North American P51D Mustang

Plane: North American P51D Mustang

Weight (Empty/Loaded/Max): 7,125lb / 10,100lb / 11,600lb

Wing Area: 233.2sq ft

Wing Loading: 30.6lb/sq ft / 43.3 lb/sq ft / 49.7lb/sq ft

Length: 32' 3"

Span: 37'

Wing Aspect Ratio: 5.9

Engine: 1,590hp Packard V-1650-7 Inline (Rolls Royce Merlin 69)

Flaps: 5 settings

Visibility:

• Front: Good
• Sides: Good
• Rear: Ok

Control Feel:

• Slow: Fair
• Near Sustained: Good
• Fast: Good

Stall Speed 1k (No Flaps/Full Flaps) 95/90mph

Guns:

Ordnance:
0: none
1: 10xRockets
2: 2x1,000lb bombs
3: 6xRockets + 2x1,000lb bombs

Fuel Time/Percent: 64 seconds/percent

Power/weight (Empty/Loaded/Max): 4.5lb/hp / 6.3lb/hp / 7.3lb/hp

Corner Velocity: 270mph

Durability: Good

WEP time: 5 minutes

Maximum Angle-of-Attack (no flaps/full flaps): 18.5/18.5 degrees

Wing Incidence Angle (no flaps/full flaps): 2.5/4.5 degrees

Accleleration:

Climb:
1k-5k: 49s
5k-10k: 74s
10k-15k: 77s

Zoom Climb:
1k 400mph: +5,400ft
1k 300mph: +3,300ft

Dive:

Max Speed

Turn Performance

Corner Speed and Radii (1,000ft):

Speed: 270mph
Radius: 531ft
Sustained Turn Speed: 165mph
Sustained Turn Radius: 789ft
Full Flaps Speed: 145mph
Full Flaps Radius: 731ft

Roll Rate:
150mph: 7.2s
200mph: 5.3s
250mph: 4.4s
300mph: 4.1s
350mph: 5.3s
400mph: 8.3s

Minimum Full-Flaps Full-Power Split-S altitude:
150mph: 1,300ft
200mph: 1,400ft
250mph: 1,500ft
300mph: 2,100ft

Hoof's Tips and Opinions:

Interestingly enough, the P51Mustang, which went on to become one of America's best fighters, was built for the British, to a British specification, and intended to be used primarily in the RAF. The plane was designed, built and flew for the first time in just 100 days, showing how rapidly planes were designed and built during the war. The first major production P51s were fitted with the Allison V-1710 engine of about 1,000hp, the same as the P40 and P39 fighters. Equipped with four .50cal machine guns and four .30cal machine guns, her performance at altitude was quite poor, just as was the P39. The installation of the Merlin engine, commonly found on the Supermarine Spitfire, amongst other RAF planes, produced a dramatic improvement in performance. The high altitude problems were solved, and virtually every aspect of the plane was improved. Had this engine never been installed in the P51, the P51 might have faded into history as yet another American plane that didn't cut it in the later stages of the war. Instead, the P51, utilizing an Packard built carbon copy of the Merlin engine (by license), became arguably one of the best escort fighters of the war, and one of the finest high speed high altitude planes built during WWII. The plane served with distinction escorting B17 and B24 bombers into Germany and France replacing the P47, and were the first escort fighters able to escort the bombers all the way to targets well into Germany.

The P51 has been called the "Cadillac of the Sky". Warbird's P51 fits that bill wonderfully. Above 300mph and at virtually any altitude, she handles smoothly, and just "feels" nice. Her engine purrs along real nice like a good V-8 car's engine does, her handling isn't jerky and doesn't whip you around like other planed might, her stall characteristics are wonderful, and she is very forgiving to an inexperienced pilot, which is a real asset for a fighter plane that, for the most part, was flown by pilots with little combat experience.

Above 300mph she is a dream. She retains E with the best of them, turns real smoothly, is, frankly, the best diver (although the Fw 190D9 edges it out in top sustained speed on the deck), and has wonderful low-drag and E retention capabilities. Below 300mph she becomes rather mediocre by Warbirds standards, but still does quite good, having decent acceleration, climb and roll performance. Like the P47 and Focke Wulf, she does worse and worse the slower she goes, in fact she has one of the worst roll rates at 150mph.

The trick with this plane is to keep your speed up. Fly her with energy in mind, and don't turn hard unless performing a tracking shot. She handles quite nice when you are easy on her, but tends to buck a little bit with rapid stick input, just like a real Mustang horse might. Ease her into maneuvers and plan ahead, don't turn with any dedicated turner (in fact avoid turning altogether IMO, if there's any chance of someone else showing up). A good pilot flying a P51 is virtually untouchable, and can strike almost at will.

When turning with a good turner, keep your speed up and do a gentle turn. 95% of TnB pilots will pull near max-g to turn with you with the hopes of getting a shot. A P51 turning at 300mph will keep far enough away from such an opponent in a co-e situation, and will retain her E wonderfully while the opponent blows all his E trying to get that unattainable shot on you. When he's down to 150mph or less, level out, go vertical, and E fight him to death. Or if you are trying to shake this opponent, he is now going 150-200mph slower than you, so it is trivial to get away.

The P51 has been known as the "Runstang" due to it's uncatchableness. Interestingly enough, it is now the Fw 190D9 that has this role, and mostly because of her superior firepower. A good P51 pilot can be a lone Fw 190D9's worst nightmare, because if the P51D is co-e or better, and has a good pilot in it, the Fw190D9 will probably lose if he doesn't nail the P51D in a snapshot.

The P51's main weakness is her firepower. Six .50cals can really mess up another plane, but does't quite have the punch to deal out killing blows on passing snapshots that even a pair of 20mm cannon can do. Thus the style of combat the P51 is most suited for is what she is least suited for with her set of guns. A passing attack requires quick rapid firepower to knock out something critical on the target plane. Half a second of .50cal fire on a passing target probably won't do this most of the time. The Dora's guns will and thus the P51 is flown mostly by dedicated P51 pilots, and not by the average pilot.

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