Mustang Canopies

[Vacajun]

Oh, what a topic! We always have lots of discussion on variants of Mustang canopies.

I bought a set of P-51B,C,D, and K drawings from Charlie Neely, who is an absolute P-51 guru over at the Mustang site. He has worked for years from North American production drawings, manuals, parts, photos, etc. to arrive at what many people consider to be the most accurate P-51 lines around. I have contacted Charlie and he has graciously agreed to let me share his drawings on our site with acknowledged credit to him. He expresses his interest in feedback and comments on the accuracy of the drawings.

Here are Charlie's lines for the 5 different Mustang canopies (3 from California Ds and 2 for Texas Ks). The Early (-2) and Interim (-6) lines are also shown in the front view.

Enjoy, you Mustang freaks!

Many, many thanks to Charlie for sharing his work with us.

[Vacajun]

Here's the front view

[AGNT_Matt]

nice work at least canopies are easier on the early variants but very nice work and boy do i love looking at warbirds nose-on

[fritzie101]

I had no idea there were that many P51D/K canopy types I thought there was just Dallas and Inglewood.

[GiantFlyingRobots]

Thanks for sharing these, if there is one are of my current Mustang profiles that I was never 100% sure about was the 'K' canopy, I'll see how these measure up, and make any changes that may be neccassary.

[Vacajun]

GFR and others, I apologize for misleading comment in the first posting.
The Texas canopies were on Dallas-built P-51D-NTs as well as P-51K-NTs.

As an example, here is the NACA photo GFR has posted in another thread. This airplane is a P-51D-25-NT and has the "Texas 1" canopy. Sorry!

Joe

[Jarink]

Oh, sure, just when I thought I've finally finished up all the little details on my templates.... you post a gem like this!

Now all we need is a list of which model canopies were used on which production blocks or serial numbers. (Understanding that some were probably changed in the field.) Seeing these drawings does ease my mind. I had noticed some of these small differences in photos (mainly the bulge or lack thereof at the front) and it drove me half crazy trying to figure out if I was seeing things or if it was just the angle of the photo. I had thought the only ones with the front bulge were the "Dallas" canopies. Now I know better!

Please pass along my most sincere thanks to Mr. Neely for allowing you to share his illustrations.

[Jarink]

Well, I was pretty close to the California #1 -2 canopy!

[Vacajun]

Here is a follow-up note from Charlie after I referred him to this thread:

Joe,

Just a few items you might want to list over on the SPS forum.

"The five canopies" should not be construed as definative. The only known ordinates appearing in the NAA parts drawings are the -2 and the -6. Both are "California" types.

All five canopies can be observed in war time photos. I chose to limit my illustration to five, but could have drawn at least one more distinct "Dallas" style. It should be remembered that all canopies other than -2 (California #1) were made using a free-blown process and that vagaries in manufacturing could be the reason for so many different looking bubbles(literally!), fitting the same basic basic sliding frame. As one of your group noticed, many early types were replaced with later blown types. Blown types did allow great pilot head movment and visibility but cannot say for certain if replacement was prefered change or a product of replacement from from spares.

At this time, there are only generalized attributions of known shapes to production blocks. It is known the -2 (Calif.#1) only appeared on most of the initial -5-NA' block, and aircraft from this block appear to be most affected by changes to later type canopies in the field. California #3 is now believed to have been part of the initial appearance of the -6. It should be remembered that Mustang production LEAPED with the end of the -5's and beginning of -10-NA production. It may be a simple matter of relaxed quality control early on, as later P-51D's from both facilities achieved obviously much better respective canopy bubble conformity.

Glad everyone liked them. Any chance you could post same over at P-51Mustang SIG? http://p51sig.ipbfree.com/index.php?

Let me think about allowing side views, for time being.

Charlie Neely


I'm hoping Charlie will give the all-clear for posting his side views!!
Thanks again, Charlie!

Joe