In a groundbreaking collaboration with the Imperial War Museum at Duxford, Bottisham Airfield Museum has taken delivery of its first complete airframe – a P-51 Mustang.
It is the first complete Mustang to be resident at Bottisham for 77 years since the 361st Fighter Group left Bottisham in late September 1944.
The Mustang is a highly accurate Fibreglass replica that started life in the UK in the window of a large department store in Bond Street London, before being rescued by Mark and Ray Hanna of the Old Flying Machine Company and brought to Duxford. It was then acquired by the Imperial War Museum and displayed on a pole in the American Air Museum for many years.
The intention now is to do some much needed maintenance work, install some new undercarriage legs and re-paint it in authentic 361st FG markings. We hope to have it on display fully later in the season, but visitors will be able to see it as work progresses over the next few weeks.
The museum is grateful to the following for their assistance in making this superb acquisition happen:
John Brown (IWM), Rebecca Harding (IWM), Tom Turner (IWM), Paul Ford, Clive Denny, Joe Kennedy, Stewart Clifford and Graham Buchanan.