Help researching 361st P-51B "Bald Eagle III"

[Guppy35]

It's really kind of sad...after looking at all these photos I wish we had the bird cage canopy. It's kind of classic in that 30's way of wearing a shirt, tie, suspenders and a leather jacket and a floppy cap. Like that 30's test pilot look. Makes you think of a plane designed by pilots for pilots. Our version of the birth of the spitfire. Kind of wish we had the full stable of ponies now.......

We did have the birdcage, but folks complained about the visibility and it wasn't getting used much so they swapped it for the Malcom when they updated.  I agree though that I wish we had both.  A number of the skins that are on the Malcom birds now, were not Malcom versions for real.  No Malcom in the PTO or CBI or the MTO for that matter.

[Vraciu]

See if you can switch out Bald Eagle for LOU III

Per Skuzzy this is not allowed except in extreme circumstances.

Bald Eagle is a fine skin subject.  No need to replace it.

[oboe]

LOU III is a fine-looking example.  I'm partial to a lot of the 361st's aircraft.

Bald Eagle III is coming along well but I wouldn't have started it if not for the photo I ran across of the pilot standing in front of her with an open Malcolm hood above and behind him.  It's not a slam dunk because you can't tell from the picture that its truly Bald Eagle III, but it was enough to get me to sign up to adopt/update the skin, which really needed it.   It was an ETO bird so its possible/likely it got the canopy upgrade; the caption states clearly his standing in front of his personal aircraft and you can observe that its a Malcolm hood on the a/c.

I do hope we get the bird-cage version someday in addition though, for all the MTO, CBI, the ETO 51s that never had the Malcolm.  I'd rather see Bald Eagle with the bird cage and do LOU III as a Malcolm.   Rear visibility really isn't any worse than it is in a 109.