This is a repaint for the generic/stock P-51D Mustang included in the full version of the Reno Air Races expansion for MSFS 2020, as well as the P-51D Mustang included by default in MSFS 2024. This repaint depicts the restored North American P-51D / CAC CA-18 Mk.21 Mustang, RAAF serial no. A68-110, named 'Jersey Jerk', registered as G-JERK and operated by Ultimate Warbird Flights at Sywell Aerodrome in the United Kingdom.

This repaint has been specially refined for use with the excellent Improvement Mod by Randall Snow, available here.

The restored Mustang 'Jersey Jerk' is registered with the identity of Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation (CAC) CA-18 Mk.21 Mustang, RAAF serial no. A68-110, but it is debatable whether it truly can be considered the original A68-110. The aircraft's existence today began as a collection of Mustang parts which formed a restoration project without provenance/no known identity in the early 1990s, then located in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. In 1994, an Australian by the name of Ed Field purchased the project and in 1995 had it shipped from the USA to Caboolture in Queensland, Australia, where Field's company, Sandora Aviation, was tasked with taking the project and turning it into a flying aircraft. In January 1997 the project was first registered with the identity of A68-110 and given the Australian civil registration VH-MFT. The original A68-110 was built by Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation in Melbourne, Australia, in late 1947, and entered service in February 1948. It spent most of the next seven years with the RAAF in storage, but was damaged in a taxiing accident at RAAF East Sale in July 1955. The aircraft was stripped of all useable parts and the remaining airframe was sold for scrap to R.H. Grant Trading Company in 1957, which at the time was carrying out large scale scrapping on the airfield. What remained or how much of the original A68-110 was incorporated into the restoration has not been verified, although there is no documented history of A68-110 surviving past 1957. As has been done numerous times with other Mustang and warbird restorations, even the smallest parts, especially a data plate, which can be verified via serial number to have originated from a known aircraft, can be used to form a title. In 2002 the restoration was completed and Ed Field took the Mustang aloft for its first test flight on January 24 of that year. Operating in Australia for the next two decades (except for a period of major maintenance/overhaul), the Mustang was painted during this time in the color scheme of another RAAF Mustang, an American-built P-51D (44-84502), RAAF serial no. A68-769, known as 'Snifter', which had served with No 82 Sqdn. RAAF in post-war Japan and No 77 Sqdn. RAAF in Korea.

In 2023 the Mustang was sold to Ultimate Warbird Flights, located at Sywell Aerodrome in England, which operates experience flights with its trio of two-seat warbirds (Spitfire, Buchon and Mustang). Arriving at Sywell in November 2023, the aircraft was soon stripped to bare metal, highly polished, and painted in the color scheme of 'Jersey Jerk', a P-51D which had operated from Britain during World War Two. The original 'Jersey Jerk' was the personal mount of Maj. Donald J. Strait, Commanding Officer of the 361st Fighter Squadron, 356th Fighter Group, 8th Air Force, based at Martlesham Heath. During his two combat tours, Maj. Strait flew a total of 122 missions and scored 13.5 victories, which made him the top ace of the 356th. Following World War Two, Maj. Strait also served as the Squadron Commander and Wing Commander of the New Jersey Air National Guard.

~ Details of Repaint ~

I've tried to make this repaint as faithfully-accurate to the real-world aircraft as possible. This means that, for instance, the drop tank connection stencils are missing from the bottom of the starboard wing but are however applied to the bottom of the port wing, because that's how it is on the real-world aircraft. The same applies as to the reason why the 'No Push' stencil is only present on the port-side of the dorsal fin fillet, because that's how it is on the real-world aircraft. 

You will note that there is a unique contrast between the polished bare metal fuselage and the dull silver-painted wings and horizontal tail surfaces. This is accurate to how the real-world aircraft is painted, and is mostly historically accurate too. During original wartime factory production, every P-51 had its wings "profiled", meaning that the first 40% of the wing was filled and sanded smooth (to cover over panel lines, rivets, screws and any other imperfections). This was North American Aviation's effort to try and maximize the effectiveness of laminar flow. Of course early in the war, when all USAAF aircraft were camouflaged, the wing filler/putty was covered by the camouflage paint, but when Mustangs were no longer painted and simply left bare metal, the wings were painted dull silver instead, in order to continue to protect the filled surface while also most closely matching the bare metal finish of the rest of the aircraft. Since the ailerons, flaps and landing gear doors did not receive such treatment, they remained bare metal. Where as the restored 'Jersey Jerk' has silver-painted horizontal tail surfaces and elevators, originally these would have been bare metal during World War Two (it is likely they're painted on the restoration simply to reduce the amount of metal polishing required).

There are a couple of small compromises with this repaint due to texture mapping and the specific details of the model. Because the Asobo/Microsoft P-51D has the later-production canopy frame modeled, it has the larger canopy release handles, as opposed to the restored (and original) 'Jersey Jerk' which has the earlier canopy frame with a small canopy release button. As a result, in my repaint the "victory" markings on the canopy had to be pushed further back along the canopy frame due to the location and size of the later canopy release handle. Also, on the MSFS 2020 version, there are some small red squares that you might see in a small region of the static prop spinner - that is because that particular location on the textures used for the static prop spinner model is also used by the animated/spinning prop spinner model. Therefore, if I were to remove those small red squares from the static prop spinner, the spinning prop spinner would lack the red stripes. This is not present on the MSFS 2024 version, due to the difference in the way the spinning prop/spinner is handled.

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P-51D Mustang Jersey Jerk (G-JERK)

This add-on provides a highly detailed repaint of the P-51D Mustang, representing the restored aircraft known as Jersey Jerk, currently operated by Ultimate Warbird Flights at Sywell Aerodrome in the UK. The livery is faithfully recreated based on the real-world aircraft, including unique historical and restoration details such as polished bare metal and silver-painted surfaces. This repaint is compatible with both the Reno Air Races expansion and default P-51D in MSFS 2024, and is refined for use with Randall Snow's Improvement Mod. Some minor compromises are noted due to model limitations in Microsoft Flight Simulator.

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