{"id":677,"date":"2022-12-31T20:23:55","date_gmt":"2022-12-31T20:23:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/?p=677"},"modified":"2022-12-31T20:23:55","modified_gmt":"2022-12-31T20:23:55","slug":"p-51-mustang-americas-apex-predator","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/?p=677","title":{"rendered":"P-51 Mustang: America\u2019s Apex Predator"},"content":{"rendered":"


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By Will Dabbs, MD<\/a><\/p>\n

The North American P-51 Mustang is arguably one of the coolest fighter planes ever flown in the United States military. In today\u2019s article, Dr. Will Dabbs invites you to crawl in the cockpit and learn a few things about the classic plane you may not have known. \u2014\u00a0Editor<\/em><\/p>\n

W<\/span>hen I was an Army Aviator, nothing was cooler than doing airshows. We\u2019d fly in for a long weekend filled with pressing the flesh and a little gratuitous hero worship. The hosts were invariably gracious and the fellowship with other aviators sublime. It\u2019s tough to do something like that and actually claim it\u2019s work.<\/p>\n

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Silhouetted against the sky, two 500 pound bombs are visible and attached to the sleek underside of a P-51. This Mustang was part of the Eighth Air Force based in England. Image:\u00a0NARA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Ever since the genesis of manned flight it has always been thus. Cool flying machines invariably draw a crowd. However, there is also great danger to be found there. Most military pilots are, by definition, young, bulletproof and immortal. As a result, there is ever the temptation to push our machines farther than we should for the edification of an adoring public. So it was at a particular English airfield in the lead-up to D-Day.<\/p>\n

\"p-51\n<\/picture>
The P-51 Mustang was the archetypal World War II American fighter plane. Its iconic lines cut a dashing figure through the skies above Europe and the Pacific. Image:\u00a0U.S.A.F.\u00a0Museum<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Overlord and the Mustang<\/h2>\n

Operation Overlord was the largest amphibious invasion in human history. 156,000 Allied soldiers supported by another 195,700 sailors stood poised to breach Festung Europa while hundreds of dedicated combat aircraft kept the peace overhead. However, with all those guys and all those guns, the potential for fratricide was never far from anybody\u2019s mind.<\/p>\n

\"early\n<\/picture>
This white-nosed North American P-51 is an earlier variant assigned to the U.S. Eighth Air Force. In this photo, it patrols the skies over England. Image:\u00a0NARA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Allies would enjoy air superiority over the invasion beaches, but that didn\u2019t mean that a few Axis aircraft might not slip through. As a result, somebody decided it would be a good idea to introduce ground troops to the most common American close support aircraft that they might encounter once they hit the beaches. It was hoped that by letting the G.I.\u2019s see them up close, they might hesitate to shoot if they spotted one of these friendly machines flying over in the combat zone.<\/p>\n

\"p-51\n<\/picture>
A P-51 C sits on the runway at Castel Volturno, Italy with smoke rising from Mount Vesuvius in the background. Image:\u00a0NARA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The concept of the operation was for one example of each aircraft included to be dispatched from their squadrons to a large British airbase. Several tens of thousands of ground troops would be trucked to the site to paw over the planes and then watch a quick aerial demonstration. The basic idea was quite sound.<\/p>\n

\"p-51\n<\/picture>
This North American P-51 was photographed as it peels off during heavy bomber escort mission. Note the invasion stripes that were applied to many Allied planes starting in June 1944. Image:\u00a0NARA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The leadership at each of these squadrons was busy planning for the invasion, so they dispatched brand-new Second Lieutenant aviators on the mission. These young pilots knew where to report and when but had no further guidance. They had never met before.<\/p>\n

\"tuskegee\n<\/picture>
These P-51 pilots are engaged in conversation next to one of their P-51 Mustangs. Members of the 332nd Fighter Group, these Tuskegee Airmen fought the National Socialists in Italy. Image:\u00a0NARA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Once on the ground the three pilots held a confab. They were all the same rank, and their specific command guidance was sparse. The P-51 Mustang driver was purportedly a short man who was quite full of himself. He immediately took charge and began issuing orders. They would knock out the static portion of the day and then take off in series.<\/p>\n

