Two fuselages, two cockpits, one plane: Twin Mustang for sale

AN EXTENDED VERSION OF MY STORY IN THE TIMES TODAY: For an enemy fighter pilot spotting the US Air Force Twin Mustang for the first time it must have seemed like a severe case of double vision. It consisted of two aircraft – two fuselages, two cockpits - joined by the wing and a horizontal stabiliser to form a two-for-one aerial dogfighter. In the Korean war in the early 1950s the P-82 Twin Mustang gave the Americans an instant advantage because of its double-dose speed (maximum 475mph), acceleration, climbing power, agility and sheer novelty.Sadly for such a unique design, the aircraft’s combat days were short-lived. After the first jet-engined fighter arrived on the scene in the last two years of the Second World War, it was the beginning of the end of the propeller-driven Twin Mustang. It was assigned to the scrapheap. A prototype, the XP-82, ended up in a huge junkyard in Ohio surrounded by other obsolete aircraft of every variety and size. The junkyard was owned by the late Walter Soplata who spent his time rescuing some of the most famous planes in aviation history from the scrapheap, providing a safe haven in the hope that some enthusiast might be persuaded to buy one to restore it to its former glory. The heavily damaged XP-82 Twin Mustang at Mr Soplata’s junkyard caught the eye of Tom Reilly. To describe Mr Reilly as an aircraft enthusiast would be an understatement. It would be the equivalent of saying Lewis Hamilton quite likes driving fast cars. Mr Reilly’s backyard has aircraft in it like other people have lawn mowers and bicycles. Thirteen years ago he bought the sorry-looking Twin Mustang and took it to his metal workshop in Douglas, Georgia where he spent the following 12 years restoring it. He is now 78 years old. “It took me 214,000 man and woman hours [there’s a woman in the team],” he told The Times. All the parts had to be hand-made. The restored Twin Mustang is now in perfect flying order and fully certificated and is up for sale for $12 million. “I’m open to offers, I’ve had some interest but I don’t have to sell it,” he said. “I’ve flown it. It climbs and accelerates like crazy.” He flew in the right-hand cockpit where the radio operator sat. “But you can fly it from both cockpits. They have duplicate instruments, throttle control, fuel pumps and joystick. The only thing you can’t do from the right side is start the engines and get the landing gear up,” he said. The double-fuselage aircraft, designed by North American Aviation, followed the famous Second World War single-fuselage P-51 Mustang. The idea was to have two pilots available in their separate cockpits, so one could take over from the other on long flights. The XP-82 with two Merlin V12 engines has only flown a total of 28 hours in its life. Its first flight since being restored was at an airshow in July last year organised by the Experimental Aircraft Association in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. It was the first Twin Mustang to be flown for 30 years. Chris Henry, the association’s museum programme coordinator who ran the show, said: “It’s the strangest-looking plane. There are only five surviving airframes.” He said it was designed as a long-range aircraft to escort bombers but came too late to serve in the Second World War. “But it saw combat in the Korean war and the archives record numerous dogfight victories,” he said.