old plane to me. well, this, united states wasn t doing well in air plain design until 1943 when, because most fighter planes were under powered so what the army air corps did is they took a merlin engine from royal air force, stuck it into the p-51. overnight this thing performance of the aircraft became remarkable. and what what is more remarkable is that it was an outstanding dog fighter from the deck, all the way up to 25 and 30,000 feet. it s not only fastest and best turning and most versatile fighter of the war with the best air to air ratio but could fly as the old saying goes throughout the entire enblem. what plane replaced it?. the plane continued to fly into korean warks greta. it wasn t retired from
grim news. and what can you tell me about this p-51 mustang? it is made by north american aircraft corporation probably the most-famous american fighter plane in world war ii. the first plane we put in the air over european area of operation that could outfight the best fighter planes the germans had but in addition, it had fuel capacity to escort bombers, b 17s and b 24s to berlin and back. beginning march, 1944, the casualty rights for crews plummeted and p-51 became the courage of the fleet but also the guardian angel of our formation over europe. greta: looking at the planes they look alike. i had been fortunate to chase an f-16. i can see how it s different. but why was this one so popular? it looks frankly just like an
do you know anything about that specific type of aircraft or even that general type of vintage aircraft? the p-51 was the mainstay in world war ii. it was a well renowned aircraft that escorted the planes. these aircraft are highly modified. though the base aircraft may be a p-51, this airplane is highly modified with very large engines. the aerodynamic characteristics and control babilty is substantially changed because of racing. because they re racing at high speeds they need to have more responsive flight controls. the base aircraft is a p-51. when you look at it, it s been highly modified. so, you know, there are other world war ii vintage aircraft flying, the p-51, the bear cats, there s the sea fury. there are a number of world war
racing pilot. he s flown more than 120 races and served as a stunt pilot for numerous movies. in an interview with the ocala star banner last year, he described how he has flown 250 types of planes and has a particular fondness for the p-51. they re more fun, more speed, more challenge. speed, speed and more speed. terms of the event that this happened at, the associated press describes it as like a car race in the sky. with planes flying wing tip to wing tip as low as 50 feet off the sage brush at speeds sometimes surpassing 500 miles per hour. pilots follow an oval path around pylons with distances and speeds depending on the class of aircraft. ntsb a former ntsb we spoke with told us that there is no other air race exactly like this in the country. in terms of what we know about injuries and deaths, the person who is the head of the air racing association that puts on this event said that pilot was
concrete information i would say any minute now. i think it goes without saying that it s basically a scene of shock here. these air races have been going on for decades and there have been pilots who have crashed before, but nothing like what has taken place today. we, as you have told your audience, a p-51 has gone down into an area where we would think that maybe dozens of people were watching the air races. so in years past, the crashes have not involved bystanders. where it looks like today that has been the case. so i ve also heard some people wondering, you know, could this be the end of the air races, with something like this happening? but it s too soon, of course, to get into that. that is for another day. right now we want to know more about how many people were injured and if anyone died today, unfortunately, or maybe how many people died. and it looks like the news conference is about to get under way any minute now. and if you would like to come back to me later in your s