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.
Yet it could have been far worse, officials say as they investigate what went wrong at the National Championship Air Races.
A World War II-era fighter plane crashed at the edge of the crowd, narrowly missing the grandstand where thousands more people were watching.
But the plane's fuel did not catch fire.
Emergency workers had drilled for such a disaster, some just hours earlier.
And when it came, bystanders helped tend to the wounded with a control that seems contradictory to the devastation.
Even the timing was helpful, coming on a Friday afternoon when most doctors were still at the hospital.
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