\"miss\n<\/picture>
Lt George W. Jones stands with Cpl Ruby Newell. Jones named his plane \u201cMiss E.T.O.\u201d after Newell who had been voted the \u201cprettiest WAC in the Eighth Air Force.\u201d Image:\u00a0NARA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

He would then put on an impromptu aerobatic display above the runway for the accumulated troops while the others loitered nearby waiting their turn to do likewise. They would coordinate cycling in and out of the airspace via radio. The other drivers had no issues with the plan, so they played along.<\/p>\n

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All went swimmingly right up until the Mustang did an extreme low pass right over the runway centerline. The P-51 pilot pulled up hard at the end of the tarmac into a beautiful vertical climb. He then laid the plane on its back to describe a loop intending to level out essentially where he started. He rightfully assumed the crowd would go wild.<\/p>\n

\"p-51\n<\/picture>
P-51 Mustangs frequently flew bomber escort missions. This P-51 is one of several Mustangs covering a B-17 formation flying out of England. Image:\u00a0NARA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Alas, military aviation can be terribly unforgiving of stupidity. The Mustang driver misjudged his altitude in the loop and ran out space for the pull out, splashing his plane and himself into a zillion tiny little bits amidst a massive fireball of conflagrating avgas. Thankfully no one was injured on the ground.<\/p>\n

\"p-51\n<\/picture>
This North American P-51 sits in the English snow in early 1945. Image:\u00a0NARA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The other pilots felt that little else could be done to add to the event and, after a brief conference over the radio, wisely just headed home. The accumulated troops returned to their staging areas and did indeed ultimately wrest Europe back from the clutches of a madman. I\u2019m sure the family of the over-zealous P-51 pilot got a somber but sincere letter from his exasperated CO.<\/p>\n

The P-51<\/h2>\n

While the P-51 Mustang was not necessarily the most capable piston-driven fighter aircraft of World War II, it was indeed fast, fuel-efficient and deadly. However, many German fighters packed more firepower, and a few of them were faster both in level flight as well as in the climb.<\/p>\n

\"flight\n<\/picture>
Yellow-nosed North American P-51s form up as they climb to altitude over England. This mission was to escort a group of U.S. bombers over the ETO. Image:\u00a0NARA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

What the Mustang had that the Axis could not hope to match was numbers, along with exquisitely well-trained pilots. By the war\u2019s end, American industry had built some 15,000 copies of the nimble little plane. Mustangs accounted for 4,950 downed enemy aircraft. Produced by North American Aviation, the esteemed P-51 nonetheless had a rocky start.<\/p>\n

\"major\n<\/picture>
Major Sam J. Brown sits in the cockpit of his P-51 Mustang. Flying in Italy, Maj. Brown downed a number of the enemy as indicated by the swastikas painted on his plane. Image:\u00a0NARA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In 1940, the British were starving for fighter aircraft. The British Purchasing Commission led by Sir Henry Self scoured the U.S. aviation industry looking for a suitable combat plane that could be produced in America and deployed for RAF service in Europe both in quantity and in a hurry.<\/p>\n

\"guns\n<\/picture>
These men carry the six .50-caliber machine guns used in the P-51 Mustang. The cartridge belts shown are only 1\/6 of the total loaded before a mission. Image:\u00a0NARA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

At the time the Curtiss P-40 Warhawk<\/a> was essentially the only show in town, and P-40 production was already maxed out meeting American requirements. As a result, Sir Henry approached North American about producing a fresh new design from scratch. The original discussions orbited around a series of drawings scrawled freehand on a piece of paper.<\/p>\n

\"p-51\n<\/picture>
This photo shows the ordnance that could be loaded on a P-51 Mustang. Image:\u00a0NARA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The first prototype titled the NA-73X rolled out of the factory a mere 102 days after the order had been inked. This radical plane incorporated such advanced features as low-drag laminar-flow airfoils for exceptional performance at high speeds and an unusual single ducted radiator for both oil and engine coolant.<\/p>\n

