One of the highlights at this year’s Flying Legends airshow was North American P-51B Mustang ‘Berlin Express’, which was flown across the Atlantic from Texas. Chris Gilson meets its pilot Lee Lauderback.
Among the most recognisable warbirds flying today is North American P-51B 43-24837 Berlin Express. The veteran fighter, one of the few early marks of Mustang still flying and unusually fitted with a Malcolm canopy, has long proved to be a favourite with airshow crowds and, this year, was booked to perform at the famous Flying Legends weekend at Duxford. The question then became how to get it across the Atlantic in time?
Convention normally dictates that a warbird is meticulously dismantled, packed safely in crates and reassembled carefully on the other side of ‘the pond’. This time, things weren’t going to be that simple, and after some discussion between the Mustang’s owner Dan Friedkin and well-known P-51 operator Stallion 51, it was decided to fly the veteran over the water in a series of legs from Texas in the heart of America to rural Cambridgeshire in the middle of Great Britain.
To everyone involved there was only one person for the task, Lee Lauderback – the owner of Stallion 51, and probably …
