What data plates, where are they?

[Victor Archer]

Ok here's a silly question. On a Mustang where are the data plates and are they easy to get to and how?

[Randy Haskin]

This is a pretty interesting subject....

Out of the factory (for most NAA Mustangs), there were two dataplates up in the cockpit, generally mounted on the right side:

1: Army Air Forces dataplate: Generally metal with information stamped on it. The plate displayed the military designation (P-51D-5-NA), the USAAF serial number (44-13257) with the first digitis indicating the fiscal year in which the contract was funded (not the year of construction).

2: NAA Dataplate: This was sometimes made of phenolic plastic with the information hand-written/silkscreened on. Contained some of the same info but also showed contract number and the manufacturer's name and triangle logo. (see photo, courtesy Paul Patist)

Each airframe should have had both plates when it rolled out of the factory. The NAA factory plate was not actually required by the government so apparently it was not unusual to have only the USAAF plate.

The following is from Dick Phillips about other locations of serial numbers on P-51s:

"Many late Mustangs had the serial number stamped on to the RH upper longeron between the windscreen frame and the armor plate behind the seat. NA Mustangs most often had their stamping under one of the 2 data plates which were "drive" riveted to the RH upper longeron. At least some NT Mustangs had their plates on the LH longeron."

[Unregistered]

Thanks for posting that picture, Ran.....

All I gotta do now is 'scan' that pic onto a piece of phelonic plastic, and I've got the makings for my 'new' Mustang restoration.

[Victor Archer]

Thank you Randy,
I've been invited to have a look at a couple of Mustangs to try research their history.

[Randy Haskin]

Just to clarify...the NAA dataplate pictured is aluminum and stamped. Apparently there were some deviations with the construction material of the NAA plates and some were metal and some were phenolic.

Here's some additional info from Mike of Midwest Aero Restorations:

"All of the Original NAA dataplates that I have seen are of the phenolic style as spelled out in the Mat'ls block on the print. Lil Margaret had an original phenolic data tag as well as some others Ive seen pics of. We've recreated the phenolic tags as per print. They were screened and the data was hand
written in the blocks.

The "other" tag which most airplanes have is the USAAF or USArmy Air Corp tag which is a steel tag and has been "stamped" with data and was an "etched" or raised letter tag. This is of course different than the NAA Dataplate mentioned above. The "44-" number should not appear on the NAA Dataplate. The 44 number is only on the Airforce or Air Corp tag.

Many mustangs have been reconfigured with NAA tags that have been repro's like photo etched ( non original) or from the original T6 tags which could be purchased from Lance several years ago and were from NAA. They were aluminum and had the etched or raised letter with the "stamped" info in the blocks. The new ones of course were left blank. I suppose it's possible that NAA could
have produced certain block's of 51's with the aluminum tags and I would say that is highly likely. However one can tell if its "original" by looking at the "font" and the raised letter etching."