Hobby Master Archive

Later in WWII the Allied bombers were flying deep into Germany but suffered tremendous losses because of the lack of range the fighter escorts had. German fighters would wait beyond the range of the Allied fighters and then attack the vulnerable bombers. Once the P-51 called Mustang by the British had the Allison engine replaced with a British Merlin it possessed the high performance that had been lacking. With drop tanks the P-51 had the range to escort bombers all the way to Berlin and back.

Robin Olds had 6 kills and 270 hours of combat flying when he completed his first tour of WWII on November 9, 1944. On January 15, 1945 Olds returned to England and became Operations Manager of the 434th FS and on February 9, 1945 was promoted to Major. On April 13, 1945 Major Olds was flying P-51 “Scat VI” 411746 along with 4 other P-51s making strafing runs on a German test site. Due to extreme flak Olds was the only aircraft to make it out but without his right flap and two large portions of the wing. He managed to limp back to home base but instead of bailing out he somehow managed to land the P-51. Scat VI was so badly damaged it was beyond repair. After WWII Robin Olds had 24.5 victories of which 13 were aerial kills. Robin Olds was credited with 4 more victories in the Vietnam War.

The name Scat came from Robin Olds’ room mate at West Point, Scat Davis. When Olds found out Scat would never be a pilot because of an eye problem Robin told Scat that every time he flew Scat would be with him. So from that day on Robin Olds’ aircraft all had Scat and a number. Scat Davis became an infantry man and was killed by a mortar just after the end of the Battle of the Bulge. Olds’ last aircraft was F-4 Scat XXVII. Why XXVII, General Olds said it had been about 27 years between flights and it sounded like a good number. General Olds passed in 2007.

Specifications for the North American Aviation P-51D Mustang Tasks - Dive-bomber, bomber-escort, ground-attack, interceptor, photo recon Number Produced All Variants - 14,819 Dimensions Wing Span - 37 ft (11.27 m) Length - 32 ft 3 in (9.82 m) Height - 13 ft 8 in (4.16 m)

Weight Empty - 7,125 lb (3,232 kg) Gross - 10,100 lb (4,581 kg) Maximum Take-off - 11,600 lb (5,262 kg)

Performance Engine - Packard Merlin two-staged supercharged V-1650-7, 12 cylinder V engine 1,695 hp. Maximum Speed - 437 mph (703 km/h) Ceiling - 41,900 ft (12,771 m) Range - 950 miles (1,529 km) Maximum Range - 2,300 miles (3,701 km)

Armament (6) .50 caliber MG Maximum External Bomb Load - 2,000 lb (907 kg) Or (4) .5 inch rockets.

Hobby Master 1/48 Air Power Series HA7724 P-51D Mustang 411746 “SCAT VI”, 434th FS, 479th FG, Feb 1945 Several references have serial 44-72922 belonging to Scat VI but they would be wrong. 44-72922 belonged to Scat VII that survived WWII and is privately owned and has been flown several times by General Olds in a non-military fashion. There are sites on You Tube that show General Olds talkng about Scat VII with him telling the serial as 44-72922. Also an interview with the owner of Scat VII and pictures of the aircraft. Scat VII video Scat VII with owner and video Inormation about Scat VII

1/48 scale pre-finished Die-cast metal with a minimum of plastic. Professionally painted. All markings pad applied for superb results. Cockpit slides open. Comes with a pilot that can be removed. Comes with display stand. Can be displayed with landing gear up or down.