Late war P-51D with 2nd seat for radar officer

By late 1944 even single-seat USN radar-equipped fighters had an AIA 3 cm or AN/APS-6 3 cm radar in a closed dome.

http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USN/ref/NightFighterRadars/USNFRadar2.html

AIA radar:
[ATTACH=CONFIG]235386[/ATTACH]
[ATTACH=CONFIG]235387[/ATTACH]

AN/APS-6 radar:
[ATTACH=CONFIG]235388[/ATTACH]

The aerial array look as if it was the old AI Mk4, so seems an oddity. There is an RAF Proctor in the background so pic must be in UK

Thanks John for the info.
Still would be nice to find out its role, I guess night fighter, can be ruled out, as why go to all that trouble of installing specialized equipment & not slapping on some black paint.
Regards Duggy.

Martin (wieesso), a few posts back, mentioned a Warbirds International magazine article about Col. Everett Stewart’s 44-72210 with the radar and dual-seat modification. I have that magazine, and unfortunately the article doesn’t provide any specific details at all (nothing about what radar type/why it was used/how well it did) – instead, it more/less asks for any readers to chime-in if they know more about it. In a clearer version of the photo, it appears the antenna array sticking out of the leading edge of the wing is mounted through one of the gun ports, and the right-side gun bay may have been where the radar equipment was installed.

On any of these two-seat conversions, more than just the canopy modifications, in order to fit a seat in the back, the fuselage fuel tank, liners, and radio rack had to be removed and the SCR-522 radio box and battery had to be repositioned.

(By the way, if the name Col. Everett Stewart doesn’t immediately pop-out at you, aircraft like his “Sunny VIII” probably do.)

I had no idea such a thing existed.

With regards to the two-seat/split canopy modification, a few other D-models had the same conversion done in the field. According to Martin Kyburz (Swiss Mustangs), there were four of the two-seat converted D-models used by the Swiss AF. Potentially, all of these had already been modified while in USAAF service in England (late in the war/post-war) prior to going to the Swiss AF in 1948.

One of these is pictured here, P-51D-5-NA 44-13316. Photo from Martin Kyburz/Swiss Mustangs.

And here are a few more photos/description of the same aircraft: http://www.cebudanderson.com/swissmustangs.htm

Here is the war-weary marked P-51D-5-NA 44-13885, also modified into a two-seater (hack), photographed at Mount Farm (base of operations for the 7th Photographic Reconnaissance Group). Photos from the Roger Freeman collection.

🙂 I did include the photo in my quote above hoping that Mustang51 would see it that was as well but been edited 🙂

That was me. We don’t repost images, even for the best of reasons 🙂 The later link was the right answer – Moggy

So frustrating not being able to see that pic………

Can you see this one then?

http://www.americanairmuseum.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/freeman/media-401064.jpg?itok=h_ZwgL4-

It would certainly make an excellent intruder mount.

Moggy

….” Information provided by Debden historian Keith Braybrooke.”

I believe sadly Keith Braybrooke passed away recently,if it was the same Kieth .

Maybe this article could be of help http://connection.ebscohost.com/c/articles/87513703/from-sunny-search

Martin

edit: “Not as far as I know for the RAF machines. There was at least one two seater fitted with radar by (for?) the USAAF. 44-72210/VF-S with a “Lark” system but details are scarce.” http://www.warbirdinformationexchange.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?p=304708

So frustrating not being able to see that pic………