Projects         On of my favorite planes is a P-51 Mustang from an ARF kit manufactured by Great Planes and sold through Tower Hobbies.  This plane has a 57 inch wing span and is designed to fly with a .40 - .46 engine.   I felt it might not perform real well with the small motor so  I installed a Thunder Tiger .65 GP  because I wanted to fly the plane using a 4-blade prop.  I thought the extra displacement would be useful when spinning the extra blades.  The muffler is home made and is contained for almost completely inside the cowl.   It looks like I was right!  The plane performs beautifully with the 4-blade prop and the .65 idles down to 1900-2000 rpm.  It has a mellow exhaust tone and it will go straight up until I tell it to stop.  It lands like a trainer . . . this thing is sweet!

Although it is not to exact scale because of the invasion stripes and numbers, I painted the tail of this bird red and installed a red spinner.  This was the paint scheme of the Tuskegee Airmen who were the first black combat fighter pilots in WWII.  I won't get into the story in detail, but you may already know that these pilots had to endure racial prejudice and insults to prove themselves.  As the 332nd Fighter Group, they eventually flew bomber escort for the 15th Air Force.  In this role as bomber escort, the 332nd never lost a bomber to enemy fighters.  Bomber crews who were about to go out on a mission, specifically requested that the "Red Tails" fly bomber escort for them.