool, and it's gonna bug the tar out of me until I locate a good shot of it!

- elbarto - 29.07.2009

couple things about warbirds in civil use. paint schemes change alot, especially when money's involved. once that money dries up a new paint scheme is adopted. still that way today.

there were a lot of 51b's around then, in fact after the war three guys (names long forgotten) bought up most of the p-51b's,c's, and d's that the army air force would otherwise have scrapped and in fact had at the time the worlds' third largest air force (try doing that today). today the only two flyable p-51b's i know of are jack roush' and kermit weeks' planes and one owned by someone i don't know that will be attending the air races this year (SWEET).

anyway, point is that alot of times civil owners take several paint jobs to find what they like or allow their airplanes to be painted up in someone elses colors in the interest of not having to foot the bill for gas.