The story of P-51 Mustang 3 of 6

The story took its beginning when Britain had trouble finding suitable use for their P-40s which were inadequate for the european airwar. With the upcoming "Lend an lease"-law the british hoped to take advantage of USAs enormous production capacity and in April 1940 they contacted their earlier supplyer of aircraft, North American Aviation, and presented the specifications for a new fighter.

NAA were well informed of the needs to a fighter for the european arena and promised to produce an even better fighter than specified by the british. 1 months later the british placed an order of 320 stk of the new fighter, but the prototype had to be finished within 3 months, so big were their needs!

117 days later the first prototype, NA-73, rolled out of the assembling hall however without a motor and with weels borrowed from AT-6 Harvard!

Six weeks later the prototype flew without complications. Britain placed a initial order of 300 fighters which they gave the name Mustang. The Mustang had a new profiled wing with less drag than the conventional wing and a very clever cooler/exaust port which too reduced the drag.

Although fitted with an Allison V-1710-39 1100 hp-engine the fighter had very fine performance in low and low/medium heights, except its climbing capabilities were poor. Nevertheless the british orders climbed to almost 1000 examples.

In USA there initially were very limited interest for NAAs fighter and only willingness to accept two free examples under the designation XP-51. Later was eventually placed an order for 150 examples of P-51 named Apache.

In Britain many experiments with the Mustang took place and a quantum-leap in the performance of the Mustang came, when they in the fall 1942 mixed what they saw as the hitherto best fighter design, the Mustang, with the best fighter engine, the Rolls-Royce Merlin.
Four fighters were equipped with Merlin 61 and 65 engines and four-bladed propellers to manage the extra power, and then the testing went on.

When North American received the test data, the way immediately lay open for the mass production of the Mustang as everyone know it . . . . . WW2s best longrange escortfighter, which took the pants of the germans! (the videos sadly enough skips most of these details).

Carl Vendler

Category:

Education

Tags:

• North
• American
• P-51
• Mustang
• Merlin
• engine
• ww2

[Xiolablu3]

This is BS about the P51 being 'better', it was the range that was the main advantage of the P51. Climb rate was average, top speed was good, firepower was poor. The Fw190 had 3x the firepower. The bf109 climb rate was far above the P51.

[Xiolablu3]

@g6ypk What Goering actually sa\id in 1944 was 'As soon as I saw fighters over Berlin, I knew the war was lost', it was not specifially about the P51, althought that WAS probably the fighter he saw.

[TheLloydA1]

@g6ypk Your thinking of what some commander said to Goring in 1940,during the Battle of Britain when goring asked what do you need and the commander said 'give me a squadron of spitfires'.

[0lafsky]

WTF ..."all negro" .... ????

How Old is this documentary?

I know it sounds like a commercial for NAA in 60ties but dude that's just sounds so wrong today....

[Docthewrench]

@lazyGURLx3 Doesnt matter they set records that to this day is not been beaten. Negros niggas blackies what does it matter What do you plane on doing Suing them lol Back then NEGRO was the going term for black people. Today its black people once again. They lost no bombers on any mission they escorted so it doesnt matter what they called them or call them now. ( this is in response to your "WTF? All Negro... are they complimenting them or all they insulting them?" a year ago lol

[athaidream]

Oh dear,it was Adolf Galland who made the comment about a squadron of Spitfires to Goering during the battle of Britain when he was asked by Goering what he needed to win..

If people listen to the narrator he is reffering to comments made by Goering at the Nuremberg trials

[rukkus99]

Actually it was Adolph Galland who said he wanted a squadron of Spitfires during the B of B . Goering 'was' referring to the Mustang at that later stage of the war

[ceboym]

@EYOPASKAA one of the decorated Black Airmen in European war, but they are not much mention why because they are black PILOTING THE LATEST MODEL OF P51 THEY AS FOR ME CAN BE LEVELED THE SAME OR BETTER THAN OTHER WHITE PILOT i am not black race but i am equal ONLY FEW HEARED OF THEM THEY SHUT DOWN MANY NAZI BEST FIGHTER PILOT

[ceboym]

@EYOPASKAA one of the decorated Black Airmen in European war, but they are not much mention why because they are black PILOTING THE LATEST MODEL OF P51 THEY AS FOR ME CAN BE LEVELED THE SAME OR BETTER THAN OTHER WHITE PILOT i am not black race but i am equal

[elijah5674]

@g6ypk Sorry, it was the Mustang as quoted in this context.