SunLive Competition

The Tauranga City Airshow ‘Classics of the Sky’ is the first major public outing for the recently completed T51 Mustang aircraft.

Tauranga man Marty Cantlon owns the aircraft, which took about three years to build, and it is one of two Mustang kit aircraft flying at the airshow.

Test pilot Phil Hooker says in total there are three Mustangs flying at the show.

“There’s a real mustang, which is a P51 – there’s two of those flying for Warbirds NZ.

“Then there’s the purple Thunder Mustang, which Simon Gault’s got, that’s the plastic kit.

“Then there’s the T51 that I was flying the other day, which is a metal one.

“The T51 is powered by a V6 Honda 3.5 litre engine delivering 230hp.

“The Thunder Mustang has a V12 engine delivering 640hp compared with the original’s 1490hp Packard/Merlin V12.

Simon’s Gault’s Thunder Mustang is a five-eighths size replica and has a lot more grunt than the T51, says Phil who notes the T51 is a smaller aircraft and requires less engine power.

It is a three-quarter size Titan all-metal kitset aircraft and has just recently received certification.

“The war ones all had bulletproof armour plating because people use to shoot at those ones."

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Competition Results

Sue Groenewald