North American P-51 Mustang in New Zealand service
New Zealand ordered 130 Mustangs in early 1945 but the first 30 of these were placed in storage when they arrived in the country later in the year due to the end of the war.
In 1951, the stored Mustangs were assembled for use by the New Zealand Territorial Air Force and equipped four of its fighter squadrons until withdrawn from service in 1955.
[2][3] In early 1945 the New Zealand government purchased 130 P-51D Mustangs,[Note 1] to be delivered towards the end of the year at a cost of US$61,000 per aircraft plus shipping expenses.
[2] At the time of their purchase, the intention was for the P-51Ds to operate alongside, and then replace, the Vought F4U Corsair fighter bombers being used by the Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF) in the Southwest Pacific theatre of operations, supporting United States forces during the Solomon Islands campaign.
[10] The remaining Mustangs, seven in total, were assembled and placed in storage at Rukuhia to be called upon as replacement aircraft for the TAF.
[12] The Mustangs were a natural metal finish when first assembled but then had the majority of its upper and flight surfaces painted in silver; the remainder of the aircraft was polished.
[19] In July, it was announced that all Mustangs would be withdrawn from service and the following month they were transported or flown to the RNZAF base at Woodbourne for long-term storage.
4 Technical Training School while the airframe of another was designated for use as a target on the Ohakea air base gunnery range.
It had been intended to replace the Mustangs with de Havilland Vampires but this did not eventuate and the TAF squadrons operated Harvards until their disbandment in 1957.
[22] In August 1957, the 19 surviving Mustangs stored at Woodbourne were put up for tender along with other surplus RNZAF aircraft.
[11] One of the complete Mustangs, NZ2417, purchased by J. McDonald and R. M. Fechney, was rebuilt and, with sponsorship from Mobil, was used on 4 February 1965 to break the air-speed record for the flight from Dunedin to Auckland.
[11] It remains airworthy in the United States as N921 with Fantasy of Flight, marked as Major George Preddy's aircraft Cripes A' Mighty 3rd.
Since none of the original aircraft as used by the RNZAF were available for the museum to acquire, the displayed Mustang was sourced from the Indonesian Air Force in 1985 and rebuilt as a P-51D.
