P51 Mustang Super Profile 0854294236, 9780854294237

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Titles in the Super Profile series:

BSA Bantam (F333) MV Agusta America (F334). Norton Commando (F335) | Honda CB/50 sohc (F351) Sunbeam S7 & S8 (F363) BMW R69 & R69S (F387)

_. _

Lotus Elan (F330) MGB (F3050) MG Midget & Austin- Healey Sprite (except Frogeye’) (F344) Morris Minor & 1000 (ohv) oe ) . Porsche 911 Carrera (F311) — Triumph Stag (F342)

Austin--Healey ‘Frogeye’ Sprite (F343) Ferrari 250GTO (F308) | Fiat X1/9 (F341) Ford GT40 (F332) Jaguar E-Type (F370) a Jaguar D-Type & XKSS CEB7I ee Mk Saloonsae

ae Disnibbied in USA by: Haynes Publications Inc. 861 Lawrence Drive, —

Avro Vulcan (FA36)_ | |

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- California 91320, USE a : ‘Produced ee ; Winchmore Publishing Services Limited, 40 Triton Square, __

London, NW1 3HG

Printed in Spain by Graficromo s.a.

7

= =. Contents. 7

Design

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and development

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Genesis

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Merlin Mustangs_ The M usta ng in civvies _

Genesis During the 1930s the American aircraft industry was far from the world leader it may justifiably claim to be today. While commercial aircraft developed by US manufacturers enjoyed great sales success around the world, military development was stunted by lack of funds and enthusiasm on the part of the US services. The US Army Air Corps was the poor relation of these services, playing a supporting role to ground forces. The US Navy’s jealously guarded role was to protect the American coastline, though few politicians or military strategists cared to admit that an attack on the American mainland was even a possibility. Accordingly, development of military aircraft types, particularly of ‘pursuit’ craft, proceeded at modest pace, most aircraft of the mid-1930s period being lightly armed with performance matched to low-altitude, short-range missions. What inspiration there was for the development of higher performance aircraft came mostly from foreign governments who

had recognised and accepted the possibility (if not inevitability) of war in Europe and were seeking to re-equip accordingly. At the same time the US Army Air Corps did have funds and a fairly generous degree of autonomy to order the development of experimental prototypes. It was from this source, headed by Colonel Oliver Nichols at Wright Field, near Dayton, Ohio, that the impetus for development of many successful World War II American fighter aircraft came, notably the Lockheed P-38 Lightning and Curtiss P-40 series. And it was the P-40 which, in a Curious way, inspired the P-51 Mustang, arguably the greatest fighter aircraft of the war. Even before Germany invaded Poland in September 1939 a British Purchasing Commission had visited US aircraft manufacturers On an arms buying mission which resulted in orders for 200 Lockheed Hudson bombers and 200 North American NA-16 advanced trainers, later named Harvard in Royal Air Force service. The French, acting jointly with the British, placed larger orders, resulting in some

2,000 aircraft being commissioned from four American manufacturers. Declaration of war increased the urgency of Britain’s need for aircraft, although the US President Franklin D. Roosevelt enforced an arms embargo to preserve US neutrality. This was lifted on 4 November 1939 when the US Congress approved the so-called Cash-and-Carry Act which permitted the sale of arms to foreign powers provided payment was made in cash and the weapons were transported in the customer’s own ships. Three days after the passage of the Act a British Purchasing Commission office was set up in New York under the direction of Arthur Purvis and an urgent search began for suitable fighter aircraft to re-equip the RAF. The choice was discouragingly limited. The only US aircraft in production at the time which even broadly fitted the British requirement were the Bell P-39 Airacobra and the Curtiss P-40. The first XP-51, 41-038, was the fourth production Mustang |, delivered to Wright Field, Dayton, Ohio in December 1942.

The British Purchasing Commission and the French Government ordered P-40s, but Curtiss was already heavily committed to producing the aircraft for the US Army Air Corps; delays in export deliveries were inevitable, and delays were the last thing the European Allies could tolerate. The British Purchasing Commission offered a possible solution. Why not contract another US manufacturer with production Capacity to spare to manufacture P-40s under licence? North American Aviation, with whom the British had dealt previously on the NA-16 contract, was approached with the idea. North American's President James H. ‘Dutch’ Kindelberger, an astute aircraft engineer and persuasive

Mustang instrument panel.

salesman, was not impressed with the notion of building a rival manufacturer's aircraft and one that was already falling behind the technology of the day. Instead, Kindelberger suggested that North American should design an entirely new fighter to meet the British requirement. The British had estimated that a lead-time of 120 days would have been needed to tool up for production of the P-40 by North American. Kindelberger undertook to complete design and construction of his new aircraft within that same period, and assigned North American's Vicepresident John ‘Lee’ Atwood to head the project, which was given the provisional type designation NA-50B.

With British scepticism running high, Atwood went to the Commission's New York offices and spent three weeks there preparing performance estimates and other data which convinced the British that North American were not only serious, but could produce the aircraft in the remarkably short time promised by Kindelberger. On 23 May 1940 a formal contract agreement was signed between the British Purchasing Commission and North American Aviation Inc for 320 aircraft, redesignated NA-73. In the history of World War II aviation it was to become a most significant contract, whose eventual consequences may well have affected the outcome of the entire conflict.

Factory cutaway illustration of Allison-engined P-51A.

Design and development The design team assigned to complete, in just a few months, a task which might normally take two or three years, was led by North American’s chief engineer Raymond Rice and chief design engineer Edgar Schmued. Schmued, Bavarian born and then a naturalised American citizen, had produced the first Outline design on which the British Purchasing Commission's order had been placed, a design which was to remain substantially unchanged throughout the early years of production. Schmued was assisted by Edward Horkey, an aerodynamicist on his first assignment with North American, and project engineer Herbert Baldwin. The prototype NA-73X design was daringly innovative for such

a tight deadline as that agreed by ‘Dutch’ Kindelberger. Efficiency, drag reduction and suitability for large-scale mass-production were paramount in the minds of the design team. Conical lofting, a system of mathematical calculation of the compound curvatures which formed the aircraft's lines, was employed for the first time in aircraft design, enabling very precise Outlines to be faithfully reproduced in metal and thus making a major contribution to the drag reduction effort. North American drew on the research conducted by the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) at Langley Field, Virginia into laminar-flow airfoil sections to develop a wing section for the aircraft which, while not truly laminar (the

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required surface smoothness was difficult to achieve in mass production and impossible to maintain in routine military service), achieved substantial reductions in drag through use of a profile which achieved maximum thickness at about 60 per cent chord back from the leading edge, thus shifting the onset of dragcreating turbulent airflow rearwards. At this time laminar flow was an unproved theory. North American contracted to replace the wing with one of conventional section within 30 days if it failed to perform up to expectations. In the event, wind tunnel tests conducted at the California Institute of Technology and the University of Washington confirmed the benefits of the wing design before the prototype’s first flight, leaving the design team in little fear that they would face a major redesign when the flight test programme began. The need to minimise drag naturally demanded minimum frontal area for the aircraft, which in turn dictated the choice of a liquid-cooled inline engine. Only one such powerplant was then available in the United States — the Allison V-1710-F3R rated at 1,150 hp, which was being developed for the Curtiss P-40D. North American bought from Curtiss wind tunnel and research data on the then unflown Curtiss XP-46, which featured a ventrally-mounted coolant radiator and airscoop, and this feature — which was a major contribution to drag reduction — was adopted on the NA-73X, leaving the nose profile of the aircraft exceptionally clean and streamlined, only broken by a tiny carburettor air intake atop Above: NA-73X prototype photographed

immediately after its forced landing near Mines Field, Los Angeles, on 20 November 1940. Left: The NA-73X airborne again, after rebuilding, early in 1941 in the hands of Vance Breese.

the forward cowling. So revolutionary were the many new aspects of the aircraft's design that the power of the Allison engine was one of few imponderables facing Rice and Schmued. The NA-73X structure was allmetal, with a two-spar cantilever wing of stressed-skin construction and a semi-monocoque fuselage. It was one of the first aircraft designed from the outset on a major sub-assembly basis, each of five major sections of the aircraft being completed with all systems, wiring, hydraulic lines, cable runs and ducting complete before they came together on the final assembly line. Armament, to the British specification which favoured a multi-gun fit, comprised two Browning MG 53 0.50-in (12.7-mm) machine guns mounted in the forward fuselage beneath the engine, one MG 53 in each wing, and two Browning MG 40 0.30-in (7.62-mm) machine guns in each wing. The design effort for the prototype consumed some 60,000 man-hours and resulted in 2,800 drawings which were rushed, barely dry, to the metalwork shops in a 16 hours-a-day, seven-days-a-week schedule. This breathless pace bore fruit just 102 days after the NA-73X contract had been signed, when the prototype was rolled out, albeit engineless because Allison Motors had underestimated North American's ability to complete the airframe within the deadline. The V-1710 powerplant arrived 20 days later, and the aircraft was finally completed just two days beyond the target of 120 days, a remarkable achievement, but one which would have been quite impossible had the resources of NACA and Curtiss research not been available to the design team. North American hired noted test pilot Vance Breese to conduct the early test programme on the NA-73X, and on the morning

of 26 October 1940 the aircraft made its first five-minute flight from Mines Field, now part of Los Angeles International Airport. Breese made a second, tenminute flight that day and flew the NA-73X another six times in late October/early November, each flight reaffirming the designers’ wind tunnel tests and performance projections. On 20

November 1940 North American test pilot Paul Balfour was assigned to fly the aircraft for speed calibration tests. After making his first low run over Mines Field, where calibration engineers were measuring the NA-73X’‘s performance from the ground, Balfour began a climbing turn during which the Allison engine suddenly lost all power and stopped. Unable to restart it and with altitude and airspeed rapidly bleeding off, Balfour was forced to put the prototype down in a field near the airport. Unfortunately Balfour's decision to lower the undercarriage in an effort to minimise airframe damage had exactly the opposite effect. The NA-73X’s mainwheels dug into the soft ground and it flipped over. Balfour had to be dug out of the cockpit by North American staff who were quickly on the scene. He was cut and bruised, but not seriously injured. The prototype fighter fared less well; the engine mount was broken, fin and rudder ripped off, rear fuselage distorted and both wingtips damaged — after just three hours and twenty minutes’ flight time. An accident investigation conducted by the Civil Aeronautics Board (the NA-73X was registered as a civilian aeroplane) concluded that Balfour had inadvertently run a fuel tank dry and failed to switch to another tank, starving the engine of fuel. Contrary to many published reports the NA-73X was not abandoned, though its temporary loss was a setback to the programme which had been

RAF Mustang Is being crated at the Inglewood factory for shipment to Britain.

going so well. It was rebuilt, flying again on 11 January 1941 in Vance Breese’s hands, and subsequently undertook part of the development flying programme, ending its career on 15 July 1941 after 45 flights totalling 40 hours and 35 minutes. Meanwhile, even before the NA-73X’s maiden flight, the British had placed an order for an additional 300 aircraft, and on 9 December 1940 the British Purchasing Commission wrote to North American advising that in common with British military procedure at the time, their new aircraft was to have a name: Mustang, after the American wild horse. At the time of the NA-73X’s accident the assembly lines at North American’s Inglewood plant were already gearing up for production of the British air9

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Left: AG345, the first production Mustang for Britain, photographed at the North American factory prior to its first flight on 23 April 1941.

