WWII Mustang pilots gather

Mustang fighter planes are collectors’ items with an
average price of $1.5 million.

COLUMBUS (AP) — The last time Bill Pattillo saw his P-51 Mustang fighter plane, it was a heap of wrecked metal and he had just been shot down over a farmer’s field in Germany.

Held as a POW for a short while before Germany surrendered, the World War II fighter pilot never learned what happened to the plane he referred to as “my baby.”

This weekend, he’ll pay a visit to more than 100 of the P-51 Mustangs that survived. Now collectors’ items that bring an average $1.5 million price, the iconic propeller-driven planes will be flown by war plane enthusiasts from around the country into Rickenbacker International Airport for a three-day Gathering of Mustangs & Legends air show.

Mustang owners and former Mustang fighter pilots agree the air show is a once-in-a-lifetime occasion because of the rarity of the single-seat planes and of the men who flew the planes over the skies of Europe and the Pacific.

“Seeing the other pilots, to me, is the most important thing,” said Donald Strait, 89, a retired Air Force general now living in Jackson Springs, N.C., who shot down 13 1/2 German planes during 122 World War II missions. “We’re scattered all over the country. We’re all getting up there in age. It will only be a couple of years, and we’ll all be gone.”

Increasing interest

The P-51 Mustangs that remain — there are only about 160 worldwide — have drawn more attention over the past few decades, in part due to the increased interest in the preservation of military aircraft. Pattillo said he’s not surprised.

“It really was like a Cadillac,” he said from his Harrisonburg, Va., home. “You just felt like when you got in the plane, that you wrapped it around you. It was a powerful aircraft.”

Some owners spend thousands maintaining and restoring P-51 Mustangs to historical accuracy, insisting on 1940s-era radios, wiring and hydraulics, as well as external markings that match what pilots painted on their planes during the war, said Jim Thompson, a Birmingham, Ala., lawyer who bought his Mustang a year ago.

“They’re like a Picasso or a Mona Lisa,” he said. “They’re a highly prized piece of artwork, and they are very expensive. Before you know it, you could have $2 million tied up in one of these.”

The Mustangs have come a long way from the end of World War II, when the military turned to jets and quickly forgot about the P-51s. Many now believe that the highly maneuverable aircraft, which flew up to 500 mph as it escorted Allied bombers, turned the tide in Europe.

But most of the 15,500 Mustangs built at a frantic pace by U.S. factories during the war were sent to scrap heaps in England, or were pushed off aircraft carriers.

Others were used in the Korean War and by National Guard units into the 1950s. Some were sold to less developed countries, such as Bolivia, Indonesia and El Salvador, which used Mustangs in its air force into the 1980s.

Value grows

“You could have bought one of these, full of fuel, for $2,500 in 1950,” said Lee Lauderback, who has spent the last two years organizing the Rickenbacker event from his Kissimmee, Fla.-based Stallion 51 Corp., which is devoted to the maintenance and operation of P-51s.

Interest and demand grew in the 1970s after the formation of the Warbirds of America, a nonprofit that works to preserve former military aircraft. By the early 1980s, collectors were willing to spend $100,000 or $200,000 for a P-51, and that shot up near the $1 million mark after the 1990s economic boom, Thompson said.

A lot of the remaining Mustangs were brought back to the U.S. from South America by collectors in the last 20 or 30 years, and many of those planes needed extensive structural restoration, said Tom Patten, a Nashville, Tenn., owner.

Specialized mechanics who rebuild P-51 frames and their Rolls Royce-Merlin engines and sometimes manufacture duplicate parts, have sprung up across the country, Thompson said.

Potential owners often have to wait several years for a P-51 to be completed. But the quality has greatly improved in the last five years with experts such as NASCAR racing owner and engineer Jack Roush getting involved, Lauderback said.

“It’s an industry out there,” Thompson said. “You don’t just buy one and stick it in a garage, like a Volkswagen. It’s a work in progress, constantly.”