PETER TEICHMAN’S HANGAR 11 COLLECTION

On any given day in the skies over England, you might be lucky enough to see Peter Teichman practicing his impressive demonstration routine in a pristine P-51D Mustang named “Jumpin’ Jacques.” Peter has about 8,000 flying hours, of which over 2,000 are on warbirds. He counts, however, over 11,000 flights in his logbook, meaning he doesn’t have a lot of what pilots call “droning time”— cruising at altitude on autopilot. Registered as G-SIJJ (SI being similar to 51, and JJ for “Jumpin’ Jacques”), Peter’s Mustang was his first acquisition for his North Weald-based Hangar 11 collection of warbirds.

Founded in 2002, the Hangar 11 Collection currently boasts four flyable fighters from World War II: a Curtiss P-40 Kittyhawk, a Hawker Hurricane Mark IIB (“Hurribomber”), a Supermarine Spitfire Mk XI (photoreconnaissance version), and “Jumpin’ Jacques.” Peter and the staff at Hangar 11 pride themselves that their airplanes are “absolutely stock. Every time you open a panel and shine a torch into the darkness,” he says,

“you see the original date stamps on original parts from the factory. In our Kittyhawk, for instance, pretty much every bit of the airplane was produced in the Curtiss factory. It is a great passion of mine—we only buy really original airframes.”

Peter got bit by the flying bug when he moved in 1977 under the circuit of Elstree Airfield (on the north side of London). "Seeing the airplanes flying overhead made me yearn to fly, so I started lessons in February 1979, getting my license that fall.

My daughter was born shortly after, and I remember taking my wife flying whilst she was very pregnant. "By the way,” he adds, “my wife still flies with me, as we are certainly a very aviation-centric family, although I haven’t persuaded her to fly with me in the Mustang yet!”

He owned a 1942 Beech Staggerwing and later flew a Harvard, becoming interested in vintage airplanes. In 2002, he was finally able to fulfill his dream by purchasing “Jumpin’ Jacques.” When he heard “Jumpin’ Jacques” was available, he was in France within 24 hours. "A short time later, I brought her home on an epic, freezing day in December 2002, and soloed it shortly thereafter.”

Since then, he has added the Spitfire in 2004, the Kittyhawk in 2005, and the Hurricane in 2009. Hangar 11 is also currently restoring a Spitfire Mk IX, a lend-lease aircraft that crashed in Russia in early 1945 after a mid-air with another Spitfire. When it went down, it had only 28 ½ hours on the clock. A Russian farmer had kept the aircraft in his barn for 40 years, and more importantly, he had kept the aircraft complete during that time. “It will be a unique aircraft in terms of history and originality. There’s nothing else like it,” Peter says. He flies all the aircraft in the collection as the chief pilot, and he’s been on the display circuit for the last 15 years, flying displays at major airshows and private events in the UK and all over Europe.

Flying such iconic aircraft, Peter is often asked what his favorite airplane is. Unreservedly, he says it’s the P-51 Mustang, having now done over 800 flights in it to date. “If you look at the Spitfire or Hurricane, they are obviously designs of the 1930s. They can’t compare to the Mustang. It was a design ahead of its time. It’s more rugged than the other fighters, and it’s just a brutal, fantastic airplane. "However,” he continues, “it’s not as forgiving as the other aircraft. It will depart controlled flight easily, and it has one or two bad habits that will kill you.” The Mustang, he adds, is “fast, comfortable, efficient, and a great multi-role airplane, whereas the Spitfire or Hurricane were fighters only, limited by fuel and firepower. They were meant to get up and down quick, but the Mustang went to Berlin and back! It will certainly be the last airplane I sell.”

Peter’s Mustang is now named “Tall In The Saddle” and wears the paint scheme of its original Unit, the 332nd Fighter Squadron, also known as the “Red Tails.”

It’s a fitting tribute to the original warrior pilot that his steed is still flying over the skies of Europe, more than 75 years later!