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[Saorsa]

The P51 Mustang was used in both Fighter and Ground attack roles in WW II.

Aircraft now are much more specialized.

[rpcrowe]

Very nice shot - perhaps the color balance could be tweaked a tad away from blue-green...

I love these historic flights, IMO, the North American P-51 Mustang was one of the most beautiful aircraft to come out of the Second World War; equaled (again, IMO) only by the Supermarine Spitfire.

Actually the P-51 as per the original order from the U.K. to North American was equipped with Allison engines and did not have the high altitude performance and range needed for a fighter. Especially a fighter to escort the bombers into Germany. The addition of the Rolls Royce Merlin engine gave extra performance and range; making this one of the best (if not the best) fighter aircraft to come out of the war. The British Spitfire also ran the Merlin engine and was another of the great fighters of WW-II..

A variant of the P-51 was the A-36 Apache which was a ground attack aircraft built on the P-51 design with Allison engines but equipped with dive brakes and two 20mm canon plus two fifty caliber machine guns. The problem with the A-36 was the in-line air cooled engines were very susceptible to ground fire. Far more susceptible than the air cooled engines of the P-47 Thunderbolt.

[Shadowman]

Nice shot.

[John 2]

Very nice shot - perhaps the color balance could be tweaked a tad away from blue-green...

I love these historic flights, IMO, the North American P-51 Mustang was one of the most beautiful aircraft to come out of the Second World War; equaled (again, IMO) only by the Supermarine Spitfire.

Actually the P-51 as per the original order from the U.K. to North American was equipped with Allison engines and did not have the high altitude performance and range needed for a fighter. Especially a fighter to escort the bombers into Germany. The addition of the Rolls Royce Merlin engine gave extra performance and range; making this one of the best (if not the best) fighter aircraft to come out of the war. The British Spitfire also ran the Merlin engine and was another of the great fighters of WW-II..

A variant of the P-51 was the A-36 Apache which was a ground attack aircraft built on the P-51 design with Allison engines but equipped with dive brakes and two 20mm canon plus two fifty caliber machine guns. The problem with the A-36 was the in-line air cooled engines were very susceptible to ground fire. Far more susceptible than the air cooled engines of the P-47 Thunderbolt.

Richard, I seem to remember that the big advantage of the P51 was that it had the range to escort the bomber force all the way for deep penetration sorties. Prior to its introduction, fighter cover had to turn back part way through a mission and the force lost its cover. I used to have a control line model of a P51 made of aluminium on a wood frame. It really looked the part until one day the engine stalled. Unlike a balsa wood model, it didn't glide too well and ended up doing a great impression of having been shot down.

[bnnrcn]

Very nice

[mugge]

What a strange formation
Cheers Ole

[Dave Humphries]

Nice shot Brian, I tend to agree with Richard on colour.

If I'd taken this, I might have cropped, or framed with just a tad more space above the A-10, not lot, probably <5% image height extra.

~ IMO, the North American P-51 Mustang was one of the most beautiful aircraft to come out of the Second World War; equaled (again, IMO) only by the Supermarine Spitfire.

Imagine the P51 with Spitfire flying surfaces?

Having 'flown' both on PC flight sims in my younger days, the P51 was much easier fly!

So perhaps my idea, as aesthetically pleasing as it might look, would be a bit of 'a flop'

Dave