The history of the P-51 began in April of 1940, when the British asked North American Aviation about building P-40's for them. North American countered by offering a new plane using the same engine as the P-40 and the British gave them 120 days to develop a prototype. The NA-73 was ready in time, but the engine was not, causing a six week delay. During this delay, the US Army asked for two protoypes for evaluation. The plane was gven the designation XP-51 Apache (quickly changed to Mustang) and after testing 150 were order by the US. A variant on the P-51A's was the A-36, which was fitted with a pair of 500-lb bomb racks, six .50-cal MGs and dive brakes. 500 A-36's were delivered starting in September 1942, but eventually replaced by P-47's and later model Mustangs.
Although the early P-51's were successful, the Allison engines limited performance. This led to a mock-up in England being fitted with a Rolls Royce Merlin engine (in an ironic twist, the P-40F was designed to use the Rolls Royce Merlin engine, but was forced to use the inferior Allison due to P-51 priorities). The Merlin-engined Mustang was briefly designated the P-78 but finally standardized as the P-51B; the US Army ordered some 2200 of this version without even waiting to see it fly. it began service in December 1943.
The definitive Mustang was the P-51D. Of nearly 15,000 Mustangs built, some 8,000 were P-51D's. They differed from the P-51Bs primarily in: six wing-mounted machine guns instead of four, a bubble canopy for better all-around vision and provisions for undering rockets. The P-51D was used in the dive-bombing, ground-attack, interceptor, bomber escort (possibly the most important role), trainer, transport (with a jump seat behind the pilot) and photo-recon roles (after the war, many were used as civilian racers). P-51's accounted for almost 5000 aircraft destroyed in Europe, the most of any Allied fighter. The fastest Mustang, the 'H' model designed fot the Pacific, could reach 490 mph; about 550 were built.
P-51's continued to be used in Korea and several (after being refurbished) served into the 60's and 70's with South American and Asian air forces. The end of the Mustang line were the turboprop-powered Piper Enforcers, which bore little semblance to their parent aircraft.
Reality Notes: My sources differ on internal fuel. One lists only 105 gallons (with 950 mile range). Also, actual top speed was 437 mph, though the speed below is fairly close. Listed ammo capacity was 1880 rounds for six guns (average 313.33 per gun); I felt 300 per gun was a cleaner number for play. P-51A's had a top speed of 390 mph and A-36's 365 mph. Actual P-51D cost was $54,000.
Subassemblies: Body +3, two High Agility Wings +2, three retractable
Wheels +1
P&P: 1185 kW supercharged HP gasoline engine w/aerial propeller
(3555 lbs thrust)
Fuel: 269 gallons aviation gasoline (fire chance: 14) in 3 self-sealing
fuel tanks (85 gallons body, 92 gallons each wing), 4.5 hours endurance
(1640 miles @80% top speed)
Occ: 1 NCS
Cargo: 1 cf
| Armor | All | ||||
| Body | 1/3 | ||||
| Wings | 1/3 | ||||
| Wheels | 2/5 |
Weaponry
3*.50-cal Browning machine guns [RWing:F] (300 rounds each)
3*.50-cal Browning machine guns [LWing:F] (300 rounds each)
1000 lb hardpoint [LWi]
1000 lb hardpoint [RWi]
Equipment
Body: long range radio, environmental controls, DR 20 pilot
back armor, autopilot, navigation instruments
Statistics
| Size: 14'x37'x32' | Payload: 2,500 lbs (exc. bombs) | Lwt: 10,745 lbs (5.37 tons) |
| Volume: 278.8 cf (Size Mod: +3) | Maint.: 49 hours | Price: $169,500 |
HT: 10
HP: 316 [body], 174 [each wing]
Hardpoints Loaded
| aSpeed: 411 | aAccel: 6 | aDecel: 22 | aMR: 5.5 | aSR: 4 | aDrag: 157.3 |
| Stall: 104 mph | Takeoff: 288 yards | Landing: 272 yards |
Hardpoints Unloaded
| aSpeed: 425 | aAccel: 7 | aDecel: 27 | aMR: 6.75 | aSR: 4 | aDrag: 147.7 |
| Stall: 96 mph | Takeoff: 223 yards | Landing: 229 yards |
Design Notes
Frame is expensive medium for 208 cf body, 10.4 cf wheels and two 30.2
cf folding wings. Armor is expensive metal. The aircraft has good streamlining.
Sources
U.S. Fighters, Lloyd S. Jones, Aero Publishers Inc, 1975
http://www.aviation-history.com/north-american/p51.html