Posted on 01/18/2010 1:41:01 AM PST by myknowledge
The North American P-51 Mustang has been heralded as the best Allied WWII fighter ever and made a significant contribution to the defeat of Nazi Germany and the Luftwaffe.
With over 15,500 of them built, in all variants, this aircraft found its way into the European, CBI and Pacific theaters.
Powered by a Packard-built Rolls Royce Merlin V-1650 V-12 piston engine, drawing ~1700 hp, the P-51 reached speeds of 700 km/h, and with a pair of drop tanks, it had the range to escort bombers from the UK to Berlin and back, from Iwo Jima to the Japanese home islands and back.
Packing six .50 cal Browning M2 machine guns with over 1600 rounds of ammo, the Mustang had enough firepower to rip any enemy fighter into shreds.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddtqJImF5Qc
I'm sure that you aviation fans know a lot more about the P-51, but I have started this thread because I wanted to ask this question:
What if the P-51 Mustang had not been in WWII?
My response to that is maybe the U.S. 8th AF would have to compensate using P-38s (fork-tailed devils) and probably late mark RAF Spitfires.
This would have meant more bomber casualties and losses from German AAA and Luftwaffe Bf 109s, Fw 190s and Me 262s. More of them could have been airborne due to the aircraft plants not being bombed.
Yeager once called Bud Anderson, “The best fighter pilot I ever saw.”
The P47 was air cooled, water cooled P51 only needed one shot in the radiator and it was done for. Someone correct me if that is incorrect.
I argue only out of love and respect.
P-47s flew more than 546,000 combat sorties between March 1943 and August 1945, destroying 11,874 enemy aircraft, some 9,000 locomotives, and about 6,000 armored vehicles and tanks. Only 0.7 per cent of the fighters of this type dispatched against the enemy were lost in combat. As a testament to the survivability of the P-47, it should be noted that the top ten aces who flew the P-47, returned home safely. Before the war was over, a total of 15,579 Thunderbolts were built, about two-thirds of which reached operational squadrons overseas.
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To say the Merlin Mustangs were successful would be an understatement. The P-51 became one of the aviation world’s elite. The total number of 14,819 Mustangs of all types were built for the Army. American Mustangs destroyed 4,950 enemy aircraft in Europe to make them the highest scoring US fighter in the theater. They were used as dive-bombers, bomber escorts, ground-attackers, interceptors, for photo-recon missions, trainers, transports (with a jump-seat), and after the war, high performance racers.
11,874 for the 47 vs. 4,950 for the 51 is hard to dispute. I wish I had one of each. I am a Steelers fan, and therefore a lover of winning ugly. The P-51 was like a Ferarri-—the P-47, like a Ford truck. I love them both, but the 47 was the greatest fighter of WWII.
THE biggest mistake most German pilots did was try to follow one down in a dive for a deflection shot, only to discover that the Jug could easily roll around into a vertical climb with all that massive horsepower, hammerhead, and roll out point blank behind the enemy that could not escape those 8 deadly high capacity 50 Cal. guns.
The P-47 also had 8 50 cal. and could carry 2400 rounds. This massive and extremely durable fighter is legendary for it's ability to defeat German fighters and our pilots dearly loved it. It could take incredible punishment, even have several cylinders shot out of the engine and the Jug still made it home across the English Channel to save it's pilots. One came home with over 2000 bullet and cannon holes. 3 German pilots emptied their guns into it point blank and the armor saved it's pilot. (Gabby Gabreski)
If we would not have had the P-51, I firmly believe that the P-38 and the P-47 would have still ended the war in due fashion.
good tip..thanks
As Field Marshal Herman Goering said “When I saw the Mustang over Berlin I knew the war was lost”.
A few "trivia" items:
Pratt & Whitney radial engines would get the aircraft back to the aircraft carrier with cylinders shot away!
Radial engines were used in tanks!
Radial engines gained horsepower by adding more rows of (9) cylinders, although I recall that the P&W "Major" engine (4-rows) was trouble-prone.
The last comparison I saw of WWII fighters had the F4U Corsair (three—maybe four—rows) as the close winner, but it does depend on the theater of operations.
P-38 Lightnings were supposed to be designed for high-altitude applications, but applied better at low altitude. (Supercharger issues). Their squadron shot down Adm. Yamamoto's plane—with Yamamoto in it, taking him out permanently.
DC-3s and PBYs used the same radial engines. It was a PBY that spotted the Bismarck, sank a Pearl Harbor Japanese midget sub in the early morning of Dec 11th, 1941, and had an Alaskan brush-up against a Japanese "Zero"—later, shortly thereafter, the Zero crashed and was recovered and rebuilt for tactical study. Japanese ships tried to recover the pilot.
The "Jug" (Thunderbolt F-47) was very heavily armored.
The Harley-Davidson engine is based on the (round) radial engine, and sounds very similar. DVDs of WWII radial engines are available and sold as "Round-Sounds". I bought one last year for my PBY-pilot Dad—and as we listened, he would give tuning instructions as the engines fired up! (Check that second magneto!) Too funny!
I'm certain my Dad would be delighted to talk "Pratt & Whitney radials", "Quiet-Birdmen", and SW Pacific PTO/Sepic River, Darwin, Rabaul, VP-11) to anyone interested. :)
The P-47 is the most unsung hero of the war and the outcome would have been much different without it.
A wonderful time to hear pilots swap stories, and to see some outstanding aircraft.
I'll be back again this year.
Enjoy
I have always wondered how it would have done in the ETO.
I would suggest the Germans’ biggest problem, in the air and elsewhere, was fuel.
It doesn’t matter if you have great planes if you don’t have fuel enough to keep them in the air. It impacts your ability to train replacement pilots, test new designs, keep patrols operating, etc.
Same thing happened on the ground. Biggest problem they had at the Bulge was running out of gas. Their whole battle plan was predicated on capturing Allied tank farms. It is really difficult to win a battle, much less a war, when you must depend on the enemy to provide your essential supplies. :)
This opinion is based on Speer’s book. Since he was in charge of the successful rearming of the Germans in the last couple years of the war, I assume he knew what he was talking about.
I'd love to get a ride in one. There's a place in Florida where you can get a ride in a P-51, though.
The Dominican Air Force had a squadron of them back in the late 1970s. I heard this loud droning one afternoon after school and went out to look and saw them coming from the northwest down the Cibao Valley. It was a beautiful sight.
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