Red Tails

[Rallye Driver]

At North Weald the Hangar 11 Collection's P-51D Mustang is a Red Tails veeran, and was repainted as 'Tall-In-The-Saddle' earlier this year.

On 4 October we welcomed a very special visitor – Colonel George Hardy – who flew as part of the 332nd Fighter Group, the Tuskegee Airmen and whose wartime mount was the same P51D Mustang 'Tall-In-The-Saddle'. He even supplied original photographs so that the scheme was 100% accurate.

George is a real gentleman, very friendly and easy to talk to. He described his combat missions over Germany, escorting B-24 Liberators even as far as Berlin from Italy with the 15th Air Force. He also served in the Korean War as a co-pilot on B-29 bombers, and commanded a unit of Fairchild C-119 Flying Boxcar gunships in the Vietnam War conducting nighttime missions in search of transport on the Ho Chi Minh Trail.

He is now 91 years old, although you would never know it and lives in Florida. He was in the UK for a week and was been re-acquainted with his Mustang several times. Peter Teichman flew him to Lakenheath that afternoon, where he was guest of honour of modern day fighter pilots with the USAF. Getting into the back of a Mustang is not easy for someone of his advanced years, so he returned by road.