P-51 Mustang Fighter

P-51, also called Mustang, a single-seat, single-engine fighter aircraft originally designed and produced by North American Aviation for the British Royal Air Force (RAF) and later adopted by the U.S. Army Air Forces (USAAF). The P-51 is widely regarded as the finest all-around piston-engined fighter of World War II to be produced in significant numbers.

 

The P-51 originated with an April 1940 proposal to the British Aircraft Purchasing Commission by the chief designer of North American Aviation, J.H. (“Dutch”) Kindelberger, to design a fighter from the ground up rather than produce another fighter, the Curtiss P-40, under license. The result was a trim low-wing monoplane powered by a liquid-cooled in-line Allison engine. Other fighters powered by non-turbo-supercharged Allisons, notably the P-40 and P-39, had shown mediocre performance, and the U.S. War Department had reserved turbo-supercharger production for four-engined bombers (the P-38 Lightning being the only exception at that point). Nevertheless, by using experimental data obtained from the U.S. National Advisory Committee on Aviation, Kindelberger’s team achieved a giant leap in performance. Their design, dubbed Mustang by the British, had a low-drag laminar-flow wing and an efficient low-drag engine cooling system that gave it exceptional speed and range. It had a maximum speed of about 390 miles (630 km) per hour and a combat range of roughly 750 miles (1,200 km). The use of external drop tanks nearly doubled its operational range to 1,375 miles (2,200 km). The only drawback was the Allison’s lack of an efficient high-altitude supercharger, which restricted the plane to low-altitude operations below 15,000 feet (4,600 metres).

 

The Mustang first flew in October 1940, entered production in May 1941, and began combat operations with the RAF in April 1942. Some 1,579 Allison-powered Mustangs were produced. They were typically equipped with two .50-calibre nose-mounted and four .30-calibre wing-mounted machine guns, although one model had four 20-mm cannons and another (the A-36A) was a dive-bomber for the USAAF. They served as low-altitude fighters and as long-range photo-reconnaissance aircraft under the designation F-6, mostly with the RAF.