A more than 51% 51
By Randy Dufault
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From the outside it is
difficult to tell that Gerry Beck’s P-51A is just a few months
old. Photo by Phil Weston |
Gerry Beck faced a
dilemma with his most recent airplane project. It could technically be a
restoration, but a quick scan of the rules made it pretty clear that it
qualified as an amateur-built airplane and could be certificated that
way.
The key difference
between Beck’s project and many others is that his homebuilt is a P-51
Mustang. More specifically it is a P-51A, the first version of the
venerable warbird. An Allison V-12 engine, instead of the more-commonly
found Rolls-Royce V-12 Merlin Mustang powerplant, powers it.
"A number of years
ago we were doing a restoration of a C model [Mustang] for the
Commemorative Air Force, said Beck. "At the same time we owned a
P-40, the two projects came together at the same time and I just fell in
love with that razorback look on the Mustang. And operationally this
Allison engine is just a sweetheart.
"I thought, ‘why
not build an Allison-powered Mustang?’"
"The original idea
was to slap an Allison engine on a C-model fuselage and attach it to a
D-model wing. We’d build a cheap Mustang."
Several years ago Beck
brought a C-model fuselage here to AirVenture and told people what he
was planning to do. The fuselage was back the next year with the engine
mount and tail completed.
Next on the construction
list was the scoop and the radiator, parts that differed significantly
between the A model and later variants.
"I would have ended
up building all bogus parts to adapt that C-model fuselage to the
A-model look, and the more I looked at it, and the more I thought about
it, it just isn’t right to do that."
So Beck took a step back
and made the decision to build the Mustang from scratch. Working from
original North American drawings, he built a complete set of tooling to
make new P-51A parts.
A well-known rebuilder of
P-51s and other warbirds in his Whapeton, North Dakota, shop, Beck
already had jigs and other fixtures he could adapt to assemble the new
parts.
The result of that effort
is on display at AeroShell Square. A homebuilt airplane built from plans
and certificated as Experimental Amateur-built.
To make sure all the
regulatory details were in order, Beck simply ordered an Amateur-built
Certification kit from EAA and followed the checklist.
There are a few
production parts on the plane. All versions of the Mustang use the same
landing gear and the same rudder, so Beck did take advantage of that
fact, but there was absolutely no question he had completed more than 51
percent of the construction.
Amateur-built airplanes
are assigned a serial number by their builder. In deference to the 310
P-51As originally constructed, Beck assigned serial number 311 to his
plane.
As with any other
homebuilt, the plane was required to fly for 40 hours under a number of
restrictions, including the restrictions that apply whenever the
particular engine and propeller combination have not been part of a
certificated airframe.
Beck stayed true to the
plans, even when doing so was a significant challenge. "The canopy
was a real nemesis," he said. "There’s 1,200 individual
pieces [in it] and it’s unbelievable how complex it is." The
P-51A canopy was equipped with a conglomeration of separate windows and
hatches instead of the more familiar clear bubble used on the P-51D.
One departure from the
original is the propeller. "The true A models had a Curtiss
electric propeller. Those are rarer than hen’s teeth and more
expensive than whatever," Beck said. "So we went to a Ham
Standard, basically off of a DC-3. Operationally the Ham Standard is
bulletproof and they are readily available."
Beck’s construction
timeline was always based on bringing the airplane to Oshkosh this year,
but he had a little extra incentive when the producers of the movie, Thunder
Over Reno, asked to use his aircraft in their film, which is set for
release next summer. Filming for the movie completed about a month ago.
The plane is on display
here in the paint scheme it sported in the movie. Its final appearance
has not been determined, but it will be military in nature.
When questioned what he
might do with the now-complete set of tooling, Beck indicated that would
depend on how much interest he sees here in the plane. "A complete
kit is pretty unlikely, it’s just too complex," he said.
"And I don’t want to write the assembly manual.
"We may consider
some sort of kit with a few of the major assemblies already done. It
would take some special skills to put it together, but there’s a lot
of talent out there.
"The hard part is done. It seems
like it would be foolish to just build one plane."
