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Sale! USAAF Mustang P-51 Fighter Rare WW-II Aviation Art 40 mm Wrist Watch



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From late 1943, P-51Bs (supplemented by P-51Ds from mid-1944) were used by the USAAF's Eighth Air Force to escort bombers in raids over Germany, while the RAF's 2 TAF and the USAAF's Ninth Air Force used the Merlin-powered Mustangs as fighter-bombers, roles in which the Mustang helped ensure Allied air superiority in 1944.[10] The P-51 was also used by Allied air forces in the North African, Mediterranean and Italian theaters, and also served against the Japanese in the Pacific War. During World War II, Mustang pilots claimed 4,950 enemy aircraft shot down.[nb 2]


Design and development






The other feature was a new radiator design that exploited the "Meredith Effect", in which heated air exited the radiator as a slight amount of jet thrust. Because NAA lacked a suitable wind tunnel to test this feature, it used the GALCIT 10 ft (3.0 m) wind tunnel at Caltech. This led to some controversy over whether the Mustang's cooling system aerodynamics were developed by NAA's engineer Edgar Schmuedor by Curtiss, although NAA had purchased the complete set of P-40 and XP-46wind tunnel data and flight test reports for US$56,000.[20] The NA-73X was also one of the first aircraft to have a fuselage lofted mathematically using conic sections; this resulted in the aircraft's fuselage having smooth, low drag surfaces.[21] To aid production, the airframe was divided into five main sections—forward, center, rear fuselage and two wing halves — all of which were fitted with wiring and piping before being joined.[21]

The prototype NA-73X was rolled out in September 1940, just 102 days after the order had been placed; it first flew on 26 October 1940, 149 days into the contract, an uncommonly short gestation period even during the war.[22] With test pilotVance Breese at the controls[23] the prototype handled well and accommodated an impressive fuel load. The aircraft's two-section, semi-monocoque fuselage was constructed entirely of aluminum to save weight. It was armed with four .30 in (7.62 mm) M1919 Browning machine guns, two in the wings and two mounted under the engine and firing through the propeller arc using gun synchronizing gear.

While the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC) could block any sales it considered detrimental to the interests of the US, the NA-73 was considered to be a special case because it had been designed at the behest of the British. In September 1940 a further 300 NA-73s were ordered by MAP.[15] To ensure uninterrupted delivery Colonel Oliver P. Echolsarranged with the Anglo-French Purchasing Commission to deliver the aircraft, and NAA gave two examples (41-038 and 41-039) to the USAAC for evaluation.[24][nb 5]

Operational history

U.S. operational service

Pre-war theory

P-51 44-13357 of 374th Fighter Squadron, an early D-model, without the fin strake; 75 US gallons (62.5 imp gal; 284 L) drop tanks are on the wing racks.

Pre-war doctrine was based on the idea "the bomber will always get through".[26]Despite RAF and Luftwaffe experience, the USAAC still believed in 1942 that tightly packed formations of bombers would have so much firepower that they could fend off fighters on their own.[26] Fighter escort was low-priority, and when anescort fighter was planned in 1941, not considering what the nascent NA-73 design could be developed into – at a time when a heavy fighter with twin engines was considered to be most appropriate, like the Americans' own fast-flyingLockheed P-38 Lightning for existing types in the USAAF inventory – it would be aheavily up-armed "gunship" conversion of a strategic bomber that would get a chance to prove itself in action.[27] Additionally, a high-speed fighter with the range of a bomber was thought to be an engineering impossibility.[28]

Eighth Air Force bomber operations 1942–1943

The 8th Air Force started operations from Britain in August 1942. At first, because of the limited scale of operations, there was no conclusive evidence American doctrine was failing. In the 26 operations flown to the end of 1942, the loss rate had been under 2%.[29] This rate was better than the RAF's night efforts, and similar to the losses one would expect due to mechanical failure.[citation needed]



For the US, the very concept of self-defending bombers was called into question. But instead of abandoning daylight raids and turning to night bombing, as the RAF suggested, they chose other paths; at first it was believed that a bomber with more guns (the Boeing YB-40) would be able to escort the bomber formations, but, when the concept proved to be unsuccessful, thoughts then turned to the Lockheed P-38 Lightning.[31] [nb 6] In early 1943 the USAAF also decided that the Republic P-47 Thunderbolt and P-51B be considered for the role of a smaller escort fighter and, in July a report stated that the P-51B was "the most promising plane" with an endurance of four hours 45 minutes with the standard internal fuel of 184 gallons plus 150 gallons carried externally.[33] In August a P-51B was fitted with an extra internal 85 gallon tank and, although there were problems with longitudinal stability and some compromises in performance with the tank full, it was decided that because the fuel from the fuselage tank would be used during the initial stages of a mission, the fuel tank would be fitted in all Mustangs destined for VIII Fighter Command.[34]

