North American P-51 Mustang Aircraft – The Birth of a Legend

Many superlatives have been written about North American Aviation' P-51 Mustang. At the time of its greatest moments in the latter stage of the Second World War, and in the decades following that time, it came to be regarded as a warplane virtually without equal. Celebrated by many, and with a war record that few other combat aircraft of its own time or since have been able to match, the North American P-51 Mustang tends to stand head and shoulder above many of it contemporaries, and was undoubtedly on a par with the very best of its breed. 

It was an aircraft that proved capable of effectively performing a variety of roles, and in some of these tasks it truly excelled. Mated eventually with the equally admirable British Rolls-Royce Merlin engine, the North American P-51 Mustang evolved into probably the finest escort fight I' of all time, and proved to be a godsend to the very service that at first had seen little use for it, the USAAF. It was a remarkable aircraft, and similarly it had an equally remarkable creation and development, that in many respects went completely against the trends and customs of its time.
The North American P-51 Mustang became an indispensable part of the Allied war effort as World War Two progressed, in what was probably the great st aerial struggle that the world has ever seen. Military aviation played a vital role in many diverse ways during that immense conflict. All of the major combatants fielded significant numbers of combat aircraft, and the indispensable nature of military aviation was unquestionably established by the war's end. Warplane design and development, and manufacture, moved forward in leaps and bounds during the war, continuing the trend of technological advances in aerodynamics, materials and powerplant technology that had arisen during the 1930s. The North American P-51 Mustang in many ways represented the pinnacle of piston-engined fighter development, before the jet-powered combat aircraft took over forever.
For aircraft designers and manufacturers, the period from the mid to late 1930s onward proved to be an age of unrivalled opportunities, in which rapidly developing and expanding military requirements and massive production possibilities became a reality after years of comparative stagnation of military orders in the post-Fir t World War period. The potential existed during that era for aviation companies to grow out of all proportion to their pre-war size, and with that growth came substantial increase in the numbers of people employed in aviation-related activities, and the development of a highly-skilled and motivated workforce. That this came about after the difficult times following the economic crises of the late 1920s and early 1930s was little short of a godsend for the aviation business. They were unprecedented times for the growth of aviation, and out of the world crisis that took the form of the Second World War many significant aircraft types emerged. Some of these have become legendary and rightly hold a very special place in the history of military aviation. The North American P-51 Mustang is one of those very special aircraft, and it was without doubt a significant contributor to the final Allied victory in 1945.

Historical Perspectives

It could all have been very different. At several significant stages the whole project that led to the Mu tang could have been derailed or even ended altogether. Indeed, were it not for individual initiative, forward thinking, and at times downright audacity, the Mu tang might never have been created, or developed into the excellent aircraft it became. To put the story of the North American P-51 Mustang into historical perspective from the outset, the creation of this excellent aircraft had many of it roots in developments that trace back to the accession to power of Adolf Hitler and the National Socialist (Nazi) party in Germany during early 1933. The Nazi rise to power was followed by an unprecedented period of military expansion in Germany' armed forces. A significant part of this was the rapid growth in Germany's air force, the Luftwaffe, a factor that had been forbidden in the peace settlements at the end of the First World War. The existence of the new Luftwaffe was publicly acknowledged in March 1935, and it came as a very unwelcome development for many neighbouring European countries. Indeed, Germany's significant military expansion, coupled with an increasingly aggressive foreign policy that was pursued by the Nazi leadership, led to a completely changed reality for the countries of Europe. The response of some, particularly Britain and France, was to foolishly indulge in the appeasement of the Nazi leadership and its aims. Fortunately there were sufficient wise heads in both Britain and France who realized that such a policy had no chance of success, and was in any case absolutely morally and militarily bankrupt. Reluctantly a policy of rearmament was commenced during the 1930 by a number of European countries, but in most cases this represented little more than a case of catch-up with the high quality (both in terms of numbers and increasing capability) of rearmament that wa rapidly taking place in Nazi Germany. The achievements of German warplane and their skilled and highly-motivated pilots during the Spanish Civil War, which concluded successfully for the Fascist powers in March 1939, illustrated how far German aerial capability had come in such a short space of time.
In Britain, the RAF embarked on an 'expansion scheme' that saw a significant influx of more 'modern' combat aircraft to replace the colourful but increasingly outmoded biplanes that were in front-line British service well into the 1930s. Britain in fact had several important advantages over many other countries, not least of these being a pool of talented aircraft designers who were not afraid to embrace progress and new concept in aircraft design and materials. This, coupled with advances that had been made by participation and eventual overall success in the Schneider Trophy contest from 1919 to 1931, helped put Britain among the leaders in the field in several key area of aircraft design and powerplant technology. New ways of building aircraft were also coming to the force during the 1930s. Important among these was the increasingly widespread adoption of all-metal, stressed- kin construction in warplane design and manufacture. Metal aircraft were not new even at that time, the first successful metal military monoplanes having flown during World War One, but in several countries the all-metal monoplane fighter was coming to the fore and sweeping away the fabric-covered biplane fighter for ver. Other advances, such as the adoption of retractable undercarriages and enclosed cockpits, were leading to warplanes of increased capability that little resembled the front-line types of just a few year previously. Reginald J. Mitchell's beautiful, iconic Supermarine Spirfire and Sydney Camm's rugged, purposeful Hawker Hurricane (which admittedly still retained fabric covering in its construction) were the best that the free world had to offer in response to German rearmament that included the highly important Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighter. Both the Spitfire and the Hurricane were powered by the Rolls-Royce Merlin inline engine, later to have such a significant impact on the story of the North American P-51 Mustang.
The problem for Britain was that both the Spirfire and the Hurricane were not necessarily going to be enough by themselves, particularly in terms of number, to face the tide of a German aerial assault against Britain and her allies. The Hurricane first flew in November 1935, and was well established in RAF frontline service in September 1939 when the Second World War began. The Spitfire made its first flight in March 1936, and began to enter front-line squadron service with the RAF in the latter half of 1938. By that time the Luftwaffe' Bf 109 had been in service since 1937, and had proven it worth in combat over Spain from 1937 onward. Early models of the Bf 109 were powered by the Junker Jumo 210 inline piston engine, but just coming into widespread Luftwaffe service in 1939 was the Daimler Benz DB 601-powered Bf 109E, the deadliest of the breed up to that point. Britain, like all other European countries, was becoming acutely aware of her lack of significant numbers of fighter aircraft in depth that were capable of taking on the Bf 109, and the growing array of other high-performance Luftwaffe aircraft that would be involved in any general conflict. Nevertheless, even though Britain was faced with the need to catch up, particularly in terms of numbers of modern warplanes, she was far better placed than any other allied country in Europe to take on the Luftwaffe because of the RAF's growing numbers of Spitfires and Hurricanes. No other Western European country could boast anything like either the Spitfire or the Hurricane in their inventories, and several other key allies, such as France, were struggling to bring modern designs to the fore after years of stagnation in official specifications and long delays in the creation of modern designs. The Munich Agreement of September 1938, which ceded significant parts of one of Britain and France's allies, Czechoslovakia, to Nazi Germany was supposed to end Germany's territorial ambitions. The German takeover of the remainder of Czechoslovakia in March 1939 showed that Munich was simply another debacle, and even Britain's inept and weak government realized that the game was up and the Nazi threat had to be confronted.
Source: North American P-51 Mustang, CROWOOD AVIATION SERIES