WONZ 300 – Brendon Deere’s Mustang

Guest: Brendon Deere

Host: Dave Homewood

Recorded: 20th of February 2024

Published: 2nd of March 2024

Duration: 1 hour 11 minutes, 28 seconds

In this 300th episode in the Wings Over New Zealand Show series, Dave Homewood talks with Brendon Deere of the Biggin Hill Trust about the beautiful restoration on his ex-RNZAF North American P-51D Mustang NZ2423 (ZK-BHT).

The Mustang served with the Royal New Zealand Air Force from 1945 till 1957. NZ2423 arrived in New Zealand aboard the ship Dominion Park on the 27th of August 1945, and as the Japanese had surrendered while it was on the water the Air Force put it and the other 28 Mustangs into storage at Hobsonville. In February 1947 the cocooned Mustang fleet were barged from Hobsonville down to Clevedon and towed from there to RNZAF Station Ardmore, which had been a fighter base but was now under Care & Maintenance. The P-51D’s were put into storage in one of the hangars there.

Following a period of storage at Ardmore, most of the Mustangs were placed into service with the Territorial Air Force squadrons in 1952. But NZ2423 was readied for flight and then flown to Rukuhia for another period of storage, as a reserve aircraft.

NZ2423 finally entered operational service in with No. 2 (Wellington) Squadron of the Territorial Air Force, based at Ohakea, as a replacement on the 12th of July 1954. On the 25th of October 1955 it was then transferred to No. 42 Squadron and converted to tow target drogues for the Vampire pilots.

It was the last RNZAF Mustang to fly, when on the 30th of May 1957 it flew from Ohakea to Woodbourne and went back into storage. The Mustangs were put up for sale by tender and in May 1958 NZ2423 was sold to Bill Ruffell of Blenheim, who along with his friend Harry Rutledge had planned to use it to build a new powerboat using the engine and the cockpit and tail. The pair already had the famous hydroplane racing boat Tru-Jen. But their plans fizzled out and they sold the Mustang to John Smith of Mapua in 1964, who stored it in his famous shed till his death in 2019.

Brendon purchased the Mustang in 2020, and set about restoring it. It made its return to flight in November 2023. In this episode he tells the story of the Mustang’s history and talks about the restoration. He also details the current status of other aircraft in his collection, the Spitfire IX, the Avenger “Plonky” and his Harvard NZ1037.

The Mustang will make its airshow debut at the end of this month at Warbirds Over Wanaka, flown by S/Ldr Sean Perrett, alongside the Biggin Hill Trust’s Spitfire and Avenger.

Quick Links:
• Biggin Hill Historic Aircraft Centre, RNZAF Ohakea
• The long running Wings Over New Zealand Forum Mustang NZ2423 Thread