Friday, August 12, 2005
Friday Night Airplane Blogging
The North American p-51 was the finest fighter in Europe, 'nuff said. Designed and prototype built in 120 days, the plane with its Allison engine was capable of outflying the Spitfire at lower altitudes. Its lack of high altiude performance caused the British to experiment with a Merlin engine in the airframe. With that race horse engine in place the P-51 became a super star. With its new high altitude performance and increased range it was able to escort bombers all the way to Berlin and kick ass all the way. This picture shows a B model with the early faired cockpit which gave way in the accompnying D and later models to a clear bubble canopy that greatly improved pilot vision. Over 14,000 were built and saw frontline service until 1953.
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