P-51 Mustangs

[CRIPES_A_MIGHTY]

Hi...P-51's...YUM...I know ,I know, I know.....but...what an aircraft.

Can I just throw an observation your way.
On MoonbeamMcSwine....many photo's I have see show the panel on which the nose art is to be of a lighter colour blue compared to the surrounding blue colour of the rest of the nose.....This being that the original nose art was taken from an earlier P-51 and graphed to a newer one. The blue nose colour had by then changed. So the blue on the nose art panel differed from the blue of the new aircraft.!

See if I cant dig out a photo to show what I mean.

[Jarink]

Nice observation and cool picture. I'm going back to redo some of my early profiles since I've made numerous changes to the template since I did McSwine and a couple others, so I'll be sure to include this touch.

[Jarink]

Thought I'd reply to this here since I didn't want to hijack the other thread...

Planning on any MTO mustangs?

Yes, I'm in the process of getting some info on the 325th FG "Checkertails" from Monguse!
There's a couple of them I'm planning on doing for pilots that are still alive, plus others.

[GiantFlyingRobots]

[Jarink]

Another update! I added landing gear and it surely was not as easy as I'd thought it would be! I have 4 options now:
8 spoke with or without doors down
10 spoke with or without doors down

Yes, I know I need to add the landing light. What can I say? Forever WIP.

8 spoke doors up


10 spoke doors down

[gamary]

Thanks for that little piece of info, Jarink: I'd never noticed there were 8/10 spoke wheels on the Mustang. I guess I should update my P-51 template accordingly!

I've always thought the door should be down. It was up only for a brief period of time and started going down as soon as the engine was shut off. (Even though my template allows for both). What is your preference?

[Jarink]

I prefer it down, but I know there's other people who like them up. To each his own!

The 8 spoke wheels also have a raised lip around the openings. The pictures of "Double Trouble Two" here in the gallery have the 8 spoke wheels and you can plainly see the lip.

Good picture of 10 spoke wheels
http://lh4.ggpht.com/_WvtTUIZ0sjA/Rr...g/DSC_7052.JPG

I think the 10 spoke wheels were more common. At least, I see them a lot more in historical photos.

[fritzie101]

Hey I love mustangs but why doesn't someone do the ultimate mustang, the P51H. It almost made it into the war and was capable of almost 500 mph it would of probably even given early jets problems. I'd really like to see some early postwar h models especially the short tail version. Gaetan Marie's British one is the only one I've seen recently.

[CRIPES_A_MIGHTY]

I believe most of the H models never saw any real action...even after the war!
During the Korean war..most of the Mustangs used were D models..
This is because there were more available..more spare parts...and they were more robust than the H. Plus had a better range I believe.
The reason the H was faster is because they took so much out of it to safe weight....so less robust....bigger engine.....drank more fuel...so less range than D. Fast..but not practical..lol.

Most were used as chase planes or to fill out the national guard.

[fritzie101]

The Mustang wouldn't have seen any combat in korea if there were enough P47s left after the drawing down of the USAAF after WWII.the Mustang was a poor ground attack fighter due to it's cooling system's vulnerability to ground fire, unfortunately that was it's primary role in Korea.The P51H was designed as an interceptor and the P51D/K was a better ground attack airplane than the P51H which is why it was not used in Korea (all mustangs used in Korea were F51D/Ks except for the F82) The F8F Bearcat wasn't used in Korea either because it was also designed as an interceptor and jets were filling the fighter/interceptor role by then (luckily the navy had the Corsair and Skyraider for CAS).
Both the P51H and the Bearcat would have seen plenty of combat In WWII if the atomic bombs were not used. The P51H was not a bad airplane it was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. By the way the 56th fighter group flew P51Hs(I believe they were replaced by P80s)