|
Continued from above... hours of study as you explore and enjoy
the clean lines and construction details.
North American P-51D Mustang was the product of two highly advanced
technologies: the American aircraft industry, which in 117 days designed a
plane body that was extremely advanced in structure and aerodynamics; and the
British engine industry, which, with its prestigious Rolls-Royce Merlin,
provided the ideal complement. The Mustang would not have become immortal
without the British engine, the same engine that had already made the
Supermarine Spitfire famous. Beyond this, all is history. A total of 15,686
Mustangs were built. Mustangs destroyed 4,950 enemy aircraft in combat and 4,131
on the ground in the course of 213,873 missions in Europe alone.
The idea that led to the P-51 Mustang's full development came to British and
American technicians almost simultaneously. In Great Britain four P51 Mustangs
were given to Rolls-Royce for testing with the Merlin engine. In the United
States two bodies were consigned to North American for testing with the Merlin
that' the Packard company built on license, the V-1650-3. Thus, in September,
1942, the first P-51B prototype was born.
Only minor changes were made in the forward part of the fuselage, to accommodate
the new engine. But performance was radically different. Now the plane could
reach a speed of 440 m.p.h. at 30,000 feet, and an ascent to 20,000 feet
required only five minutes and 54 seconds. This was a remarkable advance over
the P-51A's top speed of 390 m.p.h. at 20,000 feet and more than nine minutes in
ascent. The plane went into mass production in the summer of 1943. It was built
at the Inglewood factory as the P-51B and in the new Dallas plant as the P-51C.
Great Britain received about 1,000 and called them Mustang Mk.III. The first
P-51B went into service with the 8th Air Force in England on December 1.
Click on a photo below to view larger.
Images above (approximately 50 rare and original photos) North American P-51 fighters (various
models) also factory employees
at North American Aviation assembling the P-51 etc.
Note: Our photo gallery also interprets keyboard inputs for
navigation. The following hotkeys may be used :
• Page up ... show previous picture
• page down ... show next picture
• Arrow keys ...
You may press 'ESC' or click on the image to close the gallery.
In Dec. 1943, Merlin-powered P-51Bs first entered combat over Europe.
Providing high-altitude escort to B-17s and B-24s, they scored heavily over
German interceptors and by war's end, P-51s had destroyed 4,950 enemy aircraft
in the air, more than any other fighter in Europe.
P-51s distinguished themselves while fighting against advanced enemy rockets and
aircraft, be it V-1s that were launched into London (a P-51B/C with high-octane
fuel was fast enough to catch up with one), Me 163 Komet interceptors or Me 262
jet fighters. General Chuck Yeager, flying a P-51D, was the first Allied pilot
to shoot down a Me 262. The P-51s were deployed in the Far East later in 1944,
and operated there both in close-support and escort missions.
In early 1945, the Mustang was deployed to the Philippines to provide a
better fighter capability against Japanese aircraft, and it was here that
William Shomo earned the only Medal of Honor given to a Mustang pilot in the
Pacific by downing seven Japanese planes in a single mission. Lastly, the
Mustang was sent to Iwo Jima in March 1945 and while their first days of combat
were spent in ground attack missions, after the islands were secured they
participated in long-range escort duty for B-29 raids based in the Mariana’s
flying missions against the Japanese homeland. These flights tested the
endurance and range of the Mustang to its maximum, featuring 1,400 mile round
trips while spending eight hours in the air.
In some ways the P-51 was the right plane at the right time. Both British and
German designs of a few months later would outperform it in most ways. But that
makes little difference, the effect of the P-51 is as great, or perhaps greater,
than any aircraft of WWII. |
