Stunt plane underwent overhauls

Reno: The Second World War-era plane that plummeted into an air-race crowd like a missile bore little resemblance to its original self. It was rebuilt for speed, if not for stability.

The 65-year-old "Galloping Ghost" underwent years of massive overhauls that took a full 10 feet off its wingspan. The ailerons — the back edges of the main wings used to control balance — were cut from about 60 inches to 32.

Pilot Jimmy Leeward had said the changes made the P-51 Mustang faster and more maneuverable, but in the months before Friday's crash even he wasn't certain exactly how it would perform.

"I know it'll do the speed," he said in a podcast uploaded to YouTube in June. "The systems aren't proven yet. We think they're going to be OK."

Investigators don't yet know what caused the plane to pitch sharply into the crowd at the National Championship Air Races in Reno, killing nine people, including Leeward, and injuring dozens.

They have focused on the "elevator trim tab" - a piece of the tail that helps the aircraft maintain lift and appeared to break off before the crash. While investigators did not identify the items, the NTSB released a photo late Sunday of two board officials at the crash site with items they said were part of the investigation.

Highly competitive

In the highly competitive, bravado-filled world of air racing, pilots go for broke on the ground and in the sky, hitting speeds of 500mph. Leeward is the 20th pilot to die at the air races since they began 47 years ago, but Friday's crash was the first in which spectators were killed.

"Pilots are a special breed of confident, intelligent, driven perfectionists," said Ken Quick, a commercial airline pilot and a crew member for one of the teams that raced Friday. "They know what they do is dangerous and demanding, and they eagerly embrace both."

Leeward's own website alludes to the dangers - and bragging rights.

"These guys are always on the edge knowing one wrong move, in one split second, could mean the end," the Leeward Air Ranch Racing Team website says. "Nascar at 200mph? Indy at 230mph? Top Fuel at 300 mph? Mere Childs play. Welcome to the Big League."

Leeward had said the plane underwent several years of modifications before Friday's race, including lopping five feet off each wing, but he hadn't revealed many of the specifics. In the podcast, he called some of the changes "extremely radical," compared some to systems on the space shuttle and explained that he had increased the plane's speed capabilities to be more like those of a modern fighter jet.

Why no fireball in Reno?

Two crashes at two air shows in two days, one that killed spectators, the other just the pilot far from fans. But there was another big difference — fire.

Nine people died and dozens more were injured when Jimmy Leeward's Second World War-era P-51 Mustang slammed into a VIP box seat section at Friday's National Championship Air Races in Reno. The plane disintegrated into a cloud of dust and debris. Some of the injured described being coated in aviation fuel that burned their skin, but there were no flames, no fireball.

The next day at an air show across the country in West Virginia, a post-Second World War plane flown by decorated Air Force pilot and instructor John "Jack" Mangan crashed and burst into flames before hundreds of stunned spectators. The pilot died but no fans were injured.

As investigators in both crashes worked to determine causes, pilots and experts were perplexed by the lack of explosion in Reno. It could have meant many more injured and killed.

"We are in the early stage of this investigation and will be looking at this as part of our investigation," National Transportation Safety Board spokesman Terry Williams said on Sunday.