MOTORIZED Action model

The most important fighter in the US Army Air Force (predecessor of the US Air Force) was the North American P-51 Mustang – which ironically was developed originally as a fighter for the British Royal Air Force who in 1940 were looking for a successor to the obsolete Curtis P-40 Tomahawk. In the unbelievable time of only 117 days the people at North American built a prototype that incorporated all the points reported by the British based on their experience. Under the designation NA-73X Mustang, the British government ordered 320 aircraft in October 1940. However, the engine used by North American, the 1200 hp Allison V-1710-39 proved inadequateon its first flight. In order to bring the new aircraft up to the performance level of the German fighters, it was finally decided to use the British Rolls-Royce Merlin, a 27.3 litre,V-12 engine with a capacity of over 1620 hp, which had already demonstrated outstanding performance in the Spitfire. The Packard motor works in Detroit was commissioned to build the Merlin under licence. The new series with this engine was designated the P-51B Mustang. In the meantime the American military had also become aware of the new fighter and placed orders. The P-51B proved to have a very long life, particularly in Europe where it was used by the 8th Air Force up to the end of the war. However the ultimate Mustang was the P-51D. Broadly identical to the B version, it differed primarily in that it had commpletely altered cockpit glazing with a sliding canopy. With a total build of 8056 the P-51D was the most popular variant. Another version built in series for the RAF was the P-51K Mustang IVA. 1337 of these were built, including 595 for the RAF, 84 for the Australian RAAF and 10 were supplied to Holland. The remaining 648 aircraft found their way to the USAAF units stationed in Europe. The K version was practically identical to the D, differing externally only in the altered propeller, an Aeroproducts A-542-A1. This propeller was made in one piece of steel but the interior was hollow and it was of a 5 cm smaller diameter than the one usually used, the two piece Hamilton Standard 24D-50-87. Some in the last production batches of the P-51K also had a very similar propeller to that of Aeroproducts – but from Hamilton Standard. After the end of World War II most of the P-51s went to units of the US National Guard until, ultimately, in the summer of 1950, they were called into service in another war. These aircraft designated the F-51D Mustang were under the command of the US Air Force founded in 1947 and stationed in Korea, where they demonstrated their advantages over the competing jets. With a flying time of over an hour in the theatre of war (jets 15 minutes) and capable of taking off from much shorter runways with rougher surfaces, most of which were nearer to the front, the American Mustang was indispensable in Korea for a long time, until February 1952 when it finally came to the end of its service life.

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