twilighttear

P-51D "Twilight Tear" Twilight Tear was flown by Lt. Hubert "Bill" Davis

....P-51D-20-NA, Construction Number 122-31590, USAAF 44-63864 was built at North American Aviations Inglewood factory in a production batch of 1000 airplanes comprising serial numbers 44-63160/64159. She was delivered to the 78th Fighter Group (FG) based at Duxford, England on the 14 December 1944, and subsequently allocated to the 83rd Fighter Squadron (FS)as HL-W. the aircraft was the mount of one Lt. Hubert "Bill" Davis and renamed "Twighlight Tear". Lt. Davis had received a private education in England prior to the outbreak of war and by war end had been credited with four confirmed aerial kills, called it Twilight Tear after a racehorse and flew 35 combat missions in it. Twilight Tear remained at Duxford until the end of the war. In the late 1940s, the Swedish government purchased surplus Mustangs to equip the Swedish Air Force. In 1953 Twilight Tear was sold and this time, was ferried to Israel, via Athens and Rome. The Mustang served with the Israeli Defense Force until being retired in 1961. TT was acquired by the Duxford-based Fighter Collection in April 2002, while the aircraft was undergoing a thorough overhaul, her true identity was discovered - Twilight Tear had come home.

Bob Davis, son of WWII fighter pilot Lt Hubert Davis, sits in his father's actual aircraft some fifty-nine years later at the press launch for Duxford's Flying Legends Airshow.

Model construction

2006-07-30 - Pacific Scaled Aircraft P-51 exhaust manifold kit - this kit replaces the vacuum formed parts in the Top Flite kit or arf. These new exhausts are non functional but really improve the look of the exhaust manifolds. I used spray cans - copper, greay and black to get the finish I wanted, took three nights to get the exhausts done.

contact Tony Howard at Pacific Scaled Aircraft to obtain an exhaust manifold kit for your 1/5 Top Flite P51D kit or arf..

2006-07-22 - Low passes at the fabulous Rainy River Fly-In photos by Marc Sharpe

2005-07-01 - Twilight Tear P51 and City of Wpg P51's and the Harvard at Asessippi Fly-In. another super fly-in we travel to every year.

2005-06-20 - Twilight Tear P51 photos taken by Rob Bye, an superb photographer who happened to drop by our club field one day.

2005-06-10 - The R52 has been returned to the factory, the engine is overheating and deadsticking thus Twilight Tear is in the shop.

2005-03-12 - We test ran the Revolution 52cc with the scale exhausts from Kelo Creations on P-51D Twilight Tear ( "Twilight Tear" ). This completed arf model from Top Flite weighs 21.5 pounds less fuel, ready to fly. Dave Miller is giving me a helping had.

KK with Twilight Tear at the Gathering of Mustangs, September 2007

February 18, 2005 Two piece modification for Top Flite P-51 arf.

I took Jeff Esslingers's idea and went with a two piece wing. A front wing bolt (10/24) goes horizontally through the wheel well, through the root ribs and into a maple flat piece (tapped for 10/24) This bolt and with the LE bulkhead dowels keeps the front end of the wing together. I used a piece of 1/4" aluminum plate at the rear to bolt the wing down plug keep the 2 wing halves together. I also added a rear dowel for alignment.

The radiator scoop plugs in like a Extra canopy with two short dowels and a bolt to fasten it on the wing bottom. The front lip of the rad catches the lite ply tangs on the wing bottom.

Nov. 14, 2004 - The scale exhausts from Kelo Creations are mounted with the Revolution52. The fit is excellent out of the box!