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Below: AG346, from the first production batch of Mustang Is, in RAF camouflage prior to delivery in the

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craft. ‘Dutch’ Kindelberger decided to go ahead with production, expediting the completion of the first aircraft which would be retained by the company for development work in place of the prototype. This first Mustang | flew on 23 April 1941, piloted by Louis Wait, and was identical to the NA-73X in all major features. Vance Breese was again selected to conduct the initial trials programme, which soon revealed some problems. The ailerons became unacceptably heavy on the controls as airspeed built up; the Allison engine ran rough at certain throttle settings because of lack of adequate ram air through the carburettor air intake; engine cooling was not satisfactory; and the curved glass windscreen distorted pilot vision. Booster tabs fitted to the ailerons helped to lighten stick forces in roll control; a new radiator intake scoop and a lengthened carburettor air intake on top of the cowling solved the cooling and rough running problems; and a flat-glass, threepiece windscreen improved cockpit visibility. These modifications were retrofitted to four Mustang Is already completed for the RAF, and were incorporated on subsequent production aircraft. Mustdng Is for the second British order of 300 aircraft were designated NA-83s, and featured further modifications including self-sealing fuel tanks and laminated, bulletproof windscreens. The first British Mustang I, actually the second production airframe, was shipped to Liverpool in the late summer of 1941, assembled at Speke Aerodrome and flown to the Aircraft and Armament Experimental Establishment at Boscombe Down for evaluation. There performance tests revealed a maximum speed of around 380—382 mph (608— 614 km/h) at 13,000 ft (3,966 m), some 35 mph (56 km/h)

faster than the contemporary Spitfire VB, though the British aircraft excelled in rate of climb and turning radius. In dive tests the Mustang exceeded 500 mph (805 km/h) terminal speed, with textbook recovery, but not nearly so impressive was the performance of the single-stage supercharged Allison V-1710-39 engine above its critical altitude of 13,700 ft (4,176 m). The loss of power at greater altitudes — the very region where most aerial combat took place — meant that the Mustang | could not be considered seriously as a day fighter in Europe. However, its high speed at low altitude and heavy firepower. made it a natural choice for the tactical reconnaissance role in support of ground troops with Army Co-Operation Command, which was then equipped with Curtiss P-40 Tomahawks. The first RAF squadron to receive the Mustang | was 26 Squadron based at Gatwick, now the site of London-Gatwick airport, who accepted their first aircraft in February 1942 and gave the Mustang its operational baptism on 5 May flying a photoreconnaissance mission over the French coast. In the tactical reconnaissance role Mustang Is were equipped with an F.24 or K.24 camera mounted behind the pilot’s seat and sighting obliquely through the rear vision panel on the port fuselage side. Fourteen army co-operation squadrons eventually received Mustangs. Four of them, Nos 26, 238, 400 and 414 Squadrons, were still working up to full operational strength when they flew in support of the disastrous assault on Dieppe on 19 August 1942 with the loss of nine aircraft, though the Mustang also claimed its first combat victory with the destruction of a FockeWulf FW-190 by an American volunteer pilot. After the Dieppe raid RAF Mustangs regularly flew low-

level daylight nuisance or ‘rhubarb’ raids in which pairs of aircraft ranged over occupied Europe seeking targets of opportunity, and severely harassed German railway and barge transportation of war materials and ammunition. A foretaste of the Mustang’s long-range capability was ably demonstrated on 21 October 1942 when a Mustang | became the first single-engined RAF aircraft to penetrate German airspace, with a photo-reconnaissance run and strafing mission on the Dortmund-Ems canal. Subsequently Mustang Is flew missions deep into Germany, sometimes completing round trips of 1,000 miles (1,600 km). As part of the original agreement whereby foreign sale of the | NA-73 to Britain was approved by the US Government, the US Army Air Corps requested that two examples should be supplied for testing and evaluation purposes, under the designation XP-51. North American reserved the fourth and tenth production aircraft for this purpose (these were in fact additional to the British order, though taken from the initial batch of aircraft destined for Britain). Originally the contract called for delivery of the two XP-51s, which North American named Apache, in the spring of 1941, but engine

development delays held up the first XP-51’s arrival at the Air Corps Materiel Division’s head: quarters at Wright Field, Ohio until 24 August 1941. The second aircraft arrived in midDecember that year. Although given ‘experimental’ designations, the XP-51s were identical to the productionstandard RAF Mustang Is but for the installation of self-sealing fuel tanks and some minor equipment changes to suit US Army specifications. US Army evaluation and acceptance trials of the XP-51 Apache were completed on 22 December 1941, 11

The second XP-51, Apache 41-39, was the tenth production Mustang.

when the first aircraft was loaned to NACA at Langley Field for further assessment. The Army test pilots found the Apache's performance and handling impressive except for its performance in the rolling plane. Even with the geared booster tabs the measured roll rate at 400 mph (640 km/h) with a 50 Ib (22.7 kg) stick force reached only 75 per cent of the rate specified by the British Purchasing Commission, much less than that required by the USAAC, and at lower speeds the Apache/ Mustang I’s roll rate was far lower than that of contemporary British, American and German fighters. NACA developed a oneof-a-kind aileron modification for the first XP-51 and doubled maximum aileron deflection from +10° to+20°, giving the aircraft the highest rate of roll among its contemporaries, but production aircraft were modified differently,

with a+15° deflection limit and another method of balancing aileron stick forces to increase roll rates, though even the late marks of Mustang never quite achieved the rates stipulated by the US Army later in the war. The second XP-51 also went to NACA in 1943 for use in studying compressibility effects at high airspeeds. This aircraft was eventually scrapped, but the first XP-51, the fourth ‘Mustang’ built, survived in storage with the Smithsonian Museum (later National Air & Space Museum) in Washington DC until it was acquired and restored to airworthiness by the Experimental Aircraft Association Foundation in 1975/76.

It now resides in

the EAA Aviation Center Oshkosh, Wisconsin, the surviving example of the breed. On 7 July 1941, even the first XP-51 had been

at oldest Mustang before

delivered to Wright Field, the US Army Air Corps placed an order for 150 production aircraft which were given the North American type number NA-91 and the USAAF designation P-51. These aircraft were destined for the RAF as part of the newly approved Lend-Lease Programme, but given USAAF designations for contractual reasons, and differed from the earlier export Mustangs in having four wing-mounted 20-mm M-2 cannons in place of the eight machine guns originally specified by the British. In RAF service they were known as Mustang IAs. It was while delivery of this batch of Mustangs was underway in 1942 that the USAAF began to take a serious look at the aircraft, mindful of its success in the tactical reconnaissance role in Europe. There was enthusiastic pressure from General H.H. ‘Hap’ Arnold, who overcame official indifference (if not positive resistance) to the North American design, and with some behind-the-scenes manoeuvring, managed to secure 57 of the RAF Mustang IAs for the USAAF. The first of these P-51s made its maiden flight on 29 May 1942. It was equipped, as were two of the remainder of the requisitioned batch, with a pair of F.24 cameras in the rear fuselage for photo-reconnaissance work, and assigned to the 68th Observation Group under the designation F-6As, though they retained their four-cannon weaponry and were usually referred to as P-51-1s. These were the first USAAF Mustangs to see war service, flying tactical reconnaissance over the Mediterranean with the Twelfth Air

Force commencing April 1943. Though their Allison engined proved troublesome at altitude, the RAF’s Mustang Is found their niche in tactical reconnaissance and armyco-operation roles.

The P-51/F-6As

had been

acquired by a ‘back door’ method, but in Fiscal Year 1942 there was

no budget available to the USAAF for more fighter aircraft. Funds were available, however, for attack aircraft, and thus on 16 April 1942 an order was placed with North American for 500 Mustangs adapted as ‘attack bombers’. The modifications included a 1,325 hp Allison V-1710-87 engine, six 0.50-in Browning MG 53 machine guns, underwing shackles for a pair of 500-Ib (227-kg) bombs, one on each side, and hydraulically operated slotted dive-brakes above and below each wing to provide stability in steep divebombing attacks, though the Mustang airframe proved too

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aerodynamically clean for true vertical attack, with airspeed building up dangerously quickly. In this form the aircraft was once again redesignated, this time as the A-36A and given yet another name: Invader. The first A-36A flew on 21 September

Above: A-36 Invader dive-bomber photographed in company with a North American AT-6 trainer.

Below: A-36As on the Inglewood assembly line late in 1942. Note extended dive brake above the wing of the aircraft nearest the camera. Sif) lad Par

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1942. The additional weight of the airbrake installation and the drag of the bomb shackles made it slower than the Mustang, with a maximum speed at 5,000 ft (1,525 m) of 324 mph (518 km/h) without bomb load. With a pair of 500-lb bombs, maximum speed at that altitude was reduced to around 298 mph (477 km/h). The dive brakes slowed the aircraft in a dive by some 83 mph (133 km/h), but it was still possible to exceed 450 mph (720 km/h) in a 70° dive, and in service the A-36A’s dive brakes were subsequently wired shut. The A-36A arrived in the Mediterranean Theatre in June 1943 with the 522nd, 523rd and 524th Squadrons of the 27th Fighter Bomber Group, flying the first Operation on 6 June during the invasion of the island of Pantelleria. Another unit, the 86th FBG, comprising the 525th, 625th and 527th Squadrons, was formed in the United States and arrived in North Africa in July 1943, joining the 27th FBG in the assault on Sicily during which A-36As flew 1,000 sorties in 35 days. Subsequently the aircraft took part in the attacks on Salerno and Monte Cassino. In the Far East the 311th FBG took the A-36A into action against the Japanese beginning in November 1943, flying ‘rhubarb’ raids against airfields and railways. During operations in both theatres of war USAAF A-36As flew 23,373 combat missions and dropped 8,014 tons (8,142,737 kg) of bombs, for the loss of 177 aircraft, a loss per sortie rate of 0.8 per cent. Although the RAF never officially ordered the A-36A (though a single example was supplied to Britain for evaluation as a dive bomber) six aircraft were ‘borrowed’ from the USAAF in July 1943 for use by the 1437 Strategic Reconnaissance Flight in photo-recce missions flying from Malta. Tunisia, and Italy. 14

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Above: A-36A Invader during final assembly.

Left: Preserved A-36A at US Air Force Museum, Wright Patterson AFB, Ohio, displays the Invader’s dive brakes, eventually wired service. Below: A-36As Fighter Bomber the first USAAF

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Left and below: The P-51D was the most numerous of all Mustang variants. These two preserved and restored examples illustrate the ease with which two people can be accommodated in the Mustang’s cockpit when armour plate and military radio equipment is removed. Miss Coronado (below), owned by John T. Baugh, was once the mount of famed North American test pilot and air show aerobatic flier R. A. ‘Bob’ Hoover.

Left: The P-51D was known as the Mustang IV in Royal Air Force and Commonwealth service. This preserved P-51D is finished in the colours of the Royal Australian Air Force’s No 3 Fighter Squadron, 239 Fighter Bomber Wing, which operated in Yugoslavia late in World War II.

Below: This factory cut-away drawing shows the neat Merlin engine installation, permitted by the aft location of the coolant radiator and air intake, and ‘six gun’ armament outboard of the wing fuel tanks.

Above: The fifth production P-51H-1-NA pictured during an early test flight from Inglewood. The first 24 P-51H ‘lightweight

Mustangs’ initially lacked the taller fin adopted on this model, and had P-51Dstyle fins and rudders, as seen here.

Right: |\mmaculately preserved P-51D. Below: The EAA’s unique XP-51 Apache prototype, the oldest surviving Mustang.

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inner landing gear doors to bleed down © when the-aircraft is. parked as Hydreotc

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Below: Macho names are de rigeur for Mustangs. Sharp Shooter is most — -

appropriate for this ‘six-gun’ P-51D restored by an American warbirds ~ enthusiast.

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Right; Contemporary wartime colour shot. . -of P-51D-15NA 44-14886 during North American trials of a triple ‘Bazooka’ rocket _ launcher installation on the Mustang's — undérwing bomb shackles, prior to the

introduction of zero-length launching stubs for five-inch HVAR rockets.

The P-51D is the most prized warbird among American collectors. These three pristine examples appeared at a ‘Warbirds of America’ meeting in Wisconsin.

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Right: Miss America is a much-modified P-51D raced by Los Angeles newspaperowner Howie Keefe. Visible in this shot are the low-profile cockpit canopy and clipped Hoerner wingtips.

Below: This P-51B-1NA was one of the first batch of 400 Merlin-engined Mustangs ordered for the USAAF. The heavy-framed canopy and poor headroom of the pre-bubble top Mustangs is well illustrated here. Note the taped-over gun ports for the four Browning MG53 machine guns.

Left: This very rare surviving airworthy P-51H bears the markings and serial number of the single example of this model supplied to the Royal Air Force for evaluation in March 1945. The smaller wheels and tall fin of the P-51H are evident in the picture.

Below: AL358 was the first aircraft from the second batch of Mustang Is (factory designation NA-83) supplied to the Royal Air Force as a result of the British Purchasing Commission’s contract with North American. The Allison-engined Mustang is pictured during a test flight over California wearing British camouflage and serial number and US ‘neutrality’ national insignia. The prominent carburettor air intake above the forward cowling was a feature of the Allisonpowered Mustang variants.

P51-A On 23 June 1942, at the very start of the next Fiscal Year when procurement funds for fighter aircraft were available again, the USAAF ordered 310 Mustang fighters under the designation P-51A, and the first example flew on 3 February 1943, with service deliveries beginning the following month. The P-51A had an Allison V-1710-81 engine rated at 1,200 hp for take-off, and differed from the P-51 in having four wingmounted Browning 0.50-in MG 53 machine guns instead of cannon. It was also the first

Above: P-51A with experimental gun

Mustang variant (excluding the

mountings.

