PADARCS

Fabulous photos! Thank you so much Ryan for posting them so quickly for us. We can turn them around the right way up when necessary so that is no problem and they come up large enough on our computers. How to get them to come up larger on the forum I'm not really sure....but for me what you have posted is just excellent. The newspaper articles are particularly interesting. I'm assuming that is your grandfather sitting in it?

Regards Ryan ps I have plenty of pics of it during the build process Hi Ryan. You are a true champion! The mystery is solved at last! I'm sure everyone here will have greatly appreciated you making this post. I have found it hard to get this 'aircraft' out of my head in the three years or so since I first asked about it but now I can rest easy with most of my questions about it now answered. I will give a copy of your post to my hunter friend (he doesn't have the internet) and he will be very interested, especially the location as he had no recollection of where he had taken the photograph so long ago. Now, of course, I am going to ask you if you can post some of the photos of it being built. All of us will be looking forward to seeing them. One thing is for sure.......your grandfather's work was remarkably accurate, so accurate that neither I or any of my flying friends suspected that it was anything other than a genuine Mustang from the side on shot that my hunter friend took of it. What a remarkable effort over so many years! And what a great mystery it has been for us to solve. Thanks again Ryan. You have really made my day. Richard

Thanks willedoo. He was just passing through on a hunting trip so he has no idea of where it was except that he's certain that it was in South Australia. We used very high magnification to get those numbers off the photo. With those, and the name Stardust, it should be easy to track down. Very frustrating eh? Let's hope someone will recognise it. It amazes me that such a pristine looking example is not easily found in the records. Thanks for your effort to identify it willedoo. padarcs

A hunting friend of mine stunned me recently when he showed me this photo. It was taken on a hunting expedition in South Australia, probably in the 1970s. This aircraft looks to be in such excellent condition. I have researched Aussie Mustangs as well as I have been able to but I haven't found anything to match this one. Under high magnification the name STARDUST can be seen on the cowling and the number 072 just before that word. The number 4706072 is on the rear fuselage just before the 'A'. Does anyone know anything about this aircraft? I thought I had a record of every Mustang which had been flown as a civilian aircraft in this country but this one is a completely new one on me. I cannot sleep for fretting about this. Please help!