P-51 introduction[edit]


However, the Allison engine in the P-51A had a single stage supercharger that caused power to drop off rapidly after 15,000 ft. This made it completely unsuitable for combat at the altitudes USAAF bombers planned to fly. Following the RAF's initial disappointing experience with the Mustang 1 (P-51A) Ronald Harker from Rolls Royce suggested fitting a Merlin 61, as fitted to the Spitfire Mk IX. The Merlin 61 had a two speed two stage intercooled supercharger, designed by Stanley Hooker of Rolls Royce[36] and this gave an increase in horsepower from the Allison's 1,200 to 1,620 (or 1,720 in War Emergency Power) an increase of top speed from 390 mph to 440 mph as well as raising the service ceiling to almost 42,000 ft.

Initial flights were completed October 1942 and a similar conversion then took place in the US leading to production of the P-51B beginning at North American's Inglewood California plant in June 1943[37] and P-51s started to become available to the 8th and 9th Air Forces in the winter of 1943–1944.




Fighting the Luftwaffe[edit]


Major General James Doolittle, the new commander of the 8th Air Force as 1944 started, told the fighters in the late winter of 1944 to stop flying in formation with the bombers and instead attack the Luftwaffe wherever it could be found, achieving a breakthrough in American fighter tactics. The Mustang groups were sent in well before the bombers in a "fighter sweep" as a form of air supremacyaction, intercepting German fighters, be they the usual single-engined Bf 109Gs or Fw 190As, or the twin-engined Zerstörer heavy fighters like the Bf 110Gs, wherever they were found to be forming up. As a result, the Luftwaffe lost 17% of its fighter pilots in just over a week, and the Allies were able to establish air superiority.[39] As Doolittle later noted, "Adolf Galland said that the day we took our fighters off the bombers and put them against the German fighters, that is, went from defensive to offensive, Germany lost the air war."[40]

The Luftwaffe's answer, especially to their Zerstörer twin-engined bomber destroyer units' evisceration by the USAAF, was the Gefechtsverband (battle formation). It consisted of a Sturmgruppe of heavily armed and armored Fw 190As escorted by two Begleitgruppen of light fighters, often Bf 109Gs, whose task was to keep the Mustangs away from theSturmböcke Fw 190As attacking the bombers. This scheme was excellent in theory but difficult to apply in practice as the large German formation took a long time to assemble and was difficult to maneuver. It was often intercepted by the escorting P-51s using the newer "fighter sweep" tactics out ahead of the heavy bomber formations, breaking up theGefechtsverband formations before reaching the bombers; when the Sturmgruppe was able to work as intended, the effects were devastating. With their engines and cockpits heavily armored, the Fw 190As attacked from astern and gun camera films show that these attacks were often pressed to within 100 yds (90 m).[41]


The numerical superiority of the USAAF fighters, superb flying characteristics of the P-51, and pilot proficiency helped cripple the Luftwaffe's fighter force. As a result, the fighter threat to US, and later British, bombers was greatly diminished by July 1944. The RAF, long proponents of night bombing for protection, were able to re-open daylight bombing in 1944 as a result of the crippling of the Luftwaffe fighter arm. Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring, commander of the GermanLuftwaffe during the war, was quoted as saying, "When I saw Mustangs over Berlin, I knew the jig was up."[42][43][44]

North American P-51D-10-NA Mustang 44-14164 "Detroit Miss" of the 375th Fighter Squadron of the 361st Fighter Group USAAF. Urban L. "Ben" Drew flew this aircraft in the autumn 1944 a shot down four German aircraft. In total he claimed six victories

Beyond Pointblank[edit]

P-51D 44-14888 of the 8th AF/357th FG/363rd FS, namedGlamorous Glennis III, is the aircraft in which Chuck Yeager achieved most of his 12.5 kills, including two Me 262s – shown here with twin 108 gallon (409-liter) drop tanks fitted.




By 8 May 1945,[49] the 8th9th and 15th Air Force's P-51 groups [nb 7] claimed some 4,950 aircraft shot down (about half of all USAAF claims in the European theater, the most claimed by any Allied fighter in air-to-air combat)[49] and 4,131 destroyed on the ground. Losses were about 2,520 aircraft.[50] The 8th Air Force's 4th Fighter Group was the top-scoring fighter group in Europe, with 1,016 enemy aircraft claimed destroyed. This included 550 claimed in aerial combat and 466 on the ground.[51]



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40 mm heavy brass case, genuine leather strap, quartz movement