The P51 Mustang, the best offensive fighter of WW2 ...

[dogtag]

When it came out the US Air Force didn't show much interest,
but the British Air Force did. They dumped the (Pratt & Whitney ?)
engine and replaced it with the RR Merlin.
Hey Presto, a fighter that could, with long range tanks, escort the
Bombers all the way. The Tuskegee Airman used it to great effect.
And it was a feast for the eyes.
They still zoom around the pylons at air shows.

[jjrothWA]

Read the book "Thunderbolt" by Johnson, I think it was equal.

[Allen]

I read where Tom Cruise paid $4M for his Mustang.

[dryheat]

I built a model P-51. You could raise and lower the landing gear with a little knob. Loved that plane. We had a famous one at Falcon Field that flew around. We were out at the Salt river once and it came ripping past us. Just like SPR. OK, maybe not that dramatic but a real thrill. I don't remember the name. We had one crash at another local a/p, I hope it wasn't that one. I could look all this up, but you get the idea; I think it was an extremely cool plane.
'Oh, Tom Cruise wants to buy our plane'? (salesman cracking knuckles). I recall there was a time when they were semi-plentiful.

Another star who owns planes; Michael Dorn (Worf of Star Trek)

A member of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association,[13] Dorn is an accomplished pilot. He has flown with the Blue Angels as well as the Thunderbirds.[3] He has owned several jet aircraft, including a Lockheed T-33 Shooting Star, which he jokingly refers to as his "starship",[14] a North American F-86 Sabre, and currently owns a North American Sabreliner. Dorn also serves on several aviation organizations, one of which is the Air Force Aviation Heritage Foundation,[15] where he is on the advisory board.
His contract prevented him from flying any of his toys.

One more. Harrison Ford (star wars and lots more) tried to land on the taxiway. He got the, 'call this number' from the tower. That's not good.

[bruce]

They were all wonderful planes. The P-51 was one of many great planes. In the ETO do consider the P-47 superior simply b/c it was not only better armed, it was more capable of dealing with multiples roles. The P-51 was simply more vulnerable to minor hits to cooling system, etc. Of course the Corsair ruled the air in the PTO. Sincerely. bruce.

[Vern Humphrey]

Read the book "Thunderbolt" by Johnson, I think it was equal.

I had a friend, Gus Gutshall who was a pilot in the 25th Fighter Squadron, the Assam Dragons, in the CBI theater in WWII. (Due to the terrain, the pilots would usually "drag in" on their passes. It was there that the 25th picked up the name Assam Draggins.)

Gus had two caterpillars -- once shot down by Japanese groundfire, and once had his wingman clip his tail off. He stayed with the Army when the Air Force split off and served in Airborne units. He had GOLD Master Parachutist wings (more than 100 military jumps) and US Parachute Association Class D license (more than 200 free fall jumps.)

He said he much preferred the Thunderbolt and didn't like the P51 at all. "You put the nose down on that thing and you're gone!"

[blackhawknj]

IIRC the P-51's strength was it had the range and maneuverability to escort the bombers all the way and back, hence it was the best DEFENSIVE fighter.

[fguffey]

When it came out the US Air Force didn't show much interest,
but the British Air Force did. They dumped the (Pratt & Whitney?)

The Mustang came out with an Allison.

F. Guffey

[fguffey]

The Me109 had a bigger engine, the difference? We had Ethel in our gas tanks and the Germans used a synthetic fuel. There were times we were running 140 octanes; the Germans were lucky to be running 95 octanes.

F. Guffey

[Art]

IIRC the P-51's strength was it had the range and maneuverability to escort the bombers all the way and back, hence it was the best DEFENSIVE fighter.

The defeat of the Luftwaffe was achieved by using the bombers as sort of a decoy. Don't get me wrong, the bombing was still important but we conducted bomber operations in such a way the Luftwaffe had a "heads up." In this way we forced them to come up and fight. When we did the Mustangs, or Indians as the NAZI pilots called them shot them down in large numbers; especially those fighters (mostly FW190s) that had been modified as bomber destroyers. By the Normandy invasion the Germans had lost so many planes, and more importantly so many experienced pilots that they were non competitive and we had air superiority over Europe. By the end of the year we had air supremacy.

F.guffey:

One of the problems with the 109 G model which we faced in the greatest numbers, was it had become "lumpy." As bigger engines and heavier armament was added the plane became less and less "clean." In early 1944 the G-10 version came out which was much cleaner aerodynamically and came within 10 mph of the top speed of a Mustang, by that time though it turned out to be too little and way too late.