NORTH AMERICAN P-51D MUSTANG UNRULY JULIE
A look back at a life defining moment.
I took this photograph of North American P-51D Mustang UNRULY JULIE at the 1985 Luke Air Force Base Open House in Phoenix, Arizona. I was fifteen years old. At the time my mom was a 4-H leader and during my youth I was quite involved in the club doing such activities as cooking, woodworking, sewing, raising rabbits, marksmanship, and the arts – including photography. Mom always had my little brother and I entering competitions related to our activities in 4-H, and that year I entered UNRULY JULIE into the photography competition at the Arizona State Fair. For the contest I had a 20” X 24” print made of the image, which came from the lab rolled up in a cardboard tube. With much anticipation, I unfurled the giant photograph out onto the kitchen table, and upon seeing it my mom promptly proclaimed, “One day you will be a professional photographer.” I won a Rosette for my entry at the fair that year, but I didn’t give a second thought to what my mom had said that day. Being a professional photographer never really entered my mind at the time, even though I had often clipped out interesting photos from magazines to hang on the walls of my bedroom. It was becoming a pilot like my older brother who flew Cobra Attack Helicopters in the United States Marine Corps that captured my imagination most as a kid, and that would spur my passion for aviation and WAR BIRDS.
In my eyes the photograph of UNRULY JULIE was instantly iconic, and it remains one of my favorite photographs to this day. The image was shot on 35mm B/W film with an Olympus OM-1 my parents bought me as a Junior High School graduation gift. I can still remember the day I took the photograph, and looking back with the experience I now have, I know the light was near perfect. It was an overcast day, which made the sky act like a giant soft-box cutting down the harsh highlights and shadows to create the circumstances for an exposure that was ideal for the film’s dynamic range. As with most all of my favorite photographs that I have taken over the years, I was simply at the right place at the right time to frame the shot and click the shutter – the hard work was already done for me. I believe talent is God given – as are many of the circumstances in which exceptional photographs are taken.
MY FAVORITE – THE P-51 MUSTANG
Since I can remember, the P-51 Mustang has been my favorite aircraft. Instantly recognizable by sight and sound – it is a wonder how a machine of war could be so enamoring. She is visually stunning with sleek, curvy, aesthetically perfect lines highlighted by a distinct bubble canopy which gave the pilot outstanding visibility. The P-51 was the first aircraft that was intentionally designed around a high-performance, laminar flow airfoil allowing it to slip through the air efficiently, giving it the range and speed it needed for its fighter-escort mission. The sound she makes is so distinct that she can be identified by ear – there’s no other sound in aviation like the symphony of sound made by a P-51 Mustang at open throttle as it zooms and whistles past you at 400 MPH.
The P-51’s story is truly remarkable, and is one of the most epic stories in all of aviation history. A testament to American ingenuity, the P-51 went from an idea born of the demand for a long-range fighter escort, to its maiden flight in a stammering 170 days. An amazing feat at a time when industrial design was done with slide-rule on paper with pencil and without the aid of computers and CAD software.
In early versions, the P-51 started out with an American made, 12-cylinder, Alison power-plant, but was eventually fitted with a Packard built, 12-cylinder Merlin engine licensed through Rolls Royce. The Merlin gave the Mustang its distinctive sound and the outstanding performance needed at the high altitudes that the bombers she protected flew in. The P-51’s long range attributed the aircraft to being a key factor in turning the tide of victory against Germany during WWII. Known as “the plane that won the war,” the P-51’s range allowed US bombers for the first time to do fully escorted, round-trip, daylight bombing raids deep into German territory where they decimated the German industrial war machine.
Perhaps the biggest reason the P-51 inspires my aviation dreams more than any other aircraft is the fact that the P-51 reigned in a day when piloting skill, guts, instinct, and truly “flying by the seat of your pants” was how air combat superiority was mastered – not through the power of computer control and advanced weapons systems. Ask anyone who has flown the P-51 and they will tell you she is the best fighter in aviation history! The Mustang’s image lives on in modern aviation as her likeness can clearly be seen in another aviation icon, the F-16 Fighting Falcon with its bubble canopy and under fuselage intake.
HISTORY – UNRULY JULIE
UNRULY JULIE – she sits handsome in her former glory. An idol born of war and clothed in might and strength – boastful and proud of her obstinately rebellious moniker, and defiantly so. She is beautiful, no doubt – a reflection of a simpler, more innocent time in history, while adorning a name that reflects a time to come.
The history of UNRULY JULIE since this photograph was taken is perilous at best. On August 3, 1987 she crashed in Ash Fork, Arizona during a forced landing in which she suffered substantial damage. After the crash her wreckage was sold to a new owner, and a complete restoration was done on her in Chino Valley, California, only to crash during take-off on her maiden flight on April 4, 1994. It was determined that the cause of that crash was due to errors made during the restoration process (reversed input/output oil cooler lines), causing the engine to overheat and lose power just after take-off.
After UNRULY JULIE’S second crash, her wreckage was again sold to a new owner and another complete restoration took place. It seems it took two crashes to get the “UNRULY” out of “JULIE”, because after this third restoration, she was dressed in the yellow and black “Checkertail Clan” paint scheme without her infamous UNRULY JULIE name.
Unfortunately, the P-51 now known as the nameless “Checkertail Clan” girl would not outlive her former warring and reckless alias. On July 4, 2014 the “Checkertail Clan” girl crashed shortly after take-off from Durango-La Plata County Airport in Durango, Colorado, completely destroying the aircraft and killing both pilot/owner John Earley and his passenger instructor/pilot Michael Schlarb. Though not confirmed, it has been speculated that this flight was the first time Earley took the front seat pilot position with full control of the aircraft. The NTSB investigation found that pilot-error was deemed responsible for the crash with the pilot’s failure to adequately compensate for the torque-roll that the high-performance Merlin engine exhibits on the aircraft as being the primary cause. Witnesses state that just after lift-off the plane snapped and banked sharply left, nosed up, then inverted and crashed onto a road before sliding into a field just outside the airport’s fence. Left roll is indicative of torque-roll, and the nose up says that the pilot may have tried to compensate by kicking the right rudder, but it was most certainly too late, and the roll continued until inverted at which time it became impossible to recover from the maneuver at such low altitude. The aircraft was wholly unidentifiable after the crash, with the exception of some of the black and yellow “Checertail Clan” markings visible in the wreckage. At the time of the crash John Earley had 263 hours of flight time as a pilot, with 53 of those hours logged at the back seat controls of this aircraft. This is a testimony to the skill needed to fly such an unforgiving, high-performance aircraft.
It has always been my dream to one day own and fly a P-51 Mustang. It is believed that less than 140 original copies of the P-51 Mustang still survive in operating condition today. More information about UNRULY JULIE and other surviving war-birds can be found on the Warbird Registry Website:
http://www.warbirdregistry.org
UNRULY JULIE