-

Below: North American staff check the standard four 20mm M-2 cannon

armament of a P-51 for the USAAF.

The low headline and poor cockpit visibility of the early ‘razorback’ Mustangs is evident in this picture of

a P-51A.

A-36A Invader) to have underwing racks to carry 500-Ib (227-kg) bombs, and plumbing for 75- or 150-US gallon (284 or 568 litre) drop tanks. With the 150-gallon tanks the P.51A grossed out at 10,600 Ibs (4,812 kg) and had a maximum ferry range at economy cruise power settings of 2,350 miles (3,760 km), paving the way for future use of the Mustang as a long range bomber escort Fifty of the USAAF order for P-51As were diverted to the RAF (as part payment for the 57 Below: P-51As (factory designation NA-99) for the USAAF undergoing final installation checks outside the Inglewood factory in 1943.

P-51A assembly line at Inglewood.

requisitioned P-51s), with whom they were called Mustang Ils, and 35 were converted to the photo-reconnaissance role as F-6Bs. In trials at the A & AEE at Boscombe Down in August 1943 a Mustang II, fitted with the uprated Allison engine and a larger Curtiss three-blade propeller of 10’ 9” (3.28 m) diameter, returned a climb rate of 3,000 ft per min (914 m per min) and a true maximum speed of 409 mph (654 km/h) at 10,000 ft (3,048 m), substantially better than previous models. But the loss of power as altitude increased was still marked, with the Allison’s manifold pressure dropping from 52 in at take off to 20 in at the top of the Mustang II’s 24minute climb to 34,000 ft (10,363 m).

USAAF P-51As entered service in the autumn of 1943 with the 311th Fighter Bomber Group of the Tenth Air Force on the Indo-Burmese border, operating alongside A-36As in support of Chinese and American ground forces and later flew from Kweilin, China with the 76th Fighter Squadron of the 23rd Fighter Group, Fourteenth Air Force, formed from the famous Chennault Flying Tigers. With this squadron the P-51A saw its first action on Thanksgiving Day 1943 when eight aircraft, accompanied by eight P-38 Lightnings, escorted a force of B-25 Mitchell bombers across the Formosa Straight to raid a Japanese airfield at Shinchiku. P-51As also served with the 1st Air Commando Group in Burma supporting Orde Wingate’s Chindits behind the Japanese lines, flying ground attack missions. With this unit P-51As

received their only significant modification — the in-field installation of bazooka-type rocket tubes in clusters of three

beneath each wing. RAF Mustang IIs operated in the tactical role with the 2nd TAF in Europe (one squadron, No 268, continuing to operate the type until May 1945). Excluding the NA-73X and the two XP-51s, 1,580 Mustangs/ Invaders were built with Allison engines, and while the power-

plant’s high-altitude shortcomings were never overcome, both powerplant and airframe had undergone rapid changes in a very short period of time to increase performance, range and mission capability. Even while these modifications were being made and before the Mustang entered operational service, moves were being made in Britain which were to lead to the creation of a legend. 2a

Left: Triple ‘Bazooka’-type rocket launchers installed on a USAAF P-51A.

Below: AL:58, the first Mustang | from the second batch ordered for the RAF in September 1940 under factory designation NA-83, pictured with a

B-25 Mitchell bomber.

Merlin Mustangs In April 1942, prior to the Mustang I's entry into operational service with the RAF, the commanding officer of the Air Fighting Development Unit at RAF Duxford, Cambridgeshire, invited Rolls-Royce test pilot Ronnie Harker to fly the aircraft for assessment. Harker flew an early Mustang | for 30 minutes on 29 April and was impressed with the North American aircraft's low drag and sparkling lowaltitude performance. It occurred to him that this basically fine aeroplane, hampered by the altitude limitations of its Allison engine, would certainly benefit from the installation of a Rolls-Royce engine, particularly the new Merlin 61 with twostage, two-speed supercharging which was then being tested in early examples of the Supermarine Spitfire Mk 1X. Harker returned to the Rolls-Royce works at Hucknall and put the proposition to the company’s chief aerodynamic engineer W. O. Challier, who prepared an estimate of performance for a Mustang with a Merlin 61 engine and for an alternative singlestage, two-speed supercharged Merlin XX version. Challier’s first figures were extraordinarily impressive: a maximum speed of 441 mph (706 km/h) at 25,600 ft (7,803 m) with the Merlin 61, and 400 mph (640 km/h) at 18,600 ft (5,670 m) with the Merlin XX. Challier subsequently revised these figures to 432 mph (695 km/h) and 393 mph (632 km/h), but they were still impressive enough to spur Rolls-Royce to pursue the idea of converting a Mustang to. take the Merlin engine. Rolls-Royce began a study of the work involvedin the conMerlin Mustang. A P-51B-1, with

Packard V-1650-3 engine, test-flying from Inglewood in 1943.

version, which was enthusiastically supported by the assistant

air attaché to the US Embassy in London, Major ‘Tommy’ Hitchcock. He was instrumental in convincing sceptics on both sides of the Atlantic, and within North American, that the combination of Merlin and Mustang had the potential to create a formidable fighter. However, interest within the RAF centred not on a highaltitude aircraft, which role was to be filled by the Spitfire Mk IX, but on a fighter suited for the mid-altitude regions between 10,000—20,000 feet. Thus it was that when the Air Ministry gave approval to Rolls-Royce to convert five Mustang airframes for the British engine, it was the Merlin 65 and 66, both optimised for mid-altitude performance with different supercharger gear ratios, and Bendix-Stromberg fuel injectors in place of the RAE anti-G float-type carburettors which tended to cut off fuel supply under high G loadings. The Merlin 65 was rated at

1,705 hp at 5,750 ft (1,753 m). Structural modifications to accommodate the Merlin engine included a new engine mount structure between the firewall

and the rear of the engine to allow for the greater width of the Merlin’s supercharger casing, relocation of the carburettor air intake from the top of the cowling to a ‘lip’ style scoop beneath the propeller spinner, and the installation of an intercooler radiator under the forward part of the engine. The first Merlin Mustang, officially designated Merlin X, was flown from the Rolls-Royce airfield at Hucknall on 13 October 1942 by the company’s chief test pilot Captain R. T. Shepherd. It was equipped with a Merlin 65 driving a four-blade Rotol propeller 10 ft 9 in (3.28 m) in diameter, one of two proposed for the aircraft, the other having a diameter of 11 ft 4 in (3.45 m). A second aircraft took to the air on 13 November, the remaining three Mustang Xs following on 13 December, 21 January 1943 and 7 February 1943 respectively. Shepherd reached a speed of 376 mph (601 km/h) on the Mustang X’s first flight, some 16 mph (26 km/h) slower than the estimated performance in medium supercharger gear. Much of this loss of performance was attributed to the redesign of the Mustang's cooling intakes. By reducing the exit area of the main radiator duct, streamlining the intercooler radiator air exit

louvres and altering the profile of the lower cowl, Rolls-Royce managed to get the Mustang X within 2 mph (3.2 km) of its predicted performance in medium supercharger gear. To the surprise of Rolls-Royce’s engineers, substitution of the larger propeller for the Mustang X’s seventh flight actually resulted in a slight decrease in performance. When tinned steel fuel tanks with immersed pumps were substituted for the selfsealing collapsible type fitted P-51B cutaway.

30

initially, the Mustang X was able to be tested at higher altitudes with the supercharger in fast gear. On 8 November 1942 the aircraft recorded a maximum speed in fast supercharger gear of 413 mph (661 km/h), some 14 mph (22 km/h) short of the Rolls-Royce prediction. Replacement of the propeller with the smaller unit restored a further 9 mph (14 km/h) and after further experimentation with the intercooler radiator exit louvres and the main radiator air intake

the design speed was attained. The second Mustang X prototype was tested at the A & AEE at Boscombe Down late in 1942, where it achieved a maximum speed in fast supercharger gear of 433 mph (697 km/h) at 22,000 ft (6,705 m) and 406 mph (649 km/h) in medium supercharger gear at 10,000 ft (3,048 m) operating at a gross weight of 9,100 Ib (4,128 kg). Rate of climb was recorded at 3,440 ft per min (1,049 m/min). Comparable performance from

Triple ‘Bazooka’-type rocket launching tubes and two 500-|b bombs on a

P-51B.

the Allison-engined Mustang when tested by Rolls-Royce was a maximum speed of 372 mph (595 km/h) at 15,000 ft (4,572 m) and a maximum rate of climb of 2,000 ft per min (610 m/min). The A & AEE trials with the Mustang X revealed some lack of directional stability which prompted the installation of a small dorsal fillet to the fin of the first prototype, and subsequently a three square feet increase in rudder area. In February 1943 the first Mustang X was reengined with a Merlin 70, an engine optimised for high-altitude performance with the same supercharger gear ratios as the Merlin 61 originally proposed for the Rolls-Royce Merlin. It later flew with a Merlin 71, while the fourth Merlin X was converted in February 1943 to act as a development aircraft for the Merlin 100 series engines. Rolls-Royce’s original plan when proposing the Merlinengined Mustang was that the RAF’s Mustang Is would be re-engined with Merlin 65s. However, thanks to Tommy Hitchcock's support for the reengining scheme in the United States, the USAAF placed a contract with North American on 25 July 1942 for the experimental installation of Merlin engines built by the Packard Motor Car Company, who had begun the license manufacture of Merlin XXs a year earlier to supply Avro and de Havilland in Canada with powerplants for Canadian-built Lancasters and Mosquitoes. The two P-51s from the requisitioned RAF batch referred to earlier in the text which had not been converted as F.6As were earmarked to receive Packard-Merlin V-1650-3

engines, which had two-stage,

two-speed superchargers, and were rated at 1,380 hp at takeoff. The V-1650-3 was a highaltitude engine adapted from the Merlin 61. The two aircraft were initially designated XP-78s, but this was later changed to XP-51B. The first aircraft made its 45minute maiden flight from Inglewood on 30 November 1942, six weeks after the first flight of the Mustang X in Britain. Throughout the development of the Merlin Mustangs RollsRoyce and North American had freely exchanged information, but the solutions adopted by the two companies were quite different. North American also moved the carburettor air intake to a lower ‘lip’ position, but by locating the supercharger intercooler within the aircraft's ventral radiator, which was deepened for the purpose, they were able to minimise frontal area and come up with a much cleaner, low-drag installation. An 11 ft 2 in Hamilton Standard Hydromatic four-blade propeller with wide-chord ‘paddle’ blades was chosen to absorb the Packard-Merlin’s extra power, _ the airframe strengthened to take the additional load, new ailerons fitted, and hard points and racks installed under the wings for 1,000 Ibs (454 kg) of bombs or two 75-US gallon or 150-US gallon (284- or 568-litre) drop tanks. At a gross weight of

8,430 Ib (3,824 kg) the XP-51B prototype recorded a maximum true airspeed of 441 mph (706 km/h) — by coincidence exactly the figure initially predicted by Challier for the proposed Merlin 61 conversion, and 56 mph (90 km/h) better than the Allison-engined P-51A. On 26 August 1942, prior to the maiden flight of a Merlinengined Mustang on either side of the Atlantic, the USAAF contracted with North American for 400 Merlin Mustangs, bearing the factory type number NA-102 and the military designation P-51B-1. The USAAF also asked North American to increase production of the aircraft, to which end a second manufacturing plant was set up at Dallas, Texas, and on 8 October 1942 a further order was placed for 1,350 Mustangs from this factory as NA-103/P-51Cs. The P-51B-1 was powered by the Packard V-1650-3 engine with a take-off rating of 1,380 hp, 1,450 Ko maximum continuous power, and a war emergency rating of 1,620 hp at 16,800 ft (5,121 m). Armament comprised two Browning 0.50-in MG 52-2 machine guns in each wing with a total of 1,260 rounds of ammunition, and up to 1,000 Ibs (454 kg) of bombs on underwing racks. Gross weight, with bombs or drop tanks, was 11,200 Ib (5,080 kg). In early test trials conducted by the 31

F-6K-5NT photo-reconnaissance Mustang on North American’s Dallas assembly line. Note the camera port on fuselage to extreme right of the picture.

