1946: NX1202, Paul Mantz, #46 "Excalibur" air racer
1946: Bendix Race 2,048 miles: 1st Place at 435 mph, Paul Mantz pilot
1947: Bendix Race 2,048 miles: 1st Place at 460 mph! Paul Mantz pilot
1947: Set coast-coast speed records (both directions) as "Blaze of Noon"
1948: #60 "The Houstonian"
1948: Bendix Race 2,044 miles: 2nd Place by 10 sec at 446 mph. Flown by Linton Carny, Mantz flew 1st Place N1204
1949: #60 Bendix Race 2,008 miles: 3rd Place at 449mph. Flown by Herman Salmon
1950: N1202, Charles Blair / Pan American World Airways, flew as "Excalibur III"
1951: 31 Jan - Record flight from NY to London, 7 hours 48 minutes
1951: 29 May - Record flight from Bardufoss Norway over North Pole to Fairbanks AK in 10 hours 27 minutes
1951: Record flight from Fairbanks AK to NY NY, 9.5 hours
1952: Charles Blair awarded the Harmon International Trophy by President Harry Truman
1953: purchased by Pan American (date circa)
1953: donated to Smithsonian Institution, NASM
1977: restoration
1988: on display at California Museum of Science/Industry
2000: moved to NASM, Washington DC
2004: on display at Udvar-Hazy Center, NASM
The Last of the Wild Horses
P-51 Survivors book featuring images from Dick Phillips and John Dienst, with Mark Phillips.
To order, goto The Last of the Wild Horses. You can order online.
Price is $100 for pages and pages of P-51 Survivor history and photos. Over 2,500 photos!
The late Dick Phillips shared hundreds of his P-51 images with us at MustangsMustangs over the last 25 years. If you can, help support his life-long passion. I recently ordered my copy.
Thank you!
Curtis Fowles, MustangsMustangs