P-51 Gunfighter

The P-51 was designed by The North American Aviation Company in 1940, from specifications provided by the British Government. The first P-51 models (the A-36, the P-51 and the P-51A) were powered by Allison non-supercharged engines. The subsequent models; the B,C,D,H and K, were powered by Rolls-Royce Merlin engines, or variants of that engine. The Packard Motor Car Company was licensed to build the Merlin engine in the United States to provide sufficient numbers of the engine as production of the P-51 increased. This particular aircraft is a "D" model, serial number 44-73264, which was the most produced P-51 model during the War with over 8,000 built. Today, about 140 Mustangs exist, world-wide, in Museums, flying or under restoration. No country in the world any longer flies the Mustang as part of their inventory. The Dominican Republic was the last country to do so and sold these aircraft on the civilian market in 1985. 44-73264 was built in the North American plant in Inglewood, California and accepted into the USAAF in March, 1945. That same month, it was trans-shipped to England, where it was assigned to the famous 'Mighty Eighth' Air Force. In July of the same year, after the War had ended in Europe, it was returned to the U.S. and assigned to Olmstead Field in Pennsylvania, where it remained until 1947. For the next nine years the aircraft served with four different states Air National Guard units in Wyoming, New Mexico, Illinois and finally the Kentucky ANG, where in 1956, it was declared surplus and sold on the civilian market.

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