Peter Duniho wrote:

That said, I personally find it ironic that people bemoan the loss of an
object that was designed specifically for the purpose of putting it into
harm's way. We destroyed thousands (?) of these planes through their
normal usage, but lose one or two here and there each year, and it's some
great loss.

If 14,000 of them remained, maybe people would not consider losing one or
two as great a loss. Except, of course, the owners (and assuming no one got
hurt).

From http://www.mustangsmustangs.net/p-51...rs/index.shtml

Total Complete P-51 Survivors 281
P-51's in airworthy condition 152
On Display (non-flying) 57
Repairs / Restoration 45
In Storage 22
Unknown 5

that's 152 flyables out of something like 14,000 built. Probably less than
152 as P-51D 44-74466 "Barbara Jean" had an engine failure last weekend and
ended up bent and battered - luckily the pilot is safe.


--
Saville

Replicas of 15th-19th century nautical navigational instruments:

http://home.comcast.net/~saville/backstaffhome.html

Restoration of my 82 year old Herreshoff S-Boat sailboat:

http://home.comcast.net/~saville/SBOATrestore.htm

Steambending FAQ with photos:

http://home.comcast.net/~saville/Steambend.htm