USAAF at Eglin Field, Florida in ' the summer of 1943 a P-51B-1 was flown against contemporary American fighters, including the earlier P-51A, Republic P-47D Thunderbolt, Lockheed P-38J Lightning, Bell P-39N Airacobra and Curtiss P-40N Warhawk. It was found to be some 7—10 mph (11-16 km/h) slower than the P-51A at lower altitudes up to

11,000 ft (3,353 m) but 15-20 mph (24-32 km/h) faster up to 22,000 ft (6,706 m), and above that altitude it maintained a 75 mph (120 km/h) speed advantage over its predecessor and out-performed the other types with the exception of the Thunderbolt, which it could nonetheless keep pace with at

430 mph (688 km/h) at 30,000 ft (9,144 m). In climb performance the P-51B outstripped the next fastest aircraft, the P-38J, by 30 seconds to 30,000 ft (9,144 m) and reached that altitude 63 minutes ahead of the Thunderbolt. The P-51B out-turned the 32

Lightning and Thunderbolt, but gave away a slight advantage in turning radius to the Airacobra and Warhawk. When further trials were conducted in January 1944 a production standard P-51B operating at a gross weight of 8,460 Ib (3,837 kg) achieved a maximum level speed of 453 mph

(725 km/h) at 28,800 ft (8,778 m) with the V-1650-3 engine producing 1,298 hp. Best rate of climb was 3,900 ft per min/ 1,189 m/min) at 12,800 ft (3,902 m), and service ceiling was 44,200 ft (13,472 m). The maximum level speed was especially noteworthy, coming within 16 mph (26 km/h) of the existing world air speed record set in April 1939 by a specially built Messerschmitt Me209V1 flown by Fritz Wendl. The first production P-51B made its first flight in the hands of Bob Chilton on 5 May 1943; the first Dallas-built P-51C-1, which differed from the Ingle-

wood-built aircraft only in minor details, followed on 5 August. The P-51B/C Mustang came on the scene at a time when the Eighth Air Force was suffering heavy losses on bombing raids into occupied Europe. The need for greater range in fighter escorts was paramount. Thus, as production of the P-51B got under way at Inglewood, a modification was incorporated to install a self-sealing rubber fuel tank of 85 US gallons (322 litres) capacity in the fuselage aft of the pilot’s seat. With this tank total internal fuel capacity increased to 269 US gallons (1,018 litres), and maximum gross weight to 9,800 Ib (4,445 kg) without external load, or 11,800 Ib (5,352 kg) with bombs or drop tanks, providing a maximum range of 815 miles (1,304 km) on internal fuel at maximum continuous power, 1,240 miles (1984 km) with a pair of 75-US gallon (284-litre) drop tanks, and a combat radius of 650 miles (1,040 km). The fuselage tank was fitted as standard on the last 550 P-51Bs

built at Inglewood (out of a total of 1,988 — a third order for 1,588 Merlin-powered Mustangs was placed by the USAAF on 20 October 1942). Retrofit kits were also produced to install the tank in existing P-51B-1s, -5s and P-51C-1s, these aircraft

being redesignated P-51B-7 and P-51C-3 with the extra tankage. P-51B-5s, -10s and -15s from the October order bore the factory type number NA-104. The P-51B-15 and P-51C-5/10 were powered by the Packard V-1650-7 engine (equivalent to the British Merlin 68) which was rated at 1,490 hp at take-off and had a war emergency rating of 1,720 hp at 6,200 ft (1,890 m). The fuselage tank installation was not entirely without draw-

P-51D assembly line at Inglewood. Note ‘six-gun’ armament

backs. When filled it placed the aircraft's centre of gravity Critically near to its aft limit and led to porpoising at high airspeeds. As a result manoeuvring

was restricted until the fuel in the tank had been reduced to about 25 US gallons (95 litres), and its operational capacity was eventually restricted to 65 US gallons (246 litres). The Royal Air Force received 274 P-51Bs and 636 P-51Cs from the USAAF contract under Lend-Lease, and it was in Britain that two further significant modifications were developed for the aircraft, known as the Mustang III in RAF service. A further increase in fuel Capacity was provided by a 108US gallon (409-litre) drop tank developed at the Eighth Air Force’s request by British engineers. The tank was made from plastic-impregnated pressed paper in the absence of sufficient

stocks of precious aluminium. Although it could not be used to store fuel for long periods, because the petrol broke down the material from which it was made, the tank proved very successful as a use-and-throwaway item, which could also double as an incendiary bomb if the need arose. Some 50 small companies-in Britain were contracted to produce the ‘paper’ tanks at the rate of 24,000 each month. They boosted the P-51B/ Cs ferry range, at economycruise power settings, to 2,120 miles (3,392 km), its combat radius to 750 miles (1,200 km), and its endurance to seven hours — an uncomfortably long time for Mustang pilots, who did not care for the aircraft's cockpit heating/ cooling system which could never seem to be adjusted to maintain the right balance between roasting and freezing the occupant.

The second modification made in Britain did however improve an area which had long been a source of discontent among Mustang pilots: cockpit visibility. The aircraft's heavyframed canopy had remained largely unchanged but for minor detail design since the appearance of the NA-73X prototype. The framing restricted lookout to the sides, while the flat transparent side panels hampered the view to the rear — all important in aerial combat — and the flat roof line proved uncomfortable for any pilot of more than average height. A British technician at the A & AEE Boscombe Down named Robert Malcolm designed a new canopy for the RAF’s Mustang IIIs which replaced the sidewayshinging multi-framed cover of the production Mustangs with a clear blown perspex canopy with bulged roof line and sides, providing downward and rearward vision. It slid back for

cockpit access. The ‘Malcolm’ hood was fitted as a postdelivery modification to most of the RAF’s Mustang Ills as they arrived in England, and was also retrofitted to some USAAF P-51Bs and Cs, though, as we shall see, North American already had a more far-reaching solution to the cockpit vision problem in hand. The Malcolm hood was successful (though some pilots still complained that its clear perspex allowed more of the sun’s rays to enter the cockpit than had been possible with the framed ‘greenhouse’ type cockpit cover), versions of it were also adapted for lend-lease P-47D ‘Razorback’ Thunderbolts for the RAF and for the early Fleet Air Arm Chance-Vought Corsairs. Total production of the P-51B was 1,988 aircraft, all built at the North American plant at Inglewood and having their military designations suffixed -NA (thus P-51B-5-NA). The 1,350 P-51Cs built at the Dallas plant had -NT

33

suffixes. 71 P-51Bs were converted for the tactical reconnaissance role as F-6C-NAs, and 20 P-51Cs were similarly reworked as F-6C-NTs, fitted with obliquely mounted K.17, K.22 or (two) K.24 aerial cameras. Although cockpit visibility had improved as the Mustang developed, notably from the relocation of the carburettor air intake from the top of the

cowling on the P-51 and P-51A Allison-engined variants to the lip position on Merlin-engined Factory cutaway illustration of P-51D, prior to the introduction of the dorsal fin extension.

34

aircraft, RAF and USAAF pilots criticised the obstructed view afforded by the framed canopy cover and this view (or rather lack of it) had been put to North American in successive service assessments of the aeroplane. Thus, while Robert Malcolm was developing his in-field modification at Boscombe Down, in California North American were experimenting with new methods of forming plexiglass developed for the manufacture of glazed nose

sections for bombers‘to devise a ‘bubble’ canopy for the Mustang. The plan was to replace the ‘razorback’ fuselage (which was the norm for single-engined fighters throughout the world at that time) with a cut-down rear decking topped off by a clear canopy affording as near as possible all-round vision. Much work was done on developing a canopy which would withstand massive temperature changes in climbs to and descent from altitude, and the pressures of

P-51B-1 43-12102 was used to test the ‘bubble-top’ canopy which was adopted on the P-51D and later variants. The aircraft is seen here on a test flight in the hands of Bob Chilton.

flight at speeds approaching 500 mph (805 km/h). The tenth production P-51B-1 was taken off the Inglewood line for modification. Aft of the windscreen the fuselage ‘turtledeck’ was completely redesigned. Formers were reduced in height so that the upper fuselage profile faired straight from the cockpit sill line into the fillet at the base of the fin, and the large bubble canopy sat atop the fuselage unobstructed by surrounding structure. Wind tunnel tests and flight trials with the modified P-51B indicated no aerodynamic problems and provided superb visibility. Two further P-51Bs — the 201st and 202nd airframes from Inglewood — were assigned for use as manufacturing prototypes for the new Mustang, which was given the factory number NA-106 and the military designation P-51D. Aircraft for the first production contract, placed by the USAAF on 13 April 1943 for 2,500 aircraft, and

followed ten days later by a further order for 100 aircraft to be shipped unassembled directly to Australia, were factory numbered

NA-109 and NA-110

respec-

tively. Although the successful testing of the bubble canopy prompted North American to switch all future production to this type of cockpit cover, the first four P-51Ds completed actually retained the old-style framed canopy. In addition to the canopy and rear fuselage alterations, the P-51D also had an additional 0.50-in machine gun in each wing, with a total of 1,880 rounds of ammunition; strengthened wing hard points with racks capable of carrying 1,000 Ibs (454 kg) of bombs each; new ailerons which featured fabric gap-seals to increase control effectiveness and lighten

stick forces, enabling the booster tabs installed on the earlier models to be dispensed with; ‘fences’ ahead of the ailerons on upper and lower surfaces to further enhance roll response and three hinges per aileron in place of two on the P-51B/C. The 85-US gallon 322-litre) fuselage fuel tank developed for the earlier Mustangs was adopted as standard on the P-51D, which was placed in production simultaneously at the Inglewood and Dallas plants. Like its immediate predecessors the P-51D was powered by the Packard V-16507 rated at 1,490 hp at take-off, but was marginally slower with a maximum speed of 438 mph (701 km/h) at 25,000 ft (7,620 m). It had a maximum gross take-off weight of 12,100 Ibs (5,489 kg) and an absolute range, with a pair of 108-US gallon (409-litre) drop tanks, of 2,080 miles (3,328 km) and a combat radius, with 20-minute combat allowance, of 750 miles (1,200 km). In all 6,502 P-51Ds were built at Inglewood, and 1,454 at Dallas, including 271 delivered to the RAF as Mustang IVs, and 136 modified for tactical reconnaissance by the Dallas plant as F-6Ds with vertical and oblique cameras and direction-finding

equipment. The cut-down rear decking of the P-51D reduced the keel area of the fuselage and adversely

affected the aircraft’s directional stability. A short dorsal fin was developed and retrofitted to early production ‘Ds from August 1944. Pilots found the instability in yaw tiring on long bomber escort missions. The modification also incorporated a linkage to the rudder trim tab which increased rudder loads, preventing the pilot from over-controlling on the rudder and thus imposing excessive structural loads on that surface. The dorsal fin modification kit was not only fitted later to the 650 P-51Ds which had left the Inglewood plant prior to its introduction, but also found its way to units operating earlier P-51Bs and ‘Cs, which were also modified in the field. The final 1,100 Inglewoodbuilt P-51D-25-NAs (factory number NA-122) were fitted with twin zero-length launching stubs for ten 5-inch High Velocity Aircraft Rockets (HVARS) under their wings. Combinations of HVARs and 500-lb (227-kg) and 1,000-Ib (454-kg) bombs could be loaded for ground-attack missions. A further development of the P-51D came from the Dallas factory only: the P-51K, for which an order for 1,500 aircraft was placed by the USAAF on 3 May 1943 as part of an order for 2,300 ‘C, ‘D and ‘K models, though total of P-51K production reached only 1,337 aircraft, of which 594 went to the RAF (like the P-51D, as Mustang 35

PURSUIT CONVEYOR LINES INSTALLED IN FORMER BOMBER PRODUCTION AREA

37

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Above: A P-51D-1 from the first production batch for the USAAF, pictured on a pre-delivery test flight

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over California. /nset: Two-seat trainer TF-51D-30-NA, with modified canopy

P-51D, posing as a Mustang IV of No. 3 Squadron, Royal Australian

and fixed tailwheel. Be/ow. Restored

Air Force.

eal

av

IVs), and 163 were converted for tactical reconnaissance as F-6Ks. A further 84 P-51Ks went to Australia under Lend-Lease at the end of the war. The P-51K was the last Mustang to be manufactured at North American’s Dallas plant, which stopped production after VJ-Day, although production continued until November 1945 at Inglewood. The P-51K was identical to the P-51D apart from its propeller. An 11 ft (3.35 m) Aeroproducts propeller was substituted for the P-51D’s Hamilton Standard Hydromatic unit because Hamilton Standard were unable to meet North American’s demands for propellers. The Aeroproducts propeller had hollow steel blades rather than the solid aluminium type used by Hamilton Standard, and incorporated an ingenious Dallas-built P-51Ks such as this example were identical to Inglewoodbuilt P-51Ds save for an Aeroproducts’ propeller in place of the 51-D’s Hamilton Standard Hydromatic unit.

