It was WH589 as the former Haydon Baillie one I was thinking of, he crashed it in 1979 at Osnabruck, now I have looked it up

then it would appear he crashed 2 Fury’s and both time’s his fault

Jeff or “young” Ray cannot retire too much going on for that talk !

its ok their as happy as a pig in muck as long as left to get on! Fury’s and Tempest’s Ray is in heaven

So the way I see it is Canada needs to conduct QRA over a large area against Tu-95, Tu-22, Tu-160 and airliners. The airforce has a wish to be able to carry out strike ops if and when needed in support of NATO. I feel Trench 3 Typhoons with CFT’s and AESA radar, PIRATE, meteor or AIM-120 is the best option open for the QRA need. Typhoon would also give the RCAF a capable A2G type able to carry LGB’s , Brimstone, Storm shadow, JDAM, targeting pods plus more

Hi,
A friend of mine owns one of the Mustangs that were used for this film. It is 44-72773, registered as G-SUSY around the time of filming, wearing the film identity AJ-C. It had the name “Susy” around that time, though it did not wear it for the film.
I did some research about the Mustangs used for the filming of “Memphis Belle”. It is quite missleading, since two of the Mustangs had their S/N changed for the film.
I am still not 100% sure if all is correct, but anyway, here is my list, with S/N, film identity, name and civilian registration at the time of filming:

44-72216, AJ-L, “Miss L”, G-BIXL
44-72773, AJ-C, “Susy” (name not worn for filming), G-SUSY
44-73149 (44-63221 for filming), AJ-S, “Moose” on the left side of the nose, “Candyman” on the right side of the nose, N51JJ
44-73877, AJ-N, “Cisco”, N167F
A68-195 (44-72917 for filming), AJ-A, “Ding Hao!”, G-HAEC
44-14154, HO, “Petie 2nd”, N314BG
45-11371, VF-S, “Sunny VIII”, G-BIXL

All of them are P-51Ds, by the way, except for AJ-A which is a CA-18 Mk.22. The first five of them were painted in olive drab for the filming. The last two retained their original colors and were allegedly only filmed while they were in the background of bigger formations.

When my friend bought his Mustang 44-72773 a few years ago, he gave her the identity of “Lucky Lady VII”, which was a P-51D that was flown during the war by Capt. Ernie Bankey of the 385th Fighter Squadron, 364th Fighter Group, an “ace in a day” who had a total of 10.5 confirmed air-to-air combat kills to his credit.
My friend’s Mustang wore this identity until this winter. He has recently had it repainted into “See Me Later”, a P-51D flown during the war by Lt. Willbur Eaton of 335th Fighter Squadron, 4th Fighter Group.

Here is a picture of 44-72773 in its “Lucky Lady VII” identity. I haven’t had a chance to take pics of it in its new colors yet.

Hi
if you look at the photos I posted on post 249 your friends P-51 is the closest in shot

You’re severely underestimating the threat of a sixth generation bomber.

Firstly who has a Sixth gen Bomber. Second when if at all will it come on line. Third Russia are talking about a new run of Tu-160 and this is not a sure thing

also all this talk of drop tanks the key word is drop if we go with the fact that if we fit them a type is no longer a fighter then some of the best fighter types the world has seen were not fighters at all. I know of 2 times when the RAF have had to clean the wing of tanks to chase down targets.

The point stands and if you think that the RCAF operates twin engine aircraft in the vast remotes of the north without SAR cover you are mistaken. Aircrew are also trained to survive in these environments and have the basic skills and equipment necessary to survive for the day or two they may be on the ground.

As for the UK, given the only single engine fighter aircraft they have operated in the last 30 years is the Harrier I think we can both agree that the twin engine jets were more optimal for QRA than the alternative.

Lightning , Tornado F3, Typhoon and F4 were all ordered if the task in mind

Sure, but when the CF-18 was chosen the other competitor in the competition was the F-16. Clearly even in 1979 the Canadians were not adverse to operating a single engine jet, else their requirements even then would have excluded single engine aircraft.

Not sure what you’re trying to say here?

The truly funny part of this whole single engine versus twin engine argument is it doesn’t matter where you are, if you lose an engine in a single fighter you are going to struggle. Being in the north of Canada doesn’t matter anymore than being in the middle of continental USA. If we look at the most numerous western fighter from the last generation, far and away it is the F-16, with more sold than any other fourth gen and more than the twin-engined F-15 and F-18 combined. Fear of a single engine has not stopped nations from purchasing the F-16 and it won’t stop Canada from choosing a single engine aircraft.

Are you on drugs if you go down in the US you are no more 2 hours from being picked up. Go down over the remote north of Canada you could be there for a day or two the RAF have used twins for QRA since the 60’s as its crews conduct that task over a large remote area that will not change and that is why Typhoon is staying in numbers