Duxford 2011 Pix

[Tiger27]

Originally Posted by Lololopoulos

P-51 "Big Beautiful Doll" had a mid-air collision with a skyraider. The skyraider consequently lost a small portion of the wing and the pilot managed to land it safely. Unfortunately, the P-51 pilot had to bail out at 500 ft and "Big Beautiful Doll" was lost.

Personally, I think the pilot could still land the P-51 given that no damage was incurred on any of the control surfaces, (idk for sure, maybe I'm wrong?) he might bailed out because the plane was hit so hard that it became out of control? maybe it was going into a spin?

What do u guys think?

Looked like it was out of control, may have had damaged elevators, not sure how it would be crash landing a P51 with that big air intake, but it looked like the pilot had time to make the right decision, fortunately the crashed '51 didnt burn, looks like the will be able to rebuild it eventually.

[Lololopoulos]

Originally Posted by Tiger27

Looked like it was out of control, may have had damaged elevators, not sure how it would be crash landing a P51 with that big air intake, but it looked like the pilot had time to make the right decision, fortunately the crashed '51 didnt burn, looks like the will be able to rebuild it eventually.

oh u think they can rebuild it? that's good news. i hope it would happen. but I also think they probably wouldn't bother with wreckage like that cus the cost would probably be too high.

[Lololopoulos]

from the zoomed in camera view it really looks like the wing hit the fuselage right before the elevators. and control was regained after it swung left to right drastically.

If it happened in CloD, i would land that P-51.

[danjama]

It's hardly breaking news. I was there. In a video on local news, Rob Davies the pilot confirmed the elevator controls were dead (not surprised, since the control cables run through the section of tail that was struck).

Real shame, Doll was a beauty.

And he actually bailed at more like 200-250ft, an incredibly low bail.

[Lololopoulos]

Originally Posted by danjama

It's hardly breaking news. I was there. In a video on local news, Rob Davies the pilot confirmed the elevator controls were dead (not surprised, since the control cables run through the section of tail that was struck).

Real shame, Doll was a beauty.

And he actually bailed at more like 200-250ft, an incredibly low bail.

cool man, thanks for the info. i wrote breaking news because considering the number of remaining flyable p-51, it is a considerable loss.

[danjama]

Originally Posted by Lololopoulos

cool man, thanks for the info. i wrote breaking news because considering the number of remaining flyable p-51, it is a considerable loss.

It's definitely a considerable loss - heartbreaking. The plane had just been sold recently too - Rob Davis sold it to Meier Motors (i think) in Germany. They were letting him fly it for the last time at Duxford Legends - which only adds more sorrow to the whole saga.

p.s. you should look into meier motors, they have some beautiful warbirds and a good website. This is also one of theirs:

[DK-nme]

One can also see at 0:46 how deform the tail was after the impact. No wonder he jumped. That said, I hate when warbirds crash (the 4'th within 2 months)...