29 December 1941: The first North American Aviation XP-51 fighter prototype, Air Corps serial number 41-038, arrived at Langley Field, Hampton, Virginia, for National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics (NACA) flight testing. This airplane was the fourth production Royal Air Force Mustang Mk.I, identified as AG348. The Mustang Mk.I (NAA Model NA-73) was a single-place, single-engine fighter of all metal construction. It was 32 feet, 3 inches (9.830 meters) long with a wingspan of 37 feet, ½-inch (11.290 meters) and overall height of 12 feet, 2½ inches (3.719 meters). The airplane’s empty weight was 6,280 pounds (25,848.6 kilograms) and loaded weight was 8,400 pounds (3,810.2 kilograms). The engine was a 1,710-cubic-inch-displacement (28 liter) liquid-cooled, supercharged Allison Engineering Company V-1710-39 single overhead cam 60° V-12 engine which turned a 10 foot, 9 inch (3.277 meter) diameter three-bladed Curtiss constant-speed propeller through a 2.00:1 gear reduction. The engine had a takeoff rating of 1,150 horsepower and a war emergency rating of 1,490 horsepower at 4,300 feet (1,310.6 meters) with 56 inches (1.89 bar) of manifold pressure. This gave the Mustang Mk.I a maximum speed of 382 miles per hour (614.8 kilometers per hour) and cruise speed of 300 miles per hour (482.8 kilometers per hour). The service ceiling was 30,800 feet (9,387.8 meters) and range was 750 miles (1,207 kilometers). The Mustang Mk.I was equipped with four .303-caliber machine guns, two in each wing, and four .50-caliber machine guns, with one in each wing and two mounted in the nose under the engine. The Mk.I was 30 m.p.h. faster than its contemporary, the Curtiss P-40 Warhawk, though both used the same engine. Below 15,000 feet, the Mustang was also 30–35 m.p.h faster than a Supermarine Spitfire which had a more powerful Roll-Royce Merlin V-12. Two Mustang Mk.Is, AG348 and AG354, were taken from the first RAF production order and sent to Wright Field for testing by the U.S. Army Air Force. These airplanes, assigned serial numbers 41-038 and 41-039, were designated XP-51. They would be developed into the legendary P-51 Mustang. In production from 1941 to 1945, a total of 16,766 Mustangs of all variants were built. r/max
Posted on: Mon, 29 Dec 2014 23:00:00 +0000
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