Bye, bye Mary!
Ultimate Warbird Flights at Sywell, UK, is obviously performing a Mustang shuffle. Thanks to our man on the spot, Nigel Harrison, Scramble can reveal the dismantling and loading of Mustang 44-84847 (c/n 124-44703) which seems to be bound for the USA. To most of us this plane is known as G-TFSI which used to fly as '44-14251''Contrary Mary' with code 'WZ-I'. The registration G-TFSI was only recently, on 30 November, cancelled from the CAA register.
Through her move Mary will make room for the new Sywell resident, Australian built Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation CA-18 VH-MFT, on the arrival of which Scramble reported on 7 November 2023. But why replace one Mustang by another? One of the reasons could be that Mary is a full dual control TF-51 which can be used for training on the Mustang, which makes it more valuable than Snifter which is 'just' a two seat P-51. Ultimate Warbird Flights concentrates on passenger flights, not on type training.
At this moment, Scramble is not aware of the future owner of Mustang 44-84847. But it is destined to receive a new livery, as the identity of 'WZ-I' was already roughly removed.
For the record: Mustang 44-84847 was built too late to see combat service in World War Two. It was actually one of the last Mustangs constructed at North American Aviation’s Dallas (TX) plant. Details of her post war service career are limited, but there is photographic evidence, from September 1951, of her serving with the 45th Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron at Kimpo, South Korea, during the Korean War. By late 1951 the 45th TRS were replacing their aging Mustangs with RF-80 Shooting Star jets, and so 44-84847 was shipped back the US to serve with the Air National Guard until around 1956.
Around this time she slips off the radar until January 1999 when she re-appears in North Dakota as restoration project N251RJ. The airframe moved to Fighter Rebuilders in Chino (CA) in 2005 for a full restoration with the decision made to modify her to two-seat TF-51D configuration. As 'Miss Velma' the fighter made its first post restoration flight on 25 May 2007 and was delivered to its new owner The Fighter collection the next month. It was reregistered as G-TFSI in 2014 and sold to Anglia Aircraft Restorations Ltd, North Weald, later Sywell in 2016. After a wheels-up forced landing on a farm near Duxford on 9 July 2017 G-TFSI was repaired and received a new identity, that of '44-14251'/'WZ-I' 'Contrary Mary'. Since 2018 'Mary' has been active for Ultimate Warbird Flights.
Photos: Nigel Harrison