P-51 MUSTANG: Flight Characteristics | Rare Upscaled WW2 Training Film And Interviews

Flight characteristics of the North American P-51 Mustang. Restored and upscaled rare training footage, interviews with legendary WW2 pilot Bud Anderson, including the P-51 walkaround, and a P-51 documentary with veteran interviews.

The North American Aviation P-51 Mustang is an American long-range, single-seat fighter and fighter bomber used during World War II and the Korean War, among other conflicts. The Mustang was designed in April 1940 by a team headed by James H. Kindelberger of North American Aviation (NAA) in response to a requirement of the British Purchasing Commission. The Purchasing Commission approached North American Aviation to build Curtiss P-40 fighters under license for the Royal Air Force (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 airframe was rolled out on 9 September 1940, 102 days after the contract was signed, and first flew on 26 October.

The Mustang was designed to use the Allison V-1710 engine, which had limited high-altitude performance in its earlier variants. The RAF first flew the aircraft operationally as a tactical-reconnaissance aircraft and fighter bomber (Mustang Mk I). Replacing the Allison with a Rolls-Royce Merlin resulted in the P-51B/C (Mustang Mk III) model. It transformed the aircraft's performance at altitudes above 15,000 ft (4,600 m) (without sacrificing range), allowing it to compete with the Luftwaffe's fighters. The definitive version, the P-51D, was powered by the Packard V-1650-7, a license-built version of the two-speed, two-stage-supercharged Merlin 66, and was armed with six .50 caliber (12.7 mm) AN/M2 Browning machine guns.

At the start of the Korean War, the Mustang, by then redesignated F-51, was the main fighter of the United States until jet fighters, including North American's F-86, took over this role; the Mustang then became a specialized fighter-bomber. Despite the advent of jet fighters, the Mustang remained in service with some air forces until the early 1980s. After the Korean War, Mustangs became popular civilian warbirds and air racing aircraft.

North American Aviation (NAA) was already supplying its T-6 Texan (known in British service as the "Harvard") trainer to the RAF but was otherwise underused. NAA President "Dutch" Kindelberger approached Self to sell a new medium bomber, the North American B-25 Mitchell. Instead, Self asked if NAA could manufacture P-40s under license from Curtiss. Kindelberger said NAA could have a better aircraft with the same Allison V-1710 engine in the air sooner than establishing a production line for the P-40.

Specifications (P-51D Mustang)

3-view drawing of P-51D Mustang

Nose of P-51 Gunfighter

Wing with three .50 caliber machine guns
Data from Erection and Maintenance Manual for P-51D and P-51K, P-51 Tactical Planning Characteristics & Performance Chart, The Great Book of Fighters, and Quest for Performance

General characteristics

Crew: 1
Length: 32 ft 3 in (9.83 m)
Wingspan: 37 ft (11 m)
Height: 13 ft 4.5 in (4.077 m) tail wheel on the ground, vertical propeller blade
Wing area: 235 sq ft (21.8 m2)
Aspect ratio: 5.83
Airfoil: NAA/NACA 45–100
Empty weight: 7,635 lb (3,463 kg)
Gross weight: 9,200 lb (4,173 kg)
Max takeoff weight: 12,100 lb (5,488 kg) 5,490
Fuel capacity: 269 US gal (224 imp gal; 1,020 l)
Zero-lift drag coefficient: 0.0163
Drag area: 3.80 sqft (0.35 m²)
Powerplant: 1 × Packard (Rolls Royce) V-1650-7 Merlin 12-cylinder liquid-cooled engine, 1,490 hp (1,110 kW) at 3,000 rpm 1,720 hp (1,280 kW) at WEP
Propellers: 4-bladed Hamilton Standard constant-speed, variable-pitch, 11 ft 2 in (3.40 m) diameter
Performance

