Small Scale Military Headquarters

I was going through some of my older pictures from a trip I took to London, England in 2005, and came across a couple photos taken of P-51s on display in the Imperial War Museum and the RAF Museum. These aren't the best photos, taken in exhibit halls crowded with many other planes, tanks, and other military hardward. However, considering the two newest P-51 paintschmems from 21c and BBI, they have a bit more meaning

Enjoy

P-51D "Big Beautiful Doll" - Imperial War Museum, London


P-51D "Donald Duck" - RAF Museum, London

Oooh, those are nice T, very nice indeed. I really like the Donald Duck, is that the Emerson P-51 BBI just came out with?? If so, I can tell you it is a REALLY nice model, the detail and subtle weathering on it is VERY nicely done IMO, and BBI has definitely taken it to a new level on the Emerson, highly recommended for you P-51 fans and wingnuts.

The Donald Duck P-51 pictured above (or rather, a P-51 painted to look like it) is the one BBI just came out with. It is Donald Emerson's plane. I have seen the 1:18 version at TRU and was half-tempted to pick it up, however, I have too many P-51s already! The paintscheme and weathering were very well done, however

Donald Duck is sweet! Too bad I only have room for one Mustang and I don't want to get rid of my Hurry Home Honey.

Thats one thing about BBI I love. They do an excellent weathering job on their planes and I have to say the overall detail they put into their planes is still second to none in my book. Compare the cockpit of the BBI P-51 to the 21st New Tool Mustang cockpit and you will see what I mean. That being said though I saw the Donald Duck Mustang and it was very cool but I had to pass. I have my sights set on BBD and then thats it for me.

Rowsdower wrote:Donald Duck is sweet! Too bad I only have room for one Mustang and I don't want to get rid of my Hurry Home Honey.

My dad picked it up a few weeks ago before he left California to head back to Canada. "Old Crow" was there too, but he preferred a NMF Mustang to go with his S1 P-38 Lightning.

Fox Tare-28 wrote:My dad picked it up a few weeks ago before he left California to head back to Canada. "Old Crow" was there too, but he preferred a NMF Mustang to go with his S1 P-38 Lightning.

Very Cool!

Great photos.
Badcat's info on Donald Emerson and "Donald Duck" is that Emerson was shot down and KIA flying a different P-51.
Question: so what happened to "Donald Duck"?

I can't remember what the dataplate said at the museum, and its about 5000 miles too far away to go and easily check. The plane pictured is most likely not the actual "Donald Duck" P-51, but an aircraft painted to look like it

That P-51 flew in to ADS, Texas by Bob Tullius.
Yes, Bob Tullius of Group 44 fame.
I drove the TR-250 I restored up there.

ROGUE:

So you're saying the real Donald Duck survived the war?
Also, after Emerson was KIA flying another Mustang, what was Donald Duck's combat record?...Was it assigned to another pilot and given a new paint scheme, etc.?

Here's more info and photos of the Donald Duck in the museum:

http://aviation.elettra.co.uk/rafmuseum ... ft=mustang

http://www.airliners.net/open.file/1026603/L

dragon53 wrote:Here's more info and photos of the Donald Duck in the museum:

http://aviation.elettra.co.uk/rafmuseum ... ft=mustang

That answers that question. The display itself is very nice and the platform rotates so you can view the plane from all angles

For those of you who haven't been, the RAF museum is amazing and has quite a collection of aircraft. They're mostly British planes, but there are a number of American, German, and other aircraft as well. One section of the museum details the Battle of Britain and has an example of each type of aircraft - British and German - that took part in the battle.

The photo of the BBD P-51 is from the Imperial War Museum, which is essentially a museum dedicated to British military history. There is no equilivant musuem in the US, and most certainly not one in our nation's capital!



The main hall of the IWM is a military historian's dream and is cholked full of all sorts of aircraft, tanks, rockets, and all sorts of other weapons, all of which you can walk around and in many cases touch. (BTW, that's an FW-190A hanging in front of the P-51.)

TMANTHEGREAT:

I found out that Donald Duck was given to another pilot after Emerson returned to the US in 1944. When he returned to the UK, Emerson was given a new P-51, which he was in when he was shot down during the Battle of the Bulge.
I don't know what became of Donald Duck and its new pilot.

No "Donald" is actually 44-74409

http://www.warbirdregistry.org/p51regis ... 74409.html

http://www.warbirdsresourcegroup.org/URG/emerson.html

Rogue wrote:No "Donald" is actually 44-74409

http://www.warbirdregistry.org/p51regis ... 74409.html

http://www.warbirdsresourcegroup.org/URG/emerson.html

44-74409 is the serial number of the "show bird" Emerson P-51. So that's not the P-51 that Emerson flew in during WWII. They just painted that mustang to look like "Donald".

I'm curious as to what happened to the original Donald Duck that was given to another pilot (after Emerson was promoted to captain and given a new P-51).