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Re: Cavalier Mustangs

Posted by Randy Haskin on Sat Dec 27, 2003 04:33:29 PM

In reply top Cavalier Mustangs posted by Pat Carry on Sat Dec 27, 2003 10:56:15 AM

The short answer is that Trans-Florida Aviation/Cavalier Aircraft Corporation did a little bit of everything with P-51s.

First, they produced a civilianized version of the P-51 called the Executive Mustang and later on the Cavalier. There were between 22 and 26 of these built (I'm still pinning the number down). They had all-new suit-and-tie-friendly 2-place cockpits with soundproofing and leather seats, plus a nice avionics package (for the 60s that is!). They also made a number of other nifty changes including a very popular cockpit ram-air system and baggage compartments in the wing gun bays. Most had the taller "Cavalier" tail (not a P-51H tail unlike popular belief) and some had tip tanks.

Side by side with this, they produced kits for civilian P-51 owners to do all sorts of things: tall tails, tip tanks, baggage compartments, TF-51 conversion, etc. There are many P-51s that, at some point in their life, have had minor Cavalier mods that did not go through the complete "Executive Mustang" treatment.

PLUS, TFA/Cavalier was the leading P-51/RR Merlin parts source and maintenance supplier at the time...lots of business there.

Then Cavalier decided to get into the military airplane business. They built military airframes in three flavors: F-51D, TF-51D, and Mustang II.

F-51Ds had many of the updates and improvements designed for the Executive Mustang, but ditched all the leather seats and brought back the military hardware: new gunsight, new underwing hardpoints, etc. These all went to Latin America or Indonesia.

TF-51Ds were simply a copy of the TEMCO TF-51D conversion to dual control with some of the F-51D improvements thrown in.

Mustang IIs were a F-51D built especially for Close Air Support and Counterinsurgency missions. These had new cockpits, strenghtened spars and longerons, tip tanks, and more hardpoints. It's debatable how many of these were built. Purists say there were only six built (with 5 going to El Salvador), but there is an argument to be made that 14 others were built that went to Indonesia, Bolivia, and the US Army. I am of the opinion that these were "technically" named F-51Ds, even though they shared nearly _all_ of the Mustang II upgrades. Semantics, I guess.

The end of the Cavalier story is the Enforcer...and that is a story unto itself! Essentially it is three developments of turboprop-powered P-51s for counterinsurgency. By the time the last version was built (the PA-48 Enforcer in '83 and '84) it shared very little with a P-51 anymore and they were all-new build airframes.

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