Reviving a Ghost
The Galloping Ghost (below) as it appeared in 1949 at the Cleveland Air Races, essentially a
stock P- 51, and what it looks like today with clipped wings, a modified canopy and turtle
deck, and a smooth belly after Rick Shanholtzer performed a “scoopectomy.”
A look from below shows the Ghost’s short wings. The ailerons are about half the size of the
originals, resulting in landing speeds similar to a MiG-21—190 mph on final with touchdown
between 150 and 160 mph.
Hokuf (the next Bill
Kerkenfaut) is the crew chief,
and David Hatfield is the computer expert.
“He adapted the telemetry
systems so the crew can sit on
the ground and tell me exactly
what the various systems in the
airplane are doing,” Jimmy said.
“Our fluid expert is J. Wisler, and our tireless cosmetic person is Glynn Snyder. In
addition, my three sons and daughter support the effort in many ways.”
GETTING THE DRAG OUT
Their basic approach of using a moderate
engine with a super slick airframe meant
getting every single bit of drag out of the
airframe that they could, but, when starting with a hyper-clipped Mustang with a
plastic-pimple canopy like Jeannie, just how
much more can you do to it to clean it up?
“One of the first things we tackled was
the canopy,” Jimmy said. “As designed, it
was too small to clear a helmet, which is
now part of the safety rules. I thought a big-
ger canopy would slow us down, but we
brought in P- 51 guru Jim Larson, an aero
engineer from Seattle, and used his design,
“We have three or four different spin-
ners, but we’re using the slightly pointed one
for a very basic reason: We think it looks
sexier. And good-looking airplanes are
faster. We all know that.”
i t
finish. Where they are at a disadvantage is aero-
dynamics: There’s only so much you do to those
big, blunt noses to clean them up. They are win-
ning by pure brute force.”
When Jimmy got the Ghost, he raced
it as is and had an endless series of engine
problems. “Then, back in 2006, we decided
to go at this speed thing from a different
angle: We’d build up a relatively conser-
vative engine and then do our very best to
surround it with the most efficient aerody-
namics possible,” he said.