pitch control mechanism which had its own self-contained oil pump and reservoir providing very rapid pitch changes in the order of six degrees per second. Unfortunately the Aeroproducts propellers were beset with problems of blade imbalance which caused delays in delivery of the P-51Ks, outweighing the advantages of the Aeroproducts propeller’s ready availability. Following the Allied invasion of occupied Europe in June 1944, the Supreme Allied Commander General Dwight D. Eisenhower was given an aerial tour of the landing beaches in Normandy in a specially converted P-51B-5. The 85-US gallon (322-litre) fuselage fuel tank was removed to provide space for the General's seat. This in-field conversion may have inspired a two-seat trainer version of the Mustang, designated TP-51D, which was

developed at North American's Texas plant. Thanks to the generous size of the P-51D’s cockpit and bubble canopy no extensive modification was necessary beyond the removal of the fuel tank and the relocation of radio equipment aft. Ten TP-51D-NT trainers were produced in wartime, and further post-war conversions were carried out by the Temco Aircraft Corporation and Trans Florida/Cavalier corporation. They were later redesignated TF-51Ds under the USAF’s revised designation system. Another Mustang modification developed during the war was an experimental carrier-borne version of the P-51D equipped with strengthened wings, taller fin and a wider chord rudder. North American test pilot Bob Chilton conducted initial trials _ making simulated deck landings on a specially-marked out runway. Promising results from

The P-51D’s bubble hood provided excellent visibility but could turn the cockpit into a hothouse under strong sunlight.

these prompted a further modification to another P-51D at the Dallas factory in which an arrestor hook was installed behind the tailwheel bay in the aircraft's rear fuselage. The P-51D, flown by Lieutenant R. M. Elder. was tested aboard the aircraft carrier USS Shangri-La on 14 November 1944 as the newly commissioned ship cruised Chesapeake Bay. Elder’s landings and unassisted take-offs were entirely successful, as were subsequent catapult trials at Norfolk Navy Yard and Philadelphia Navy Yard. But despite further design studies by North American which included folding wings for below-decks stowage, the successful development of Chance-Vought’s F4U Corsair from its early models, which were unsuitable for carrier Operations, prevented the Mustang from becoming a naval fighter. Inner-wheel well doors were usually closed on the ground, but gradually ‘bled’ down when the Mustang was parked. Note. the landing light and gun camera port in the wing root.

The Mustang at war The first Merlin- powered Mustangs to go into service with the USAAF were assigned not to the Eighth Air Force, but to the Ninth Air Force, the initial batch of P-51Bs arriving at the 354th Fighter Group’s temporary base at Greenham Common, Berkshire on 11 November 1943 prior to the unit’s redeployment to Boxted, near Colchester in Essex. The 354th’s first mission — a sweep over the coast of Belgium — was flown on 1 December with 23 Mustangs led by a veteran Eighth Air Force pilot and former Eagle Squadron volunteer Lieut-Col Don Blakesee. The 354th, although part of the Ninth Air Force, was used in support of the Eighth, and flew its first bomber

escort mission to Amiens on 5 December. Eleven days later the P-51B was blooded in combat when a pilot from the 355th Squadron brought down a twin-engine Messerschmitt Bf110. On 13 December the 354th Fighter Group’s P-51Bs flew their first long range escort mission, ranging to Kiel, a record 500 miles (800 km) from their English base. In February 1944 the 353rd Fighter Group also arrived in England with P-51Bs and flew bomber escort until June, when both Groups of the Ninth Air Force moved to France to operate in the groundsupport role which was that Air Force’s primary role. Meanwhile in January 1944 the Eighth Air Force had

‘swapped’ an operational P-47D Thunderbolt fighter group with the Ninth Air Force’s 357th Fighter Group, then working up to operational status, in order to

expedite the Mustang's entry into Eighth Air Force service, which began on 11 February when the 357th Fighter Group operating out of Leiston, Suffolk flew a mission over Rouen in northern France. By the early summer of 1944 Mustang deliveries to England had built up to such a pace that eight groups in the Eighth Air Force (20th, 339th, 352nd, 355th, 357th, 359th, 361st and 479th Fighter Groups) were fully operational with the P-51Bs and P-51Cs which had replaced P-47D Thunderbolts and P-38 Lightnings, in addition to those Mustangs of the 380th Fighter Squadron, 363rd Fighter Group, USAAF, break for landing over Foo/’s Paradise /V, a P-51D-5-NA, in France shortly after the Allied invasion of Normandy in June 1944.

«

of the Ninth Air Force. The first Mustangs to escort bombers over the German capital of Berlin came from the Ninth Air Force’s 4th and 354th Fighter Groups, which accompanied B-17 Flying Fortresses and B-24 Liberators on the 1,100 miles (1,760 km) round trip mission on 4 March 1944. The Mustang's long-range capability was soon exploited routinely on such deep penetration escort missions, and immediately prior to the D-Day landings P-51Bs and ‘Cs played most effective roles in tactical support. On 5 April 1944 Mustangs from the 4th and 355th Fighter Groups destroyed 53 German aircraft in the air and on the ground during low-level strafing attacks on airfields near Berlin and Munich. P-51Bs and ‘Cs also served with the 31st, 52nd, 325th and 332nd Fighter Groups of the Fifteenth Air Force in Italy, and

with the 23rd, 51st and 311th Fighter Groups of the Fourteenth Air Force in China. In Royal Air Force service the Mustang III was first operated by No 19 Squadron based at Ford, Sussex from February 1944. Other squadrons equipped with the

aircraft were Nos 65, 66, 94, 112, ie, i22,126, 165,213, 249

and 260, 345 Squadrons, 306, 309, 315 and 316 (Polish) Squadrons (three of which escorted a Bomber Command raid on Adolf Hitler’s mountain lair at Berchtesgarden late in April 1945), and No 5 Squadron of the South African Air Force. British-based RAF Mustang IIIs were used principally on Ramrod escort missions for Bomber Command raids, but were also employed on ground-attack missions and most successfully against V-1 flying bombs, some 232 of which had been claimed by Mustang squadrons by the end of the war. The first operational ‘bubble top’ P-51D Mustangs reached England in May 1944,

sup-

plementing earlier ‘Bs and ‘Cs, at first, but eventually equipping 42 squadrons and 14 Fighter Groups of the Eighth Air Force. Initially the new aircraft were assigned to squadron and group commanders, who had the most pressing need of the P-51D’s improved cockpit visibility, though not all were impressed by a less endearing quality of this mark. Because of some peculiarity of air circulation, baling out of the aircraft was difficult, the pilot tending to become trapped by air pressure

against the rear radio compartment. The only sure way to get out was to roll the aircraft inverted and fall free. Nonetheless the P-51D was an outstanding fighter, with superb handling characteristics and remarkable manoeuvrability, further enhanced late in 1944 when USAAF pilots were equipped with the first Berger ‘G suits’ which prevented blood surging during high g manoeuvres and enabled Mustang pilots to make tighter turns and steeper pull-ups without blacking out. Like their earlier counterparts, the P-51Ds were soon flying extremely long escort missions.

On 21 June 1944 a mixed force of ‘B, ‘C and ‘D Mustangs totalling 70 aircraft drawn from the 4th and 352nd Fighter Groups escorted B-17 Flying Fortresses on a ‘Shuttle’ mission to Berlin, then flew on to land in Russia on a 74-hour flight covering nearly 1,500 miles (2,400 km). The Mustangs then transitted to Italy where they flew escort missions for Fifteenth Air Force bombers before returning to their bases in England a fortnight after setting out.

In the Pacific Theatre too, the P-51D demonstrated its. extremely long legs, and became the first American fighter to overfly Japan after Mustangs from the 15th and 21st Fighter Groups, made up of the 4th, 46th, 47th 72nd, 78th and 731st Fighter Squadrons, arrived on the island of lwo Jima in March 1945, a few weeks after the American forces invaded. On 7 April 108 P-51Ds from the two Groups, equipped with drop tanks and operating beyond their normal maximum gross weight, escorted a force of 107 B-29 Superfortresses on a mission to bomb Nakajima aircraft plant Colonel J. J. Christian, commander of the 361st Fighter Group of the Eighth Air Force flew Lou /V, an early P-51D-5-NA lacking a dorsal fin fillet.

42

near Tokyo. The flight lasted nearly eight hours, was almost entirely over water, with the B-29s providing navigational assistance for the Mustang

pilots,

and was the first of what would prove to be the longest regular escort missions to be flown during World War II. On that mission the Japanese launched a large force of fighters against the American formations about 45 miles from the target. 21 Japanese aircraft were destroyed by the Mustangs, for the loss of two P-51Ds, one of which was ditched on the return flight, and three B-29s, two lost to antiaircraft fire and one destroyed by the bombs from another Superfortress. In late April 1945 the 457th, 458th and 462nd Fighter Squadrons of the 506th Fighter Group redeployed to lwo Jima from Tinian Island to join the 15th and 21st Fighter Groups, and by 22 June the three Groups had flown 832 missions, for the loss of 11 aircraft. Heavy losses were incurred on 1 June, but not through enemy action. On that day 148 P-51Ds took off to form up in poor weather, with cloud cover topping 20,000 ft (6,096 m). Mid-air collisions destroyed 27 P-51Ds and took the lives of 24 pilots. Only 29 Mustangs succeeded in meeting up with the B-29 bomber force. In the months of April, May and June 1945 the three Mustang Groups based on Iwo Jima destroyed 666 Japanese aircraft, nearly all of them on the ground at bases in Japan. Their final mission, escorting B-29s to Osaka, was flown on 14 August. While the Pacific-based P-51Ds did not encounter much in the way of opposition from Japanese fighters in the later stages of the war, the Europeanbased Mustang pilots did have to fight their way across Germany's skies, albeit against increasingly inexperienced and demoralised opponents.

The P-51D acquitted itself extremely well. Among Mustang pilots who recorded multiple victories On a single mission in the aircraft were Lieut Charles ‘Chuck’ Yeager of the 357th Fighter Group, who destroyed five Messerschmitt Bf109s on 12 October 1944, and later went on to greater fame as the first man to exceed the speed of sound in level flight in the experimental Bell X-1 rocket aircraft. Others included Captain Bill Wisner, 352nd Fighter Group, who downed six Focke-Wulf FW-190s on 21 November 1944; Lieut Claude Crenshaw, 359th Fighter Group, who accounted for five more FW-190s on that same escort mission, and Major ~ George Preddy of the 532nd Fighter Group who led his flight against 30 Messerschmitt Bf109s while en route to Berlin on 6 August 1944 and personally shot down six. Preddy was the highest-scoring Mustang pilot of the war, with 24 ‘kills’ to his credit. Tragically he died on Christmas Day 1944 when his P-51D was hit by Allied antiaircraft fire. Although the P-51D could outperform the piston-engined fighters which the Luftwaffe launched to oppose USAAF bomber formations, it was usually no match for the rocket and jet-powered interceptors which began to appear in German skies in the summer of 1944. The rocket-powered Messerschmitt Me163 Komet, popularly known as The Devil's Sled, could reach 590 mph (950 km/h) at high altitude, while the Messerschmitt Me262 twin jet had a speed of 540 mph (864 km/h) at the altitudes at which the P-51Ds usually flew above the B-17 and B-24 formations. Nonetheless, P-51D pilots did score victories over both types. On 16 August 1944 Lieut-Col John B. Murphy of the 359th Fighter Group attacked a Komet over Leipzig and brought it down.

On 7 October Lieut Urban Drew spotted two unidentified German fighters over Northern Germany and made a diving pass at them, destroying both before realising that they had been Me262 jets. A month later, on 8 November, the Luftwaffe’s first jet unit, led by 250-plus ace Major Walter Nowotny, lost four Me262s to P-51Ds in combat, including its fameca leader who had shot down three Mustangs in the action. In 13 months of operations USAAF Mustang groups destroyed 9,081 enemy aircraft in Europe including 4,950 claimed in air-to-air combat, a record which accounted for almost half the enemy aircraft destroyed by all the American units in the European Theatre between 194445. The RAF P-51Ds, known as Mustang IVs, entered service in September 1944 with 303 (Polish) Squadron, and subsequently equipped numbers 19, 64, 65, 112, 118,122) 2137248; 442 and 611 Squadrons. 271 P-51Ds were delivered to the RAF and these, with the P-51Ks referred to earlier in the text, remained in front-line squadron service after the war, being replaced finally in May 1947. Mustang IVs from 611 Squadron were the first RAF aircraft to join Soviet squadrons in celebrating Allied air supremacy over the German capital city on 16 April 1945. While the P-51D was getting into full production North American began development of lightweight versions of the Mustang with the aim of increasing performance and manouevrability without increasing engine power. In 1943 Ed Schmued had journeyed to England to discuss with British officials their experiences with the early Allison-powered Mustangs and to compare the aircraft with contemporary British and captured German types. As a result 43

Above: XP-51F was the first of the lightweight Mustangs, recording a maximum speed of 466 mph (746 km/h). Note the small wheels and larger bubble canopy.

