Interesting that the fatal aircraft was not a restored production machine but a new amateur home built machine. Construction completed in May 2006. Some people have time and/or money. Unfortunate to end this way.
Edited to add - Gerry Beck’s new build P-51A, c/n 311, N8082U flew on 7 June with Gerry himself at the controls saying that “It is a great flying plane - seems lighter than a D model. It is very fast, the D flying along side was running 2350 and 37 inches to keep up while I was at 2000 and 30 inches”. Gerry describes the aircraft as the ‘ultimate homebuild’ which he put together over six years from original North American Aviation plans with modifi cations required made for safety, serviceability and longer service life. With the exception of a small handful of parts such as gear legs, trunion casting, other assorted castings and small parts, the entire airframe was built from scratch, including the wing. With parts for an additional 9 aircraft made during the building process the future looks bright for the rarest of the Mustang stable!
From
http://www.classicwings.com/issues/C...ngs_Sample.pdf