Older P51, probably B or C model, not the iconic D model. Amazing that a 70 year old airplane in both age and design is winning races still today.

Did you know that the original designator for the P51 was A36? Did you know that everyone hated the P51 at first, and was going to designate it a ground attack bird? And then along came Merlin.....who truly was a wizard. Transforming a so-so plane into the best fighter ever, and still wins races at 70.

[youtube]http://youtu.be/_Rbz4IwVbj4[/youtube]

mmmm that sounds good!

Hi Sheldon

That is a "D" model it is just highly modified unlimited racer owned by Bill Destifani. A farmer in Bakersfield. There are only about 4 “B” models still flying one of them is here in Idaho.

Nobody hated the P-51 it was 50 mph faster than the P-40 with the same engine. The Mustang was contracted by the Brits for ww2 to replace the P-40. The US Army in their infinite wisdom had two models to test but instead did nothing for an entire year! Do to politics with Republic (P-47) and Lockheed (P38) How many more lives would have been saved had the Mustang showed up a year earlier?
The A36 Apaches (500 built) were used until the end of the war in several different theaters.
The original P-51 designed for the Brits had four 20mm cannons. There were several versions before the more popular Merlin variants (B & D model)
It was the Brits who put the Merlin in the Mustang. The reason for this is when North American asked for a narrower engine from Allison (General Motors) they were told no. So the Packard car company was given the rights from Rolls Royce to build the engine for North American. As all of RR's production was spoken for. (Spits and Lancs). This plane went from paper to flying in 117 days. This is the reader’s digest version on the Mustang. I can go into greater detail but I’m sure your already sleeping. And lastly the P-51H (550 produced) were the fastest of all military piston driven production aircraft at 487mph at FL250. However, they did not see any combat in WW2 or Korea.

Tony,
The Merlin powered P51 was also about 50 mph faster than the Allison powered P51.

Over in England, they had a lot of problems when they first went into service. Cooling leaks, fouled/fouling spark plugs, guns froze up, canopies frosted/iced up, etc. But the ground crews worked their tails off, and fixed those things, and news of those fixes made their way into production.

The pilots still loved the airplane. It is an amazing story how the P51 came to life, and what it meant to the war effort.

BTW, the primary engineer was a German, Edgar Schmued, who left Germany around 1930, and came to North American Aviation. Even that he got this job is one of very important causual links in this great story.

You guys touched on why the P51 was delayed in getting into long
range escort--I recently read a book "Little Friends" by Kaplan and Saunders
"The Fighter Pilot Experience in World War II England" which basicaly says the
"Fighter Mafia" at Wright Field ignored "that British toy" and stalled it's adoption
as a long range fighter.
For any interested I ended up with two books--I'll
sell my extra for $25 plus shipping. Nice book with plenty of illustrations--
coffee table size!