A one-of-a-kind airplane made a special flight to Indiana County this week.

The American P-51 Mustang, nicknamed “Thunderbird,” is on display at Indiana County-Jimmy Stewart Airport through Sunday.

While many P-51s served the U.S. Army Air Forces in World War II, only this one was flown by Academy Award-winning actor and World War II pilot Jimmy Stewart.

During the war, Stewart was captain of a B-24 Liberator bomber. He went on to lead his squadron and was promoted to colonel.

Visitors can see his P-51 Mustang and speak to the man who restored it with more than a decade of work.

Warren Pietsch of North Dakota comes from a family of aviators and mechanics.

“I grew up in a flying family,” he said.

When he was 10, Pietsch went to an aviation convention in Illinois where he saw his first Mustang. When he got home, he painted a 10-foot Mustang on his bedroom wall — and that’s when the dreaming began.

“I’ve been flying war birds since 1992, but I always wanted one of my own,” Pietsch said.

Pietsch took ownership of Thunderbird’s parts in 1999 in Nebraska — having no idea of the craft’s pedigree. That came about two years later after examination of the parts and some research, when he found the P-51C had belonged to and was flown by Stewart.

“The name Thunderbird started before World War II when (Stewart) started his airport with some other actors called Thunderbird in Arizona, and his bomber squadron in World War II was the Thunderbirds,” Pietsch said. “It doesn’t have anything to do with the current Air Force team.”

Pietsch said he’s been a fan of Stewart his entire life. He said his son, Logan, was born on the same day the actor passed away.

“I walked out of the room Logan was born in and it said on the TV, ‘Actor James Stewart passed away,’ ” Pietsch said.

Pietsch flew Thunderbird to Pennsylvania from North Dakota on Monday, trying to dodge bad weather.

After it’s on display for the weekend, Pietsch will fly to Reading, where it will appear in an air show.

From there, he’ll fly the aircraft to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington D.C., where it will be showcased as part of the Smithsonian’s annual “Innovations in Flight Outdoor Aviation Display” on June 14. It regularly is housed in the Dakota Territory Air Museum in North Dakota, Pietsch said.

Airborne history

In 1949, Thunderbird came in first at the Bendix Trophy transcontinental race. It still holds the speed record for the race at 470 mph. The plane holds five speed records total, including the speed record for piston-powered airplanes from Los Angeles to New York, when it averaged 560 mph, Pietsch said.

“It’s the last piston-powered airplane to win a Bendix race, which was from California to Ohio,” Pietsch said.

Aside from Stewart, the plane has been flown by other famous pilots and even helped transport the footage of Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation to the United States in 1953.

At one point, Stewart sold Thunderbird to Jacqueline “Jackie” Cochran for one dollar. Cochran was the founder of the Women’s Air Force Service Pilots and the first woman to break the sound barrier.

Cochran flew it on several record-setting flights, then sold the airplane back to Stewart — for one dollar.

The airport will also display Stewart’s personal plane, a Cessna 310, along with Thunderbird.

Jimmy Stewart Museum events

Just down the street from Indiana County–Jimmy Stewart Airport, the Jimmy Stewart Museum will be celebrating its 30th anniversary.

Located in the actor’s hometown, the museum features family photos, military uniforms, scrapbooks from Stewart’s war days, his tuxedo and his American Film Institute Life Achievement Award, said museum Executive Director Janie McKirgan. The museum also has a theater that plays Stewart’s films.

The one-man play “Jimmy Stewart: On the Front of Life” will be performed at the Indiana Theater at 7:30 p.m. Saturday. The play explores Stewart’s return from military service in 1945 and stars actor Brian Rohan. There will be a question-and-answer session with Stewart’s daughter, Kelly Stewart Harcourt, and his nephew and niece, Ethan Perry and Sandy Hart, after the show.

The museum’s movie theater will play “The Philadelphia Story” all weekend. Stewart won the Academy Award for Best Actor for the film in 1940.

Information about the event can be found at jimmy.org.

Copyright ©2025— Trib Total Media, LLC (TribLIVE.com)