The Air Force Armament Museum (Near Eglin Air Force Base in Florida) recently repainted its TP-51 Mustang, for the first time in more than 30 years. But this time it was ‘painted’ with vinyl decals.

The idea is credited to iSpark and the 96th Test Wing innovation office.  Originally the museum’s director wanted to vinyl wrap an outdoor aircraft display’s painted canopy so it would look like glass.

Employees kept adding ideas concerning what could be wrapped until finally they asked ‘why not wrap the entire display’?  Vinyl wrapping is waterproof and is used on yachts, luxury vehicles,  racecars and advertising vehicles.

Once the U.S. Air Force approved of the idea the problem was getting funding.  That’s when iSpark, which owns the Armstrong vinyl flooring maker, immediately funded the wrapping project.

Another plus to wrapping the 1:1 scale Mustang was that the indoor display aircraft could be ‘painted’ where it sat.  It also took only one person (a local contractor) ten days (during July 2019) to wrap the Mustang in the colors of the Tuskegee Airman Mustang  flown by Charles Bailey (never mind that the museum’s Mustang is two seat TP-51, as indicated by the bigger canopy and second seat in the cockpit).

Contractor Gary Householder said he could’ve gotten the wrap done in less than ten days but “Whenever I’m working on a wrap, people tend to like to watch. This time, they just thought I was a museum employee.”

The Air Force Armament Museum plans to wrap as many of its display aircraft as it can.

POKEY AIRPORT 2012 & 2014:

P-51D MUSTANG, OLE YELLER FLIES ON IN IDAHO