{"id":3614,"date":"2018-11-28T17:25:09","date_gmt":"2018-11-28T23:25:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brooksidepress.org\/cartmell\/?page_id=3614"},"modified":"2018-11-28T17:25:09","modified_gmt":"2018-11-28T23:25:09","slug":"north-american-aviation-p-51-mustang","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/brooksidepress.org\/cartmell\/things\/north-american-aviation-p-51-mustang\/","title":{"rendered":"North American Aviation P-51 Mustang"},"content":{"rendered":"

Excerpt from Wikipedia:<\/a><\/p>\n

The\u00a0North American Aviation P-51 Mustang<\/b>\u00a0is an American long-range, single-seat\u00a0fighter<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0fighter-bomber<\/a>\u00a0used during\u00a0World War II<\/a>\u00a0and the\u00a0Korean War<\/a>, among other conflicts. The Mustang was designed in 1940 by\u00a0North American Aviation<\/a>(NAA) in response to a requirement of the\u00a0British Purchasing Commission<\/a>. The Purchasing Commission approached North American Aviation to build\u00a0Curtiss P-40 fighters<\/a>\u00a0under license for the\u00a0Royal Air Force<\/a>\u00a0(RAF). Rather than build an old design from another company, North American Aviation proposed the design and production of a more modern fighter. The prototype NA-73X\u00a0airframe<\/a>\u00a0was rolled out on 9 September 1940, 102 days after the contract was signed, and first flew on 26 October.[6]<\/a><\/sup>[7]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n

\"North<\/a>
North American P-51 Mustang<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Mustang was originally designed to use the\u00a0Allison V-1710<\/a>\u00a0engine, which, in its earlier variants, had limited high-altitude performance. It was first flown operationally by the RAF as a\u00a0tactical-reconnaissance aircraft<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0fighter-bomber<\/a>\u00a0(Mustang Mk I). The replacement of the Allison with a\u00a0Rolls-Royce Merlin<\/a>\u00a0resulted in the P-51B\/C (Mustang Mk III) model and transformed the Mustang’s performance at altitudes above 15,000\u00a0ft, allowing the aircraft to compete with the\u00a0Luftwaffe<\/a>‘s fighters.[8]<\/a><\/sup>[nb 1]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0The definitive version, the\u00a0P-51D<\/a>, was powered by the\u00a0Packard V-1650-7<\/a>, a\u00a0license-built<\/a>\u00a0version of the\u00a0Rolls-Royce Merlin 66<\/a>\u00a0two-stage two-speed\u00a0supercharged<\/a>\u00a0engine and was armed with six\u00a0.50 caliber<\/a>\u00a0(12.7\u00a0mm)\u00a0M2\/AN Browning machine guns<\/a>.[10]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n

From late 1943, P-51Bs and Cs (supplemented by P-51Ds from mid-1944) were used by the\u00a0USAAF’s<\/a>\u00a0Eighth Air Force<\/a>\u00a0to escort bombers in raids over\u00a0Germany<\/a>, while the RAF’s\u00a0Second Tactical Air Force<\/a>\u00a0and the USAAF’s\u00a0Ninth Air Force<\/a>\u00a0used the Merlin-powered Mustangs as fighter-bombers, roles in which the Mustang helped ensure Allied\u00a0air superiority<\/a>\u00a0in 1944.[11]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0The P-51 was also used by\u00a0Allied<\/a>\u00a0air forces in the\u00a0North African, Mediterranean<\/a>,\u00a0Italian<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Pacific<\/a>\u00a0theaters. During World War II, Mustang pilots claimed to have destroyed 4,950 enemy aircraft.[nb 2]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n ","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Excerpt from Wikipedia: The\u00a0North American Aviation P-51 Mustang\u00a0is an American long-range, single-seat\u00a0fighter\u00a0and\u00a0fighter-bomber\u00a0used during\u00a0World War II\u00a0and the\u00a0Korean War, among other conflicts. The Mustang was designed in 1940 by\u00a0North American Aviation(NAA) in response to a requirement of the\u00a0British Purchasing Commission. The Purchasing Commission approached North American Aviation to build\u00a0Curtiss P-40 fighters\u00a0under license for the\u00a0Royal Air Force\u00a0(RAF). Rather … Continue reading North American Aviation P-51 Mustang<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":57,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3614","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brooksidepress.org\/cartmell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3614","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brooksidepress.org\/cartmell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brooksidepress.org\/cartmell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brooksidepress.org\/cartmell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brooksidepress.org\/cartmell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3614"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/brooksidepress.org\/cartmell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3614\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3617,"href":"https:\/\/brooksidepress.org\/cartmell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3614\/revisions\/3617"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brooksidepress.org\/cartmell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/57"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brooksidepress.org\/cartmell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brooksidepress.org\/cartmell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brooksidepress.org\/cartmell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}