Originally posted by pangea
What exactly is a "Cavalier Mustang"?
After some
'googling':Even in the 1960s, there were those who felt the Mustang still had plenty of potential. One of these was David B. Lindsey JR, who established a company named Trans-Florida Aviation, which rebuilt several Mustangs into a two-seat "executive transport" named the "Cavalier". The Cavalier Mustang attracted enough attention to lead Lindsey to rename his company "Cavalier Aircraft Corporation" in 1962, and acquired the Mustang type certificate and tradename from North American.
The Cavalier Mustang was available in a range of versions, including the "750", "1200", "1500", "2000", and "2500". They were all very similar, the main difference between the variants being an increase in fuel capacity up the numbering sequence, with the Cavalier 2000 and 2500 adding fixed wingtip tanks with a capcity of 416.5 liters (110 US gallons) each. Cavalier also appears to have fitted out aircraft as per user request, making most of them custom jobs to a degree.
In 1967, Cavalier developed an updated Mustang for the counter-insurgency (COIN) role. The "Cavalier Mustang II" was a rebuilt P-51D, with a new Packard Merlin V-1650-7 engine; improved avionics; the taller vertical tailplane used on the F-51H; fixed wingtip fuel tanks as per the Cavalier 2000 and 2500; and a reinforced wing to support a total of eight stores pylons, permitting a total stores load of 1.8 tonnes (4,000 pounds).
It also featured a second seat for an observer behind the pilot. Images of Mustang IIs seem to show that they had a canopy with a bulge in the rear to provide headroom for the back-seater, but it is unclear if this was a standard fit.
As with the Cavalier Mustang, the company seems to have manufactured a number of variations on the Mustang II, building them with such features as required by a specific order. It is also not clear if they were all actually referred to as "Mustang IIs", but as the matter is both complicated and not very interesting, all the Cavalier military Mustang conversions are referred to by that name here for simplicity.
That same year, 1967, the USAF ordered a batch of Mustang IIs for delivery to friendly Latin American and Asian nations under the US Military Assistance Program (MAP). The next year, 1968, the US Army ordered two more Mustang IIs as chase aircraft for the YAH-56 Cheyenne helicopter gunship program, and used them in short-lived experiments in close-support applications after the Cheyenne program was cancelled. The USAF ordered a second batch of Mustang IIs for MAP in 1972.
