The aircraft on display is the Montanair Mustang. This aircraft is an 8/10 scale copy of its big brother, the North American Aviation P-51 Mustang. It is a “Proof of Concept” aircraft design built by Jim Smith and his Montanair company.

Only 18 months from concept to first flight, the Montanair Mustang was originally intended to be available to consumers as a “kit built” airplane. As conceived, the basic airframe could be adapted to represent a Mustang, Spitfire, Me 109 or any number of low-wing, single-engine fighters.

Because of the difficulty of obtaining the requisite scaled-down V-12 engine of its full-sized stable-mate, the Montanair Mustang is fitted with two Ford Mustang 3.8 Liter, fuel injected, V-6 engines of 165 hp each. Rather than “weld” the two engines together to create a V-12, the separate engines are joined by a specially fabricated “Spider” linkage. The Spider absorbs vibrations and power impulses and allows the two engines to be run together for maximum power or either engine can be run independently for economy cruise. During single-engine operation the “dead” engine will freewheel easily with very little drag on the operating engine. Power is delivered through a coarse gear gearbox to fiberglass molded, constant speed propeller blades. Control surfaces are operated via direct control rod linkage rather than by cable, wire or hydraulics.