Below: XP-51F

instrument panel.

he returned to California convinced of the need to embark on a weight reduction programme for the aircraft by simplifying the structure, using new materials such as plastics in non-structural areas and eliminating some non-essential items of equipment. Five experimental prototypes were planned — three with Packard V-1650-7 engines driving three-bladed Aeroproducts propellers, and two employing the new Rolls-Royce Merlin 145 (R.M.14.SM) driving a high-performance five-bladed propeller supplied by the Rotol company in England. Both variants were allotted the North American type number NA-105, the Packard-engined machines being designated XP-51F (there was no P-51E) and the Merlin 145-powered machines XP-51G. The XP-51F had a new lowdrag laminar flow wing, smaller wheels and tyres with lighter undercarriage legs which enabled the leading edge root extension of the earlier marks to be eliminated; a new low-drag bubble canopy; lightened engine mounts with new cowlings and a redesigned ventral radiator intake. The fuselage fuel tank was dispensed with, reducing internal fuel capacity to 205 US gallons (776 litres) in two wing tanks, and armament reduced to four Browning 0.50-in MG 53-2

machine guns. The oil cooler was replaced by a heat exchanger mounted in the engine bay following successful experiments on a P-51B-1, and the dorsal fin extension removed. All this refinement resulted in a Mustang which weighed 5,635 Ibs empty (2,556 kg), compared to the 7,125 lbs (3,232 kg) of the P-51D, with a gross weight of 9,060 Ib (4,110 kg) — almost a ton (1,016 kg) lighter than the P-51D. Test Pilot Bob Chilton made the first flight in the XP-51F on 14 February 1944,

and reported tremendous performance potential from the

aircraft. In later trials the XP-51F, operating at a gross weight of 7,265 Ibs (3,295 kg) recorded a maximum speed of 466 mph (746 km/h) at 29,000 ft (8,839 m), a cruising speed of 380 mph (608 km/h), and a service ceiling of 42,500 ft (12,954 m). The lightweight Mustang climbed to 20,000 ft (6,096 m) in less than five minutes. The second and third XP-51Fs were fitted with the P-51D-type dorsal fin extension and antiboost tab. The third aircraft was

XP-51G was powered by a RollsRoyce RM14SM

Merlin 145 engine

driving a five-blade Rotol propeller, and reached 495 mph (792 km/h).

shipped to England on 30 June 1944 for evaluation trials which did not begin until the following October at the A & AEE at Boscombe Down. The delay was caused by installation of full military equipment and armament. The fourth and fifth lightweight Mustang airframes had been The third experimental lightweight Mustang was the XP-51J, which reverted to an Allison engine last used on the P-51A. Note the exceptionally clean cowling and fuselage, some eight inches longer than the XP-51F’s.

earmarked for the Merlin 145 engines which arrived at North American's Inglewood plant in February 1944. The Merlin 145 was rated at 1,675 hp at take-off, and used fuel metering instead of a carburettor to meter out fuel automatically according to set rpm and pressure altitude. It was a sensitive device requiring Critical adjustment of the air intake scoop and, because of the trials and experimentation needed to perfect the airflow to the engine, flight testing of the Cutaway drawing of production P-51H.

46

XP-51G with its five-bladed propeller was delayed until 9 August 1944, when Ed Virgin made the aircraft's first flight. The XP-51G was even lighter than the ‘F, with a gross weight of 8,879 Ibs (4,028 kg), and proved to be the best performer of the many wartime Mustang variants. Its maximum speed was recorded at 495 mph (792 km/h) at 22,800 ft (6,949 m), climbing to 20,000 ft (6,096 m) in three min 24 secs, and its service ceiling of 46,000 ft (14,020 m)

was limited only by the lack of a pressurised cockpit for the pilot rather than the XP-51G’s inability to maintain a positive rate of climb to still higher altitudes. The second XP-51G was flown on 14 November 1944 and was subsequently shipped to England for evaluation. Had the aircraft been adopted for RAF service it would have been designated Mustang V. A third experimental lightweight Mustang was added to the NA-105 development pro-

P-51H was the production ‘lightweight’ Mustang. This early example, pictured on test from Inglewood, lacks the taller fin adopted later to improve stability in yaw. Note the lack of wing root extensions familiar on earlier marks to accommodate larger mainwheels.

gramme. Designated XP-51J this aircraft reverted to an Allison engine, the first Mustang to be sO powered since the P-51A. The engine selected was the Allison V-1710-119 rated at 1,500 hp at take-off and 1,720 hp at 20,000 ft (6,096 m). This powerplant used water-injection

to permit over-boosting, and was thought to possess many of the Merlin 145’s high-power-athigh-altitude qualities. On the XP-51J the carburettor air intake which had been a source of problems and an obstruction to pilot visibility on the early Allison Mustangs was incorporated in the ventral radiator scoop, giving this Mustang a particularly clean cowling design. The first XP-51J, which was some eight inches (20.3 cm) longer than the XP-51F, weighed 9,141 Ib (4,146 kg) gross, and had a maximum speed of 491 mph (786 km/h) at 27,400 ft (8,352 m) using water injection, flew on 23 April 1945 in the hands of Joe Barton. After early tests revealed engine problems both it and the second XP-51J were assigned to the Allison engine division of General Motors for further development of the powerplant. The promise shown by the XP-51F prompted further development of the lightweight Mustang project under the North

American type number NA-126, designated P-51H. This aircraft, for which an order for 2,000 was placed by the USAAF on 26 April 1944, was the production development of the earlier experimental aircraft. It differed from the XP-51F principally in being powered by the Packard V-1650-9 engine rated at 1,380 hp at take-off and 2,218 hp at 10,200 ft (3,109 m) with

Packard V-1650-9 engine installation on the P-51H.

water injection; a shorter bubble canopy; slightly longer fuselage measuring 33 ft 4 in (10.16 m); 50-US gallon (189-litre) fuselage fuel tank, and the option of sjx MG 53-2 machine guns. Provision was also made for the carriage of up to ten 5-in rockets on zero-length launching stubs beneath the wings. The P-51H had an empty weight of 7,148 Ibs (3,242 kg) equipped, and a gross weight of 9,500 Ibs (4,309 kg), but could operate up to a maximum overload gross of 11,050 Ibs (5,012 kg). Its maximum speed was 487 mph (779 km/h) at 25,000 ft (7,620 m), making it the fastest of all production Mustangs, fully 100

mph (160 km/h) faster than the first production Allison-engined P-51s at equivalent altitude. The first P-51H made its maiden flight from the Inglewood plant on 3 February 1945. The first 24 P-51Hs built retained the P-51D’s vertical tail surfaces, but all later aircraft of the 555 built (the remainder being cancelled after VJ-Day) had taller fins and rudders. One P-51H was supplied to the RAF for evaluation, but none of the lightweight Mustangs saw service in Europe, though a few did reach squadrons in the Pacific, which was to have been the lightweight Mustang’s principal theatre of action. The

P-51H remained in service as a front-line aircraft with the renamed United States Air Force and Air National Guard units in the early years of peacetime. Two other lightweight Mustangs were planned by North American — the P-51L, which was to have been powered by the direct fuel injection Packard V-1650-11 engine rated at 1,500 hp at take-off; and the P-51M which was to have a 1,400 hp Packard V-1650-9A without water injection. The USAAF ordered 1,700 P-51Ls, which were to have been built at Inglewood, though none was completed before war’s end, and 1,628 Dallas-built P-51Ms, only one of which was manufactured before the contracts were cancelled.

48

Early in 1945 Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation Pty Ltd of Australia acquired a licence to build the P-51D for the Royal Australian Air Force, and began preparations for production at their Fisherman’s Bend factory near Melbourne. A P-51D airframe was supplied by North American as a pattern and a further 100 knocked-down airframes (previously referred to in the text) were shipped to Australia. 80 of these were assembled by Commonwealth Aircraft as CA-17 Mustang 20s, the first making its maiden flight on 29 April 1945 powered by a Packard V-1650-3 engine. Total planned production was for 500 aircraft, of which only 200 were built. The second batch were designated CA-18 Mustangs,

P-51K taking off from North American’s Dallas, Texas, plant.

and were built in three subtypes. The Mustang 21, of which 40 were built, had a 1,450 hp Packard V-1650-7 engine; the Mustang 22, of which 14 were manufactured, was similarly powered but equipped with an obliquely-mounted F.24 reconnaissance camera; while the final

66 Mustang 23s had Britishmanufactured Merlin 66 and 70 engines. The remaining 300 aircraft, which were to have been designated CA-21 Mustangs, were cancelled and their place taken in the Royal Australian Air Force’s inventory by 84 P-51Ks and 214 P-51Ds supplied by the USAAF under Lend-Lease.

No Australian-built Mustang saw operational service during World War II, but RAAF Mustangs operated by 77 Squadron did see action during the Korean War, and Mustangs remained in service with volunteer Citizens Air Force squadrons of the RAAF until the volunteer reserve force was relegated to non-flying duties in June 1960. Before the end of World War II the United States began supplying surplus Mustangs to friendly overseas powers. Among the earliest to be delivered were 50 P-51Ds for the Chinese Nationalist Air Force, the first of a total of 103 Mustangs eventually supplied to that air arm, P-51Ks awaiting delivery to the USAAF, RAF and Royat Dutch Air Force at North American’s Dallas factory.

which also bought more than 1,100 surplus USAAF aircraft of all types which had been Operated in the Far East. This total is known to have included further Mustangs, including P51Bs, though exact figures are unknown. Sweden's F/ygvapnet evaluated two P-51Bs and two P-51Ds which had landed in neutral Swedish territory in 1944 under the Swedish designation J26 and were sufficiently impressed to order 50 surplus P-51Ds. The first deliveries began in April 1945 from USAAF depots in Germany. A further 107 P-51Ds were ordered later, although final delivery of the Swedish aircraft was not completed until March 1948. These aircraft were also designated J26 in Swedish service. In 1951 12 of

them were equipped for photoreconnaissance and redesignated S26. The Mustang was withdrawn from F/ygvapnet service progressively between 1952—54, and sold off to the air arms of Dominica, Nicaragua and Egypt. France's Armée de /Air received P-51D Mustangs shortly before the war ended, commencing tactical reconnaissance operations with P-51Ds of the Escadron 2/33 Savoie at Colmar in February 1945, and later with Escadron 1/33 Be/fort, also of the 33éme Escadre de Reconnaissance, based at Freiburg-imBreisgau. The French Mustangs were phased out beginning in the summer of 1952 when they were replaced by Republic F-84G Thunderjets. In September 1947 the United States entered into a treaty with

Latin American nations called the Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance, which was to result in Mustangs being supplied to President Batista’s Cuba. The Cuban P-51Ds remained in service until shortly after Fidel Castro overthrew the Batista regime. Other Central and South American air arms to use P-51Ds included Dominica and Nicaragua, as already detailed, the Corps d‘Aviation d‘Haiti, 50

Fuerza Aérea de Uruguaya, Fuerza Aérea Boliviano, Fuerza Aérea Nicaraguense, the Fuerza Aérea Hondorena and the Fuerza Aérea Salvadorena, whose F-51Ds (post-war USAF

designation for the P-51D) fought against each other in the so-called ‘Football War’ of 1969. In Europe the Royal Dutch Air Force received a total of 43

P-51Ds, though all but three served in the Dutch

East Indies

50-calibre ammunition belts being loaded into a post-war USAF F-51D.

against Indonesian nationalists, and 30 P-51Ks were also delivered as replacements for damaged or destroyed P-51Ds. These Mustangs were the first to see action after World War Il. When the Republic of Indonesia was Created in 1950, surviving F-51Ds were transferred to the newly-formed Angkatan Udara

