Reno Air Race Crash, is the answer in this pic Options

[bill]

This is a photo of the P-51 just before the crash

anyone else notice something bad ?

(IMG:http://assets.nydailynews.com/img/2011/09/17/alg_p-51-mustang-upside-down.jpg)

[Devilsadvocate]

I remember building a pretty neat model of a P-51 about 40 years ago; it had a mechanism for the landing-gear-- and the tailwheel definitly could be retracted, with two doors to close off the wheel-well.

Would an extended tailwheel help to push the tail towards the ground (considering that the plane was upside-down) and thus help to gain altitude?
Could the pilot have done that on purpose...?

I'm wondering what kind of engine that thing had.
My dad worked in a fuel-depot around the late fifties; since he had a motor-bike, one of his workmates told him of a tin underneath a leaking pipe: free Fuel!
He took the first tin he saw and filled his tank from it.

Evidently the bike went off like merry hell-- for a few hundred yards... Before blowing the cylinder-gasket.

Unfortunately, there had been more than one leaking pipe...
And this one turned out to be JP-4. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/pilotfly.gif)

He said that on closer examination that stuff was kind of oily like Diesel- but it evaporated faster than petrol.

Strange that there was no explosion or fire after that crash.

This post has been edited by Devilsadvocate: Sep 18 2011, 11:13 PM