"Memphis Belle" Mustangs

Neither was NL314BG “Petie 2nd” of WoGB painted in Olive Drab. This and “Sunny VIII” of Spencer Flack were only used for back of formation shots. I only recall them actually being in one massed take-off from DX, and that was with with the other 5 P51’s, 3x B17’s, the B25, and 3x Buchons on a Friday afternoon if I recall correctly! 🙂

I can’t actually imagine Spencer or Doug Arnold letting anyone near their Mustangs with a spray gun full of OD paint, from what I remember of them both. 😀

I went up to DX before filming had actually started, the P-51’s had arrived and were lined up somewhere in the area where the American museum is now positioned, which is where they were most of the time on subsequent days.
I don’t recall the Buchons being there that day and the B-17’s had certainly not arrived.
From what I remember, the film crew were very carefully painting tiny numbers? under the tail wings of the silver Mustangs, when I asked what was the point of doing that, they told me that Putnam was such a stickler for detail that everything had to be done to the book.
At this point David Putnam himself drove in, he had a dark red Range Rover, registration DP1 of course, he looked pretty peed off and looked carefully at the Mustangs before dissappearing into the Tower. What was all that about I wonder, I do recall taking pictures at the time but they are all piled up in the garage, job for Easter weekend to dig them out.
I remember that take off, it must have been a friday as everyone in the office where I was working at the time used to spend the afternoon in the pub and I used to dissapear to DX, the P-51s flew off to the east in a very loose formation but the Buchons formed up and flew very low over the hangars, quite a sight.

Here’s a not very good record shot of the mass fighter departure.7 P-51s and 3 Buchonshons

So sad….high houred pilot.

so was the crash of NL1051S final or will she fly again?

Neither was NL314BG “Petie 2nd” of WoGB painted in Olive Drab. This and “Sunny VIII” of Spencer Flack were only used for back of formation shots. I only recall them actually being in one massed take-off from DX, and that was with with the other 5 P51’s, 3x B17’s, the B25, and 3x Buchons on a Friday afternoon if I recall correctly! 🙂

I can’t actually imagine Spencer or Doug Arnold letting anyone near their Mustangs with a spray gun full of OD paint, from what I remember of them both. 😀

It certainly made an impressive sight seeing all those in the sky at the same time. Pretty sure it was a friday too.

Interesting that you have NL1051S as being ‘Sunny VIII’. Was this her normal name or special markings for the film?

Normal name, not painted for the film.

Neither was NL314BG “Petie 2nd” of WoGB painted in Olive Drab. This and “Sunny VIII” of Spencer Flack were only used for back of formation shots. I only recall them actually being in one massed take-off from DX, and that was with with the other 5 P51’s, 3x B17’s, the B25, and 3x Buchons on a Friday afternoon if I recall correctly! 🙂

I can’t actually imagine Spencer or Doug Arnold letting anyone near their Mustangs with a spray gun full of OD paint, from what I remember of them both. 😀

This was her painted in 1992 at Middle Wallop.

http://www.airliners.net/search/photo.search?regsearch=NL1051S&distinct_entry=true

I cannot find any other photos of here before that date. I am sure that someone out there has NL1051S in M-Belle olive drab colours.

Brian.

It wasn’t painted for the film as Ollie said.

Here’s a good link from this very forum:

http://forum.keypublishing.co.uk/showthread.php?t=34240

This was her painted in 1992 at Middle Wallop.

http://www.airliners.net/search/photo.search?regsearch=NL1051S&distinct_entry=true

I cannot find any other photos of here before that date. I am sure that someone out there has NL1051S in M-Belle olive drab colours.

Brian.

I have photo records of Mustangs ‘Ding Hao’ G-HAEC; ‘Cisco’ N167F; G-SUSY; N51JJ ‘Candyman / Moose’; ‘Miss L’ G-BIXL; NL1051S ‘Sunny VIII’.

Interesting that you have NL1051S as being ‘Sunny VIII’. Was this her normal name or special markings for the film?

Thanks guys for the above info’ – thats a fantastic website as well!!

The After the Battle on the making of the film is an excellent source.

There were three Hispano Buchons used in the film; ’15+-‘ D-FEHD; ‘-+>’ G-BOML; and ’14+-‘ G-HUNN.

The OFMC Grumman Avenger was also used as a camera-ship (after Aces High B-25 went sick, IIRC).

I have photo records of Mustangs ‘Ding Hao’ G-HAEC; ‘Cisco’ N167F; G-SUSY; N51JJ ‘Candyman / Moose’; ‘Miss L’ G-BIXL; NL1051S ‘Sunny VIII’.

Of course they should have been Mk.V Spitfires, but the filmmakers decided that the audience wouldn’t be able to cope with non-US markings on ‘their’ side, so went with much later ‘D’ model Mustangs with star-n-bar escorting star-no-bar B-17s… :rolleyes:

C-47 was Aces High. Mustangs where:
N51JJ ‘Candyman’ – Now with OFMC
G-BIXL ‘Miss L’ – Still with Rob Lamplough, under repair after a forced landing.
G-SUSY, not named in the film – Now with the Real Aeroplane company
G-HAEC ‘Ding Hao’ – Now owned by Rob Davies.
N167F ‘Cisco’ – Now with the SHF.
NL1051S, retained its origional markings – Crashed in the USA.
N314BG, retained its origional markings – Now in the USA owned by Les Heikkila and based in Missouri.
I only make it 7, i would be interested to know if there was another one that i am missing.

Have a look here for some infomation and photos i have collected together:
http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/ollieswebspace/the%20making%20of%20mempis%20Belle.htm