Republik Indonesia (\ndonesian Air Force) and, with additional aircraft supplied later, served late into the 1970s, longer than any other Mustangs. Soon after the end of the war 48 P-51Ds were supplied to the Italian Air Force, retiring in the mid-1950s when small numbers were sold to Somalia and Israel. Switzerland acquired 100 P-51Ds in 1948 as a stop-gap replacement for Messerschmitt Bf109Es pending delivery of de Havilland Vampire jet fighters, and these served for ten years with the Swiss Flugwaffe. In the British Commonwealth, New Zealand pressed into service 30 P/F-51Ds which had been supplied originally under the Lend-Lease programme in 1945. They were stored after VJ-Day and placed in service in 1951 with the NZ Territorial Air Force, an auxiliary arm which flew the Mustangs for five years. The Royal Canadian Air Force’s Auxiliary Fighter Squadrons were also equipped with Mustangs commencing in June 1947, five Canadian squadrons having previously operated the type within the RAF during the war. Canada acquired 130 P-51Ds, known as Mustang IVs. These equipped 416 and 417 Squadrons of the RCAF, and 402 (City of Winnipeg), 403 (City of Calgary), 420 (City of London), 424 (City of Hamilton), 442 (City of Vancouver) and 443 (City of Westminster) Squadrons of the Auxiliary Air Force, which operated the Mustangs until 1956. Other significant users of the Mustang in the post-war years were the Philippine Air Force, which equipped with P-51Ds upon its formation in 1947 and operated three squadrons of Mustangs until they were replaced by F-86F Sabres in 1959, and the Republic of South Korea. When the North Koreans invaded South Korea on 25 June 1950

the Mustang gained a new lease of life with the USAF. At that time F-51Ds and F-51Hs were serving with home-based Air National Guard units in the United States. However, a number of F-51Ds were in storage in Japan, and ten of these were immediately allocated to the Republic of Korea Air Force for ground-support missions backing up United Nations forces. It soon became apparent to US strategists that the Mustang was ideally matched to Korean operations because it could operate from rough, hastily prepared airstrips which were quite unsuitable for the Lockheed F-80 jet fighters then equipping USAF squadrons based in Japan. Accordingly arrangements were made for the supply of 145 Mustangs drawn from Stateside Air National Guard squadrons, and these were shipped from the West Coast aboard the aircraft carrier USS Boxer on 15 July 1950, while the 40th and 51st Fighter Squadrons (the former having converted back from F-80s) began flying the first American F-51D missions of the war from Pohang and Taegu in South Korea using aircraft taken out of storage in Japan. When the Mustangs shipped on the USS Boxer arrived, further squadrons worked up on the aircraft, so that within two months of the outbreak of war six USAF squadrons were again in action flying Mustangs, mostly in ground-attack sorties against Communist forces until early in 1953, when F-84 Thunderjets and F-86 Sabres took over the brunt of these missions. Not only the USAF and ROKAF used Mustangs in Korea. When the war broke out 77 Squadron of the Royal Australian Air Force was flying

Mustangs from Iwakuni in Japan, and was immediately put on stand-by. The Australian Mustangs flew their first Korean

mission on 2 July, escorting USAF B-29 Superfortresses on a raid on a North Korean airfield at Yongpu. In October 1950 the RAAF Squadron redeployed from Japan to Pohang, joining the USAF’s 40th Fighter Squadron, and moved thence to Hamhung and Pusan with the 35th Fighter Group until July 1951 when the Australians returned to Japan to re-equip with Gloster Meteor F.8s. South Africa also lent support to the United Nations forces in Korea, forming a volunteer squadron of the South African Air Force which arrived in Japan in the autumn of 1950 to work up to Operational strength on F-51Ds, 25 of which had been bought for the purpose. These Mustangs equipped No 2 (Cheetah) Squadron of the SAAF and arrived in Korea on 16 November 1950, basing at K-9 airfield near Pusan with the USAF’s 18th Fighter-Bomber Wing. Operations began three days later and continued (with a further 70 F-51Ds supplied as replacements) until the Squadron converted to F-86F Sabres in December 1952. No 2 Squadron SAAF flew a remarkable 10,373 combat missions in Korea, lost 74 F-51Ds — two of them in air-toair combat with Communist MiG-15s — and 34 pilots. A total of 272 decorations were won by the Squadron, which was awarded a US Presidential Unit Citation for its heroic operations during the war. The Mustang's service in Korea was not limited to the F-51. F-82 Twin Mustangs (popularly known as Doub/eBreasted Mustangs or Sons of Mustangs) served in the nightfighting role and scored the first combat successes of the war, downing three North Korean aircraft on 27 June 1950. The development and operations of the F-82 Twin Mustang are beyond the scope of this book, however. 51

The Mustang in civvies At the end of the war surplus P-51 Mustangs became available in small numbers on the civilian market. The revival of the National Air Races in the United States in 1946 saw the start of a racing career for the Mustang which continues today. It is beyond the scope of this book to give a detailed account of the P-51’s many racing achievements, but several aircraft and modifications deserve mention. Noteworthy among the first Mustang racers which took part in the 1946 Bendix Trophy speed dash from Van Nuys, California, to Cleveland, Ohio (in which Mustangs took the first four places after the 2,048-mile (3,296-km) flight) were a trio of P-51Cs, two entered by movie stunt flyer Paul Mantz, the third by Jacqueline Cochran. Mantz had sealed the wing structure of his Mustang to form a ‘wetwing’ fuel tank, now common practice in aircraft construction, but then fraught with uncertainty and difficulty. He filled every seam and rivet on the P-51C’s wing, which was polished to mirror smoothness, and used dry ice to cool and thus condense the fuel load before filling the Mustang's wings. Mantz flew the race at an altitude of 33,000 ft (10,058 m), finishing in four hours 42 minutes and 14 seconds for an average speed of 435.5 mph (696.8 km/h), 15 mph (24 km/h) faster than Jacqueline Cochran’s drop-tankladen P-51C. The following year Mantz’s beautiful red P-51C was again victorious in the Bendix Trophy, clocking 460.4 mph (736.6 km/h). A wet-wing P-51D flown by Joe DeBona was placed second at 458.2 mph (733.1 km/h), just 78 seconds behind Mantz. Mustangs took the first six places in the race. Perhaps not surprisingly, Mantz made a hat-trick of Bendix 52

victories in 1948, this time at a slower 447.98 mph (716.7 km/h) because of headwinds. Joe DeBona, now flying a wet-wing F-6C Mustang owned by actor and former Eighth Air Force pilot James Stewart, took the final Bendix Trophy in 1949 at a record 470.13 mph (752 km/h). The P-51C flown to victory by Paul Mantz in 1946 and 1947 was subsequently bought by a Pan American Airways pilot, Captain Charles F. Blair. He renamed the aircraft Excalibur ///, and on 31 January 1951 left Idlewild Airport, New York, bound non-stop for London Airport, where he arrived seven hours and 48 minutes later after a remarkable solo flight across the Atlantic averaging 442 mph (711 km/h). Excalibur /// made another long solo flight on 30 May that year when Blair left Bardufoss, Norway and flew non-stop to Fairbanks, Alaska, covering 3,375 miles (5,400 km) in 10 hours and 29 minutes. Captain Blair subsequently made the first USAF transatlantic crossings with F-84 Thunderjets and the first transpolar flights with F-100 Super Sabres over the North Pole. He later founded Antilles Air Boats in the Virgin Islands, brought a Short Sandringham flying boat to England on several occasions in the late 1970s, and was tragically killed in a landing accident in a Grumman Goose Amphibian. Exca/ibur /// is preserved at the National Air & Space Museum in Washinton DC. The Bendix Trophy was a test of fuel and power management, navigational and meteorological skills, while the Thompson Trophy, which also formed part of the US National Air Races, was a short-course pylon event which nonetheless placed greater stresses on machine and pilot; this fact led to two major

modifications to the Mustang airframe for the 1949 event. Anson Johnson, who had given the Mustang its first Thompson Trophy victory in 1948, flew a highly-polished but essentially unmodified P-51D around the 20-lap, 300-mile (483-km) course at Cleveland, Ohio at an average speed of 383.8 mph (614 km/h). He returned the following year with his Mustang’s ventral radiator and airscoop removed to reveal a streamlined, unbroken lower fuselage line. The radiators had been installed in the wings, with intakes in the leading edges to reduce drag. Jacqueline Cochran had adopted an even more radical approach by having the ventral radiator/scoop removed from her P-51C and replaced by two wingtip-mounted radiators housed in tiptank-like fairings. The P-51C’s wings were also clipped asymmetrically, the starboard wing (which would be uppermost in banked turns around the left-handed course) being some 18 inches shorter than the port surface. The Mustang, named Beguine, was fitted with a Hamilton Standard propeller of ultra-thin section which had been used by North American Aviation for wartime experiments, and was to be flown by Bill Odom, a popular pilot who had set a number of longdistance speed records in an A-26 Invader bomber and Beech Bonanza light aircraft, but had little racing experience. In the event, neither of the two radically modified Mustangs was to finish the 1949 Thompson Trophy race. Anson Johnson’s P-51D was slowed on the first lap by a partially retracted undercarriage leg, and then its Merlin engine began burning exhaust stacks and losing oil, forcing him to retire on the 9th lap. Odom, who had qualified at a very fast 405.565 mph (648.9 km/h) and was flying what was believed to

Los Angeles newspaper-owner Howie Keefe races this modified P-51D, Miss America.

be the fastest piston engined aircraft in the world at the time, cut inside a pylon on the second lap, and attempted to bank Beguine back onto the course. The combined effects of over-controlling, turning into the shorter

wing and the inertia of the heavy tip radiators caused a high speed stall from which the P-51C tumbled into a house, killing Odom and a woman and child inside. This tragic accident, and the start of the Korean War in 1950, effectively stopped air racing in the United States for 15 years. When unlimited air racing was revived again in 1964 at Reno, Nevada, there began another era of Mustang supremacy, with P-51Ds running highly tuned, overboosted Merlin engines, wingtips clipped and a variety of drag-reducing low-profile cockpit canopies fitted, vying for honours with a handful of Grumman F8F Bearcats and Hawker Sea Furies. The most recent Mustang victory at Reno was in 1982, when Dago Red (owned by Frank Taylor and Bill ‘Tiger’ Destefani and flown by Ron Hevle) won the unlimited event at 405.092 mph (648 km/h) on its first outing, just three weeks after it had been prepared for racing. Dago Red, like many racing Mustangs, runs at extremely high rpm (perhaps as high as 4,000 rpm), using 140-octane fuel and liquid manganese, nitrous oxide and alcohol distilled water injection to boost the Merlin engine’s power to in excess of 3,000 hp for take-off. The most advanced Mustang modification to date was the Red Baron Racing Team's RB-51 Mustang which was modified by Idaho Falls fixed-base operator Ed Browning for an attempt on the world’s air speed record for piston-engined aircraft. The

Mustang, which already had a successful racing career behind it in the hands of Chuck Hall and Gunther Balz, was fitted with a Rolls-Royce Griffon 57 engine, rated at 2,450 hp at take-off, which came from an RAF Avro Shackleton maritime patrol-aircraft. The Griffon drove a pair of three-bladed contra-rotating propellers and, among a host of other airframe modifications, the Red Baron RB-51 had clipped wings with low-drag Hoerner wingtips, a wide-chord fin and rudder, carburettor air intake on top of the cowling as on the early Allison-powered Mustangs, and a tiny cockpit canopy faired into the upper fuselage decking. In 1979 the RB-51, piloted by Steve Hinton, was flown over a marked course at Tonopah Mud Flats, Nevada at a new world’s speed record for piston-engined aircraft of 499.018 mph (798.4 ._ km/h), fractionally short of the 500 mph (805 km/h) which the modified Mustang was capable of. At that year’s Reno races

Hinton and the RB-51 took second place in the Unlimited race, but seconds after crossing the finishing line the Mustang’s Griffon engine seized and the RB-51 crashed in the desert and was totally destroyed. Hinton was badly hurt, but recovered. There is yet another radically modified Mustang in prospect to take over from the Red Baron. Aeronautical engineer Bruce Boland, who was involved with the Red Baron and Dago Red projects, and businessman/race pilot John Sandberg, are building a new racer based on the P-51 airframe which will have a wing area of just 146 sq ft (13.57 sq m) against the P-51D’s 233 sq ft (21.6 sq m), and a gross weight of just 5,100 Ibs (2,313

kg). Boland and Sandberg are building the aircraft for an attempt on the Red Baron's speed record, with a target speed of

520 mph (832 km/h). An intriguing secondary project involves the installation of floats on the aircraft, which is named 53

Red Baron, still recognisable as a Mustang despite extensive modification,

set a world’s speed record for pistonengined aircraft at 499.018 mph (798.4 km/h) before it was destroyed in a crash at Reno Air Races.

