6 Mustang aircraft recoverd from A-Bomb test site Australia

When I first set foot in Pioneer Aero Service’s hangars at Chino in 1990 there was a pair of ex- Australian wings in the attic. Pioneer had off course bought remaining the stash of components from Cavalier that the late Gordon Plaskett stored at King City. I never went up in the rafters after dark, so can therefore not corfirm if they glowed in the dark…

T J

From Geoff Goodall’s page on the Emu Field Mustangs:

The other five Emu Mustangs were shipped to San Francisco as cargo on board MV Sierra, leaving Port Adelaide on 20 January 1968. They were reportedly damaged on the wharf at San Francisco by anti-Vietnam war protesters after a local newspaper report said they would be used in SE Asia. Stan Booker had in fact on-sold them to Cavalier Aircraft Corporation in Florida, which specialised in civilian executive two seater Mustangs and military upgraded armed models. Their Cavaliers were used by US Army and exported to Indonesia, Bolivia and Salvador. This led to the ultimate Cavalier Enforcer with a Lycoming T55 turboprop, which was taken over by Piper as the PA-48 Piper Enforcer project.

Cavalier Aircraft dismantled the five to airframe sections to be reconditioned for Cavalier’s rebuilding program. Whether parts of the Emu atomic Mustangs were actually used will never be known, but left-over Cavalier parts were later sold on the booming US warbird scene. Certainly CAC panels have been seen on flying North American P-51D warbirds, and there is an ongoing joke that certain parts of certain P-51Ds glow in the dark…

Great recovery!

Film focused on one, and the other 5 now flying around in USA too?

Hi All,
Sq/L Scramble – Ditto what Dave Homewood has written many thanks for the re-post…:eagerness:

Geoff.

Very good documentary. I’d seen something on these Mustangs before but not as detailed as this film. It’s great they filmed everything as it happened.