There are a few pictures of He-111 in Lufthansa livery, but since they are pre-war and originally designed as “passenger aircraft”, I guess that they don’t count here.

I follow and understand the need for warbirds to be painted in sponsor colours, or plastered over with stickers, but who would go and paint their P-51 yellow?

To me that kind og defeats the whold idea of warbirds, but like BSG-75 above, I will still watch them if polka dotted….

This one is too weird to contemplate further, so the image must do:

Yes you are absolutly right, those two cases seem very alike.

For every one fuel leak/open cockpit accident, there must have been 5-10 aircraft that didn’t crash. I mean pilots that survived the same situation, as its not a certain disaster scenario. Is this the case?

Was it something that was known to happen now and again?

The described maneuvers do not seem very spectacular (as you point out), could the pilot be an attempt to do something. Does it appear like some test of controls?

BTW what does it say about his mental state?

Despite my dislike for civilian warbirds, I’m going to post this anyway 😀

In the late 50’s there was a fairly big push to sell A/B-26 Invaders as fast executive style private aircraft.

Now; thats the way to do business….are you buying or what?

Regarding the open cockpit. This could have been open due to a buildup of carbon monoxide, or some other ventilating problem (perhaps fuel vapor in the cockpit).

I have never heard about anyone being thrown through the canopy of a P-51. Although there are plenty of things i never heard about….:D

The problem with these old cases is that they remain speculation. If the investigation didn’t find any conclusive cause, then its much harder now after almost 64 years later.

What an interesting piece of gear.

Thanks for bringing this to my attention.