Maximum speed: 440 mph (710 km/h, 383 kn)
Cruise speed: 362 mph (583 km/h, 315 kn)
Stall speed: 100 mph (160 km/h, 87 kn)
Range: 1,650 mi (2,660 km, 1,434 nmi) with external tanks
Service ceiling: 41,900 ft (12,800 m)
Rate of climb: 3,200 ft/min (16 m/s)
Lift-to-drag: 14.6
Wing loading: 39 lb/sq ft (190 kg/m2)
Power/mass: 0.18 hp/lb (300 W/kg)
Recommended Mach limit 0.8
Armament
Guns: 6 × .50 caliber (12.7mm) AN/M2 Browning machine guns with 1,840 total rounds (380 rounds for each on the inboard pair and 270 rounds for each of the outer two pairs)
Rockets: 6 or 10 × 5.0 in (127 mm) T64 HVAR rockets (P-51D-25, P-51K-10 on)
Bombs: 1 × 100 lb (45 kg) or 250 lb (110 kg) bomb or 500 lb (230 kg) bomb on hardpoint under each wing

#p51 #p51mustang #fighteraircraft

[kylekeller]

We lost Col Anderson May 17th of this year, i was at oshkosh this year and got a chance to attend his memorial service with both of his mustangs present, God speed Col, first star on your right and strait on till morning.

[a.e.w.]

Outstanding doc compilation. Well done sir!

[WaxerndVFW]

Great video! According to the Internet, Bud Anderson turned 102 in January of this year. Salute!

[voodoochildaz]

For me, this is the perfect symbol of US/British cooperation. The combo of the American airframe and the glorious British Merlin engine.... We leveraged each other's strengths and took the skies back from the Nazis.

[Hosscoller]

You should tell people the A-36 Apache is in there Alison engine is a dead give away...

[tomandlouisegriffith]

I've not finished the video yet (there are 20 minutes left) but I can say without fear of being wrong that this video, SADLY, has more misinformation and unclear information than it does factual information.

There are so many things that are wrong that I don't know where I'd begin. I'm not saying that I could compile anything with the scope of this video, with respect to footage, interviews with authors, experts, pilots and other aircrewmen but I can promise that there are a number of things that are TOTALLY and completely wrong --- stated by the above group of people.

I believe that this video is less than a week old. I don't know when it was "compiled" but parts of it are bad (it's bad enough when they're talking about a P-51D and it shows an Allison Mustang in the video while the narration is referring to the P-51D, but it's MONSTROUSLY wrong when they show a pilot climbing into what's OBVIOUSLY a Hawker Hurricane (and the video is "mirrored" --- he's climbing into the cockpit on the right side of the aircraft and the prop is obviously wrong in that the scene shows a left-hand prop...) and then goes another step forward and 15 or 20 seconds later, and shows a Hurricane taking off - all the time, while talking about it like the viewer is watching a Mustang of one variety or another.

The discussion of the wing being "narrow" and that being the cause for the feed-problems on the P-51A/B/C and the A-36A, all of which had 2 x .50 Cals in each wing ... wing was not any "narrower" or "deeper" (the usual mistake that's made) on any of the Mustangs, from the first ones up until the last P-51D was built in Dallas (well, Grand Prairie) ... speaking of which, they did mention the Dallas-built P-51C but I do NOT remember mention of the Dallas-built P-51K.

I'll fast forward to the segment that I've just watched. It does NO good to embellish the record of the 332nd Fighter Group "Red Tails" - they DID "lose" bombers that they'd escorted --- they were no better, nor worse, than the other Fighter Group in the USAAF. They DID, however, prove that "color" or "race" had nothing to do with being great pilots, soldiers, sailors, Coast Guard servicemen or Marines when it came to fighting a war, nor does color/race have anything to do with being a doctor, lawyer, president, office-worker, salesperson etc.

I might comment more as I digest more of this video.

Whoever assembled this video and did the narration etc should know that we in the Warbird-loving Community watch these things and I'm sure that I'm not the only person who's going, "WTHell, " every minute or so. I forgive the guys who flew during the War ... I've talked to veterans of WWII, attended presentations by veterans of WWII, etc and they sometimes "get things wrong." I'm 76 myself (and not a veteran, BTW) and I know that I get things wrong, but I'm not featured on videos.