Ver 1.1
This Liverie is for the Aeroplane Heaven P51D Mustang.
This pack contains 3 of the liveries this aircraft was painted in trough it,s serving, first in the USAAF at the end of WW2, and then in the Swedish Airforce during the first years of the Cold War.
1: "Sierra Sue II"
2: "Gul Kalle"
3: "Grön Kalle"
P-51D-20-NA manufactured at Nort American Inglewood plant California, with construction number 122-31401 delivered to USAAF in November 1944, given the army Srnr 44-63675.
In Januari it was shipped to Belgium and assigned to 402nd Fighter Squadron 370th Fighter Group 9th AirForce, and given the code E6-D.
1st Lt Robert Bohna was assigned as pilot, and pretty soon had it named "Sierra Sue II" and then got it painted with both the name and the girl... suposedly inspired by a high scool crush?
1942 the Swedish gouverment decided that 5 new hunting flotillas would be made for the Swedish Airforce, as WW2 raging trough Europe, alliance free Sweden saw the need for a strong AirForce...
SAAB aircraft factory was occupied building the divebomber B17, and the medium attac bomber SAAB 18, and FFVS factory had just starting to produce the J22 (who was very similar to the Focke Wulf Fw 109), so Sweden had too look to buy fighter aircrafts in order to expand the airforce.
At the end of the war, finaly the opportunity came to buy american P51´s.
The first 46 of 50 P51´s was delivered to Sweden in april 1945. 4 of those 50 aircrafts was already in Sweden, due to emergency landings during the war.
So The first P51 to be assigned for Swe AF was a P51B (the only P51B to serve), given the Swe reg no 26001, that had emergency landed due to fuel shortage after a escort mission over Stettin. Known as GQ-G "Z HUB".
Over the next three years, Sweden bought a total of 161 P51's, where "Sierra Sue II" was one of the last (No 152 of the 161) to be delivered in june 1948.
The Swedish Airforse designation for the P51 was J26 (J stands for "JAKT" which means fighter/attack) "Sierra Sue II" was asigned to F4 Frösön (ICAO: ESNZ), a former bomber flotilla in Jämtland, now a fighter flotilla as the prev SAAB B17 divebombers was replaced by J26/P51 march 1947.
Sierra Sue was now given the Swe registration/serial number 26152. And assigned to pilot Sten Söderqvist.
Paint stripped off, and repainted with Swe roundels and a yellow K, for the code "Gul Kalle" (Yellow Kilo).
(The colour code give the divission, where yellow was the 3rd div)
What stood out on "Sierra sue" in particular, was that even after the USAAF paint, and the art of Sierra Sue was removed, one could yet clearly see the shadows of the old markings and paint on the bare metal aluminum fuselage...
October 1952 "Gul Kalle" was trancefered to F8 (Royal Svedish Air Flotilla) Barkaby (ICAO: ESKB) , due to that the J26 was being replaced at F4 for fighter jets instead, the J28B DeHavilland Vampire.
Gul Kalle now became Grön Kalle (code Green Kilo) instead, and also got a new name... Kleopatra!
(The green colour was used on staff aircrafts)
1954 is the last year for J26 in the Swedish Airforce. In september the last 12 J26/P51 was sold to Nicaragua. Sierra Sue II/ Gul Kalle / Grön Kalle changed costume once again, to serve at Las Mercedes Air Base Mangua, with the new code GN91. Retired from service 1961 and was put aside...
1971 Siera Sue is sold, and now back to USA California to be an Airracer. Heavely modified and painted red.
1977 Sold again, now to be restored as original. After complete resto 1983, Sierra Sue II is now painted back to its Sierra Sue ww2 markings on the left side, and on the right side a tribiute to the Swedish airforce as Gul Kalle!
2011 sold and once more restored to a complete factory spec P51D by AirCorps Aviation.
2014 she is finaly back to her original looks, once again painted as Robert Bohna had her almost 70years ago!!!
Hope You enjoy!
/GulKalle