P-51

[Les Paul]

http://www.airshowbuzz.com/videos/view.php?v=022754bc

I don't think this has been posted before. Turn your speakers up and enjoy.

[stuartj]

Now that is cool

One of my favorites- oldie but a goodie. Spitfire buzz.

LANGUAGE ALERT

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6tJgdquU_M

[Jeff Higgins]

Language alert? I understood him just fine.

[Aerkuld]

Originally Posted by stuartj

Now that is cool

One of my favorites- oldie but a goodie. Spitfire buzz.

LANGUAGE ALERT

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6tJgdquU_M

I don't even have to watch it to know which clip that is. It makes me laugh everytime I see it!

[Jeff Alton]

I love that one. Allan is a good sport!

A friend just sold his T28 and had put about 25hrs in a P51 he was thinking about buying. He passed on it in the end, but said it is one aircraft he will someday own.

Cheers

[john70t]

Mabye someday there will be a reproduction market from Extra/Piper/etc...

[JonT]

Sorry not trying to offend anyone I just don't know anything about P-51's but what is so great about them?

[tabs]

The P-51 was the highest developement of the Piston Driven aircraft. It stretched performance to the limit of what a piston driven aircraft could do.

[tabs]

I had a friend who flew the P-51 in ETO during WW2. He always flew the Wingman postion as he never trusted that another pilot wouldn't flake off on him. He was in the same gorup as Chuck Yeager, and said he would steal Yeagers Girl Friends away from him.

The other 2 tales he recounted was that while flying over France he saw the engine fall off of a P-51, killing the pilot. The other was his refusal to take off on a mission in heavy fog, all the pilots who did take off never came back.

[tabs]

Another friend was a B-24 pilot who flew 10 missions over Germany. On the 10th as I understand it his Tail gunner was killed, probably with a hit from a 20MM Cannon. That cracked him up, and he was reassigned as an instructor training new pilots in CA.

[widgeon13]

http://www.aviation-history.com/north-american/p51.html

[tabs]

If I had my choich of an Allied Fighter to fly in WW2, it would have been the P-47 Thunderbolt. It could take alot of punishment and still bring the pilot home, while offering state of the art performance.

[ckissick]

Originally Posted by JonT

Sorry not trying to offend anyone I just don't know anything about P-51's but what is so great about them?

You just need to see one in person to know. They were the ultimate muscle car of airplanes. They were very big for fighters, very powerful, and loud. They must have been about twice the size of a Japanese Zero. I imagine flying in a P-51 would answer your question pretty clearly.

Someone who has never been in a pre-'74 Porsche might ask the same thing about the long hoods.

[GO DAWG GO]

Tabs,

Yeagers group was the 357th along with Bud Anderson "Old Crow" Pete Peterson "Hurry Home Honey" #57th chalked up more kills than any other group in the ETO. Hubert Zempke's 56th FG flew the P-47 with great success and was well known for the straffing. Destroyed trains, tanks trucks and anything to stick its neck out during the day! Also great success air to air. Frances Gabresky shot down 28 in the ETO.

FYI... the A-10 is named after the P-47 Thunderbolt.

Bob

[Les Paul]

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=425868609336333127&q=Empire+of+the+sun&total=431&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=4

Here is a pretty good little video of some Mustangs in action.

[steve185]

[QUOTE][The P-51 was the highest development of the Piston Driven aircraft/QUOTE]
The P51 was a great airplane but probably not the highest development of the piston engine aircraft. The Hawker Tempest witch used the 24 cylinder Sabre engine or Radial Centaurus engine was more advanced.

[K9Torro]

I think that the highest development of a Piston Engine Fighter was the Gruman F8F Bearcat, IMHO

Todd

[Joeaksa]

Originally Posted by JonT

Sorry not trying to offend anyone I just don't know anything about P-51's but what is so great about them?

The P-51 was typical of the American fighters. The main thing that made it a hit was that it came along and had the operational range to where it could escort the bombers from England to Berlin and back, something that no other fighter of its time could do. It was a nice plane but evil on takeoff and landing and not real nimble. Would take a terrific pounding and usually get the pilots home.

The P-47 was an airplane used later in the war. It was a truck but would take a real pounding and hand it right back. It was big, heavy and not a nimble "fighter" so to speak, but did a very good job escorting the bombers and that was what was needed.


Nimble was the British Spitfire, a real "pilots dream" aircraft, but was limited on range. If I won the lotto I would get a Spitfire and enjoy life.



A rare twin cockpit Spitfire


Now, people tend to forget that the Germans had some very nice planes on their side as well. Personally I am a bit biased, knowing a few old Luftwaffe pilots from when I lived in Germany.

The FW-190 was one of the best. Had it been made in higher numbers things might have been different. Course if they had not had an idiot for a leader... well you know what I mean.

There are less than 10 FW-190's flying these days. If I won the lotto there would be a FW in the hangar as well.

A FW-190 in the museum in Berlin


This is a rare photo, and never published that I know of on the internet. The pilot on the left is a friend of mine, a FW-190 pilot. Rest of the story is private but this was taken in 1944 "on duty" so to speak. The -190 was not called the "Butcher Bird" for nothing. It was a very good fighter for its time.

[Les Paul]

My dad was a pilot. Every month he got a yellow newspaper like publication called Trade a Plane. I used to go through every add looking for WWII aircraft. In the late 60's I recall seeing a restored Spitfire for 10K, there was some outfit in Florida that did 2 place conversions on P-51's. 35K. I used to beg my dad to get one. Even as a teenager I knew they were going to only go up in price. Every couple of months there would be a Bearcat, Sea Fury, you name they were posted. Of course I just knew when I turned 16 there would be either an XKE or 911S in our driveway. Aim high shoot low.

[john70t]

The Russians made some pretty good aircraft as well. "IL-2 1946" is the mecca of WW2 combat flight sims.