Mustang ‘Little Rebel’s first flight

Congratulations to Steve Stead, the owner of North American P-51D ‘Little Rebel’ OO-PSI. He made a successful first post-restoration flight in his warbird taking off from the airfield of Brasschaat (Belgium) on 17 March 2023.

It is amazing that this first flight has taken place only about one year after its arrival in Belgium on 6 March 2022. The relative short period of restoration is a proof of the great skills of the engineers of FAST Aero. A report on the progress in the restoration was published by Scramble on 16 July 2022.

Mustang OO-PSI is former USAAF 45-11495 (c/n 124-48248). It is painted in the colours of Mustang 44-13737 ‘Little Rebel’, a so-called ‘blue-noser’ with code ‘PZ-W’ as was flown by Charles ‘Buck’ Pattillo, one the pilots of 486th FS, one of the three Fighter Squadrons in the USAAF 352nd Fighter Group. Before receiving its Belgian registration, the Mustang used to be registered as N5551D.

Photo taken from a video by Steve Stead.