\"loading\n<\/picture>
Trigger warning for OSHA employees: Cpl. Lloyd Shumway directs a crane while riding a 500-pound bomb into place on a P-51 wing. Image:\u00a0NARA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This design took advantage of the Meredith Effect wherein ram air through the radiator provided just a bit of jet thrust to the airframe. Those early machines were armed with a pair of Browning fifties in the engine cowling and four .30-caliber guns in the wings. They were powered by Allison engines similar to those found in the P-38 and P-40.<\/p>\n

\"p-51\n<\/picture>
During the Italian campaign, this armorer removed one of the .50-caliber machine guns from a P-51 for maintenance. Image:\u00a0NARA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The resulting plane had much to commend it, but performance fell off badly above 15,000 feet. As the RAF needed a fighter that could hold its own with the Luftwaffe at high altitudes, this was potentially a show-stopper. The answer came from a Rolls Royce test pilot named Ronald Harker. He suggested they fit the Rolls Royce Merlin engine from the Spitfire Mk IX to the new airframe and see how she flew. The resulting hybrid plane could reach 440 mph at 28,000 feet, breathtaking performance for its day.<\/p>\n

\"p-51\n<\/picture>
This P-51 undergoes repairs at Manston Air Base on the Dover Coast in England. Image:\u00a0NARA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The American Packard Company began producing Merlin engines under license from Rolls Royce, and the whole world moved just a little bit. The original A, B and C-model Mustangs evolved into the definitive D-model with its distinctive bubble canopy, and North American started churning them out day and night. The final operational versions fitted half a dozen AN\/M2 fifty-caliber guns in the wings.<\/p>\n

Impressions of the Fighter<\/h2>\n

The Mustang\u2019s sexy lines and impressive performance create a timeless allure. The P-51 that Tom Cruise flew at the end of the latest\u00a0Top Gun<\/em>\u00a0movie actually belongs to him. He originally christened it\u00a0Kiss Me Kate<\/em>\u00a0back when he was married to Katie Holmes. I suspect he calls it something else these days.<\/p>\n

\"p-51\n<\/picture>
These P-51 fighters escort a group of B-29 Superfortress bombers over Iwo Jima. Image:\u00a0NARA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Though I have never had the pleasure myself, I am told that the Mustang is pure joy to fly. The plane has ample power and rolls faster than a Spitfire<\/a>. However, the Mustang\u2019s turning radius was not quite as tight as was that of the British Spit, the Bf-109 Messerschmitt<\/a>, or the FW-190 Focke Wulf. The laminar flow wing had its own eccentricities, but the P-51 was a generally stable and forgiving machine.<\/p>\n

\"escort\n<\/picture>
A group of P-51 Mustang fighters had to be a reassuring sight for the crews of Flying Fortresses over\u00a0Europe.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In addition to pure numbers, when equipped with drop tanks the Mustang enjoyed a simply breathtaking range. It was the P-51 that allowed fighter escorts to remain with attacking heavy bombers all the way to their targets in Germany and back.<\/p>\n

\"james\n<\/picture>
Lt James T. Fisk examines the damage his P-51 received during a mission against the Germans over Italy. He stands where a large part of his wing had been prior to being hit by flak. Image:\u00a0NARA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Luftwaffe commander Herman Goering purportedly acknowledged to close friends that the war was over the day he saw Mustangs in the skies above Berlin. Nimble, fast, deadly and cool, the Mustang was a critical part of the Allied victory during World War II.<\/p>\n

Special thanks to www.flyaspitfire.com<\/a> for their support with this project.<\/p>\n

Editor\u2019s Note: Please be sure to check out The Armory Life Forum, where you can comment about our daily articles, as well as just talk guns and gear. Click the \u201cGo To Forum Thread\u201d link below to jump in and discuss this article and much more!<\/em><\/p>\n

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By Will Dabbs, MD The North American P-51 Mustang is arguably one of the coolest fighter planes ever flown in the United States military. In today\u2019s article, Dr. Will Dabbs invites you to crawl in the cockpit and learn a few things about the classic plane you may not have known. \u2014\u00a0Editor When I was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":678,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-677","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=677"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/678"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}