Lots of familiar faces in here…

Well said, Mark V.

I cannot agree with you on this Mike. The best thing about the Duck is that it flies (flew). The 51 in the museum may not be the most complete, authentic or historic but it is a P-51 and performs the task of dust gathering quite well. I doubt whether the vast majority of RAF Mausoleum visitors would notice or understand the difference in the same way that the vast majority of visitors to the AAM at Duxford do not realise that the suspended Mustang there is a glass fibre representation!

Apart from the fact that they already have one.

Welcome aboard,Corsair! 🙂
The last I heard,the Duck is to be placed on a slowly rotating turntable in Milestones of Flight.
Whilst it’s a shame that something perfectly airworthy should be grounded,the decision does make sense in various ways.The aircraft is a very original one,with only cosmetic restoration having been done on it since it was built-the airframe only had 200 hours on it from new when Tullius bought it back in the early 80’s.As time goes by,more and more bits and pieces would need repairing and replacing,and eventually you’d get the Trigger’s Broom scenario.So,in retiring the aircraft now,an awful lot of original Inglewood workmanship is being preserved.It really is a 1945-built Mustang!
It also makes very good sense for the RAFM,as even our most powerful national museums can’t afford the prices being asked for even the most hopeless looking P51 wrecks.I can’t see how the RAFM would’ve got thier hands on a decent P51 without a gesture like Tullius’.

Originally posted by Mark V
“everyone has to go out to pasture eventually!”.

As we are the “Historic” group on the Forum, I wonder if there is anyone that would agree with Bob.

It’s a sad irony that to put a Mustang “out to pasture” means to let it roam free outdoors. Sadly his Mustang is tethered and stabled. Bad choice of words, Bob.

I asked Bob if he was completely certain that his aeroplane would be in the RAF Mausoleum permenantly and he said it would. He also said in explaining his decision “everyone has to go out to pasture eventually!”.

Could be lots of reasons on Bob Tullius’s part – cost of maintaining a high-performance warbird (although he still has a few other warbirds, according to the Flypast article recently), his own old age, or maybe he just wanted to retire his immaculate warbird before something serious happened to it?

I know, if I’d been flying my 234 Sqdn D-AZ-marked Spitfire for a good long while, and thought I was getting a bit long in the tooth, I would most certainly retire the aircraft gracefully.

Or build a replica and fly that…! 😀

😉

:confused: I am puzzled at the decision to ground a perfectly good aircraft when there must be alot of non flyable airframes that could’ve been restored to put in a museum.:(
Oh well,i don’t own a P51 so maybe i would if i did.