Tsunami, for an attempt on the half-century old world absolute speed record for seaplanes, set in 1934 by the Italian pilot Francesco Agello in a MacchiCastoldi MC-72 seaplane at 440.681 mph (705 km/h). Apart from the specialist racing machines, there have been a number of production Mustang conversions for civilian use made by the TransFlorida Aviation company of Sarasota, Florida, later renamed Cavalier Aircraft Corporation. These aircraft were based on the P-51D, with two seats in tandem under the standard ‘bubble top’ canopy in the style of the TP51D trainers. Modern interiors and avionics were installed, baggage compartments provided in the gun bays in the wings, and a wide variety of fuel tank options offered, including wingtip tanks, giving the Cavalier Mustangs a maximum range, in the Cavalier 2500 model, of 2,500 miles (4,000 km) on internal fuel. The Cavalier Corporation has also been responsible for refurbishing and updating military P-51Ds, notably for the Central and South American air forces. Some Cavalier P.51D Mustangs are readily identifiable by their taller 54

fins and rudders, similar to those fitted to wartime P-51Hs. That much overworked expression ‘old soldiers never die’ is seldom truer than when applied to the Mustang. In January 1967 as part of the refurbishing work referred to above, Cavalier Corporation received a contract for three Cavalier Mustangs to be supplied to the US Army as highspeed chase aircraft for the flight test programme of the AH-56 Cheyenne attack helicopter. As a private venture, with the lessons being learned in Vietnam prominent in mind, Cavalier also developed a counter-insurgency (COIN) version of the P-51D which had strengthened wings and fuselage, underwing hard points for up to 4,000 Ibs (1,814 kg) of external stores, modern avionics, an ejector seat and a 1,760 hp Rolls-Royce Merlin 620 engine. Provision was made for two 110-US gallon (416-litre) tiptanks, and the P-51D’s six 0.50-in machine gun armament was retained. The first Mustang II, as the new Cavalier aircraft was designated, flew in December, 1967 and was ferried to Eglin AFB, Florida for USAF evaluation. Mustang Ils were subsequently remanufactured in small numbers for Central and

South American countries under the US Mutual Aid Programme. Cavalier Corporation worked simultaneously on a further development of the Mustang to meet specifications set out by the US Department of Defense for a close support fighter, known as the AX. Cavalier proposed a turboprop version of the Mustang Il powered by a Rolls-Royce Dart 510 engine of 1,740 shp at take-off power, 1,490 shp at cruise settings, which was taken from a United Airlines Vickers Viscount airliner. The Dart engine was in worldwide use, with an enviable reliability record and very high timebetween-overhauls (TBO) of 6,000 hours — ideally suited for such an application. The Dart 510 was installed in a Viscount-type nacelle fairing with a large exhaust pipe on the starboard side of the Mustang's fuselage just above the wing root. The ventral radiator and airscoop were no longer needed. In addition to radical modifications to the front end of the aircraft to accommodate the turbine engine, extra longerons were added to the rear fuselage structure, additional spars and webs added to the wing to provide strength for six underwing hard points for stores, a taller fin and rudder assembly fitted, and the canopy enlarged to provide more headroom. Armour protection for pilot, engine and fuel system was available. The weapons load of this Turbo Mustang III was prodigious. Apart from the standard fit of six Browning M2 or M3 machine guns, the wing hard points could carry a total of 5,000 Ibs (2,268 kg) of stores, including low drag and general purpose bombs, machine gun and rocket pods, grenade launchers, bomblet dispensers or napalm tanks. The Turbo Mustang III

Many P-51Ds are still flying. Miss Coronado is owned by ‘Warbirds of America’ member John T. Baugh.

had an empty weight of 6,816 Ibs (3,092 kg) and a gross weight of 14,000 Ib (6,350 kg), with a maximum cruising speed, clean, of 469 knots (864 km/h). Installation of the 2,185 shp Dart 529 turboprop would have further enhanced this extraordinary performance, but after trials with the USAF in 1968 no order was placed for the Turbo Mustang III and Cavalier temporarily ceased development. But still the Mustang was not finished. In 1970 Cavalier’s president David Lindsay began work on a further version of the COIN Turbo Mustang, substituting a US-built Lycoming T55-L-9 turboprop engine of 2,535 shp for the British Dart. Two prototypes, one single-seater, the other with tandem seating for two, were built, the first making its maiden flight on 29 April 1971; This aircraft was taken over from Cavalier by the Piper Air-

craft Corporation, who revised the design and renamed it Piper PA-48 Enforcer. As such it was submitted for the USAF PaveCOIN requirement of 1971 for a forward air control and light ground-attack aircraft, but again no order was forthcoming. That should have been the end of the project, and of the Mustang's military career. But on 4 September 1981 the USAF placed a contract with Piper for the design, development and flight testing of two new prototype Enforcers, for which a fixed price of $12 million was agreed. The first aircraft, which was an all-new machine, not a rebuilt P-51, flew from Piper's Lakeland, Florida plant on 9 April 1983, followed by a second aircraft on 8 July. The latest Enforcers are significantly different from the Cavalier-built aircraft, having a 19-in (40.2-cm) fuselage stretch between cockpit and fin; increased fin area with yaw stability augmentation system for the rudder; a 36 per cent increase in tailplane area; power-boosted ailerons; and provision for the carriage of

modern weapons such as a pair of pod-mounted General Electric GPU-D5A four-barrel rotary cannons capable of rates of fire up to 2,400 rounds per minute. The Enforcer is powered by a 2,445-shp Lycoming T55-L-9 turboprop giving a maximum speed of 300 knots (556 km/h) at 15,000 ft (4,575 m) and can carry up to 5,680 Ibs (2,576 kg) of stores on external mounts. Unlike earlier COIN aircraft it has no internal guns. The initial flight test phase of the latest Enforcer programme was completed early in 1984. The two prototypes were then due to go to Eglin AFB, Florida for weapons-release trials prior to final evaluation at Edwards AFB in California late in the year. While sceptical critics claim the Enforcer is no more than a nostalgic attempt to revive the P-51 Mustang, there is still a chance that the aircraft may yet get a further lease of life — albeit after major surgery — 45 years after the British Purchasing Commission first went shopping for a new fighter aircraft in the United States. 55

Specifications

Powerplant:

Performance: maximum

P-51

(Mustang

1!)

Type:

reconnaissance fighter, interceptor

Accommodation:

one

one Allison V-1710-87-F21R piston engine rated at 1,325 hp for take-off

speed

initial climb rate service ceiling range

368 mph (589 km/h) at 14,000 ft (4,267 m) 25,100 ft (7,650 m) 1,600 miles (2,560 km) with two 75-US gallon (284-litre) drop

two Browning MG53 0.50-in machine guns in lower cowl, two MG53s and two Browning MG40 0.30-in machine guns in each wing

Powerplant:

one Allison V-1710-39-F3R piston engine rated at 1,120 hp for take-off

speed

empty equipped maximum take-off

Dimensions: span length height wing area

6,100 Ibs (2,767 kg) 10,700 Ibs (4,854 kg)

2,300 ft/min (701 m/min)

service ceiling

32,000 ft (9,753 m) 750 miles (1,200 km) on internal fuel, 1,250 miles (2,000 km) with

range

lightweight interceptor/escort

one

37 ft 04 in (11.29 m) 32 ft 28 in (9.82 m) 12 ft 2 in (3.71 m)

Armament:

six Browning MG53-2 0.50-in

233.19 sq ft (21.67 sq m)

Powerplant:

machine guns

empty equipped

maximum

take-off

5,990 Ibs (2,717 kg) 8,633 Ibs (3,916 kg)

injection Performance:

P-51B/C

maximum interceptor fighter, long-range

Type:

escort fighter one

Armament:

four Browning MG-53-2 0.50-in machine guns

37 ft OL in (11.29 m) 32 ft 28 in (9.82 m) 12 ft 2 in (3.71 m) 233.19 sq ft (21.67 sq m)

Powerplant:

speed

initial climb rate service ceiling

P-51A (Mustang

II)

Type:

fighter/fighter bomber

Accommodation:

one

Armament:

one Packard V-1650-3 piston engine rated at 1,380 hp at take-off

441 mph (705 km/h) at 30,000 ft (9,144 m) 3,900 ft/min (1,189 m/min) 42,000 ft (12,801 m) 1,200 miles (1,920 km) on internal fuel, 2,120 miles (3,392 km) with 110-US gallon (415-litre) drop tanks

Weights:

four Browning MG53 0.50-in machine guns, provision for up to 1,000 Ibs (454 kg) of bombs on underwing racks

Powerplant:

range

one Allison V-1710-81-F20R piston engine rated at 1,200 hp for take-off

empty equipped maximum take-off Dimensions: span length height wing area

initial climb rate

5,350 ft/min (1,631

service ceiling

42,000 ft (12,802 m) 1,350 miles (2,160 km) on internal fuel, 2,230 miles (3,568 km) with 110-US gallon (415-litre) drop

speed

initial climb rate

empty equipped

maximum

take-off

service ceiling

span length height wing area

range empty equipped maximum

take-off

Dimensions: span length height

Piper PA-48 Enforcer Type:

37 ft OF in (11.29 m) 32 ft 28 in (9.82 m) 12 ft 2 in (3.71 m) 233.19 sq ft (21.67 sq m)

Accommodation:

one

Armament:

external pylons only for up to

wing area

6,850 Ibs (3,110 kg) 10,600 Ibs (4,812 kg)

Accommodation:

one

Armament:

six Browning MG53-2 machine guns

Powerplant:

one Packard V-1650-7 piston engine rated at 1,490 hp for take-off

interceptor/long-range escort fighter

5,680 Ibs (2,576 kg) of stores

A-36 Invader Type:

dive bomber/ground

Accommodation:

one

Armament:

six Browning MG53-2 0.50-in machine guns, plus two 500-Ib (227-kg) bombs

56

attack aircraft

speed

438 mph (700 km/h) at 25,000 ft (7,620 m)

initial climb rate

3,475 ft/min (1,059 m/min)

service ceiling

41,900 ft (12,771 m) 1,200 miles (1,920 km) on internal fuel, 2,080 miles (3,328 km) with 110-US gallon (415-litre) drop tanks

range

Weights: empty equipped maximum take-off

7,125 Ibs (3,232 kg) 12,100 Ibs (5,489 kg)

Performance: maximum speed initial climb rate service ceiling range Weights: empty equipped

0.50-in

Performance: maximum

ground-attack/counter-insurgency aircraft

P-51D

37 ft O4 in (11.29 m) 32 ft 3§ in (9.82 m) 12 ft 2 in (3.71 m) 233.19 sq ft (21.67 sq m)

37 ft OF in (11.29 m) 33 ft 4 in (10.16 m) 12 ft 6 in (3.81 m) 235.75 sq ft (21.9 sq m)

6,840 Ibs (3,102 kg) 11,200 Ibs (5,080 kg)

385 mph (616 km/h) at 20,000 ft (6,096 m) 2,300 ft/min (701 m/min) 31,000 ft (9,448 m) 900 miles (1,440 km)

Weights:

7,148 Ibs (3,242 kg) 11,050 Ibs (5,012 kg)

Dimensions:

Powerplant:

Type:

m/min)

tanks

Performance: maximum

487 mph (779 km/h) at 25,000 ft (7,620 m)

Weights:

Performance: maximum

speed

range

Accommodation:

Dimensions:

span length height wing area

one Packard V-1650-9 piston engine rated at 1,380 hp at take-off, 2,218 hp with water

75-US gallon (284-litre) drop tanks

Weights:

233.19 sq ft (21.67 sq m)

Accommodation:

382 mph (611 km/h) at 13,700 ft (4,175 m)

initial climb rate

32 ft 2 in (9.82 m) 12 ft 2 in (3.71 m)

fighter

Weights:

Performance: maximum

37 ft OL in (11.29 m)

P-51H Type:

tanks Armament:

Dimensions: span length height wing area

maximum take-off Dimensions: span length height wing area

one Avco-Lycoming T55-L-9 turboprop rated at 2,445 shp

300 knots (556 km/h) 2,500 ft/min (762 m/min) 20,000 ft (6,100 m) 460 miles (740 km)

7,200 Ibs (3,266 kg) 14,000 Ibs (6,350 kg) 41 ft 4 in (12.6 m) 34 ft 2 in (10.4 m) 8 ft 9 in (2.67 m) 245 sq ft (22.76 m)

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