P-51 Mustang North American P51-D

Airplane blueprint for the P-51, Mustang, North, American, P51-D ... Aviation history and aircraft blueprints/plans.

North American P-51D Mustang was the product of two highly advanced technologies: the American aircraft industry, which in 117 days designed a plane body that was extremely advanced in structure and aerodynamics; and the British engine industry, which, with its prestigious Rolls-Royce Merlin, provided the ideal complement. The Mustang would not have become immortal without the British engine, the same engine that had already made the Supermarine Spitfire famous. Beyond this, all is history. A total of 15,686 Mustangs were built. Mustangs destroyed 4,950 enemy aircraft in combat and 4,131 on the ground in the course of 213,873 missions in Europe alone.

The idea that led to the P-51 Mustang's full development came to British and American technicians almost simultaneously. In Great Britain four P51 Mustangs were given to Rolls-Royce for testing with the Merlin engine. In the United States two bodies were consigned to North American for testing with the Merlin that' the Packard company built on license, the V-1650-3. Thus, in September, 1942, the first P-51B prototype was born.

Only minor changes were made in the forward part of the fuselage, to accommodate the new engine. But performance was radically different. Now the plane could reach a speed of 440 m.p.h. at 30,000 feet, and an ascent to 20,000 feet required only five minutes and 54 seconds. This was a remarkable advance over the P-51A's top speed of 390 m.p.h. at 20,000 feet and more than nine minutes in ascent. The plane went into mass production in the summer of 1943. It was built at the Inglewood factory as the P-51B and in the new Dallas plant as the P-51C. Great Britain received about 1,000 and called them Mustang Mk.III. The first P-51B went into service with the 8th Air Force in England on December 1.

P-51s distinguished themselves while fighting against advanced enemy rockets and aircraft, be it V-1s that were launched into London (a P-51B/C with high-octane fuel was fast enough to catch up with one), Me 163 Komet interceptors or Me 262 jet fighters. General Chuck Yeager, flying a P-51D, was the first Allied pilot to shoot down a Me 262. The P-51s were deployed in the Far East later in 1944, and operated there both in close-support and escort missions.

In some ways the P-51 was the right plane at the right time. Both British and German designs of a few months later would outperform it in most ways. But that makes little difference, the effect of the P-51 is as great, or perhaps greater, than any aircraft of WWII.