Living amongst the Covid-19 restrictions at present one has been going through books not thumbed through for a while. One such book is "Mustang Survivors" by Paul Coggan, published in 1987. In one of the appendixes there is a list of Mustangs equipped for air racing. amongst them is "Vendetta" although it was not yet finished. Not even a hint as to what kind of wings it was going to utilize. Another is the project 44-12840 which at the time was owned by Joe Kasperoff. The text is as follows:
For those not familiar with this set- up, this is what N5452V (N1751D) looked like.
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Name: P-51D N5452V[2] Hayward, CA 1972-73.jpg
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So, to those who were present at the time. Did anyone hear about this conversion, was there any hints that Kasperoff was involved with a racing Mustang at all? I mean, by early 1988 he had Yak-11 "Mr. Awesome" ready to go. Would there have been time (and will) to do two racers simultanously? Or was it all a red herring to keep the build of the Yak a secret? If that even was kept a secret.
So, now as I have gone through the book of the day, and asked relevant questions on a forum I will have a beer and a pizza while streaming old episodes of Kojak, Cannon, Quincy and The Streets of San Francisco. You just know I live the high life!
T J
At the time of writing this aircraft was being rebuilt at Sylmar, California. It is believed the aircraft will be used for air racing with a modified Zeuschel Merlin and a very small bubble canopy which was previously installed on N1751D.
So, to those who were present at the time. Did anyone hear about this conversion, was there any hints that Kasperoff was involved with a racing Mustang at all? I mean, by early 1988 he had Yak-11 "Mr. Awesome" ready to go. Would there have been time (and will) to do two racers simultanously? Or was it all a red herring to keep the build of the Yak a secret? If that even was kept a secret.
So, now as I have gone through the book of the day, and asked relevant questions on a forum I will have a beer and a pizza while streaming old episodes of Kojak, Cannon, Quincy and The Streets of San Francisco. You just know I live the high life!
T J
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