WIX Archives

Re: Scat VII Questions

Posted by Richard Allnutt on Mon Feb 24, 2003 03:57:29 PM

In reply top Scat VII Questions posted by Rob Mears on Mon Feb 24, 2003 03:03:26 PM

I saw Scat VII and the Shuttleworths at Geneseo in the early nineties. It was a beautiful airframe. They said that the airframe was the actual Scat VII, and it is listed as so on Mustangs Mustangs, but I always been lead by others to believe that this was a data-plate only. I don't have any hard facts on this, but there are no details that I have found on it before 1958. Very few mustangs came back to the States from combat in Europe, a few did get traded on directly to third countries, like Sweden and Israel, but the odds that it would have been a high time combat airframe, when so many fresh ones were available seems really slim. For one to have survived which had been flown as the personal mount of such a famous pilot as Robin Olds seems even more unlikely. Still, it's a moot point now I guess. It's very sad that the man and the machine are no longer with us, and I for one will mourn their passing.

'Nuff said. R.

: I wasn't aware that this plane was flown by a quadruple ac
: e, and had four kills to its name. Seeing extremely signi
: ficant airframes like this destroyed is one of the few tim
: es I really begin to question the logic of using such pric
: eless touchstones as public consumables.
:
: Don't get me wrong. I'm a died-in-the-wool "Keep 'em Flyi
: ng" kind of guy. But with over 200 Mustangs alive and wel
: l in the skies, how valiant is it to find oneself doing lo
: w level sport aerobatics in an aircraft that many people m
: ight consider worthy of Smithsonian status? Was this plan
: e in fact THE Scat VII, or was it simply painted to repres
: ent this historic aircraft? Was it a data plate restorati
: on or an airframe with little or no damage history since i
: t's wartime stint over Europe? I'm hoping the person who
: wrote the article below was mistaken about the plane's tru
: e identity.
:
: I would never wish for a world devoid of the rumble of Mer
: lins and Pratt & Whitneys, nor would I ever want to be den
: ied the vicereal impact of vintage metal executing low spe
: ed passes and aerial displays, but if Ira Kepford's infamo
: us "#29" Corsair was still around, I believe I'd rather se
: e that particular airframe maintained in as safe an enviro
: nment as possible. A hundred years from now an airframe o
: f that caliber would be an international superstar.
:
: I could almost kick myself for posting a thread with such
: an apparent "Liberal" slant to it, but I now feel a much t
: he poorer for not recognizing Scat VII for what she was, a
: nd finding an opportunity to visit that particular airfram
: e first hand before it was reduced to a pile of scrap :(
:
:
:
: "Plane had glorious wartime history:
:
: The single-engine fighter plane involved in a fatal crash
: in Wabash Thursday evening traces its origin to World War
: II, where it was piloted by a an ?ace? credited with four
: Kills? over Europe.
:
: The P-51D Mustang, named Scat VII, was the final plane flo
: wn by American ace Brigadier Gen. Robin Olds, USAF-Ret., d
: uring World War II as he ran escort for bombers over Germa
: ny.
:
: The plane, owned by Jim Shuttleworth, who died in the cras
: h, had been on display for several years in the Wings of F
: reedom museum at the Huntington Municipal Airport. Accordi
: ng to the museum?s Web site, Olds had four kills in the Sc
: at VII and had a total of 24 kills with the 434th Fighter
: Squadron, 479th Fight Group with the 8th Air Force in Witt
: isham, England, from 1944-45.
:
: Shuttleworth had the aircraft restored in the early 1970s
: after purchasing it from John Dilley of Fort Wayne Air Ser
: vice."

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