Description
THIS PRODUCT IS IN-STOCK AND READY TO SHIP. OUT OF PRODUCTION, HARD TO FIND WITH ONLY ONE LEFT!!! PLEASE NOTE:
Image may be slightly different than actual product. |
| Dragon Warbirds P-51D™ Mustang USAAF F-6D-25-NT "Lil Margaret" 15th TRS, 10th TRG (Reconnaissance version of the P-51D), #DRW 50002. | • Type of Model: Pre-Assembled Diecast Model
• Year of Release: 2002
• Scale: 1:72 Scale
• Product Attributes: High Quality, Detailed, Painted, Removable Weapons, Detailed Cockpit, Moving Wing Flaps and Opening Canopy
• Display Options: Diecast airplane model can be displayed in either the "In Flight" position with landing gear up or in a "Landing" position with landing gear down.
• Black Plastic Base with Black Plastic Stand.
Brand new, unopened, mint in box condition; PLEASE NOTE that all product packaging and boxes will have some shelf ware and may have minor imperfections like creases, folds, indentions or small tears in the boxes. |
| About the North American P-51 Mustang
The North American P-51 Mustang was a successful long range fighter aircraft which entered service with Allied air forces in the middle years of World War II. Its sleek lines make it one of the most distinctively recognizable aircraft of the Second World War.
The P-51 was used mostly as a bomber escort in raids over Germany - ensuring Allied air superiority over Germany after 1944. It also saw significant service against Japanese air forces in the Pacific War, and was the main fighter for the United Nations in the early stages of the Korean War. The P-51 was replaced by jets in Korea but remained in service with some air forces until the early 1980's.
The definitive version of the single-seat fighter was powered by a single two-stage supercharged V-12 Merlin engine and armed with six .50 caliber (12.7 mm) M2 machine guns.
Shortly after World War II began, in 1939, the British government established a purchasing commission in the United States, headed by Sir Henry Self. Self had earlier sat on the (British) Air Council Sub-committee on Supply (or 'Supply Committee') along with Sir Wilfrid Freeman, who as the 'Air Member for Development and Production' was given overall responsibility for RAF production and research and development in 1938. One of Self's many tasks was to organise the manufacture of American fighter aircraft for the RAF. At the time, the choice was very limited. None of the US aircraft already flying reached European standards, only the Curtiss P-40 Tomahawk came close. With the Curtiss plant running at capacity already, even that aircraft was in short supply.
North American Aviation (NAA) President Dutch Kindleberger approached Self with the idea of selling the British a new medium bomber, the Mitchell. Instead, Self asked if NAA could manufacture the Tomahawk under license from Curtiss. (North American was already supplying their Harvard trainer but were otherwise underutilized.)
Kindleberger's reply, however, was that NAA could have a better aircraft with the same engine in the air in less time. As executive head of the British Ministry of Aircraft Production, Freeman placed an order for 320 aircraft with North American in March 1940. Fortuitously, three months later on June 26 1940 MAP also awarded a contract to Packard to build Merlin engines under license. And in September, MAP increased the first production order by 300.
Although, when outfitted with the English made Merlin engine the Mustang was an extremely well made and excellent plane, it faced some problems with the coolant system. A single bullet could pierce one of the external feeds and could render the aircraft useless. Pilots joked that "A kid with a rifle could bring it down."
Sufficient numbers of P-51s became available to the 8th and 9th Air Forces in the winter of 1943/44, and when "Pointblank" resumed in early 1944 matters changed dramatically. The P-51 proved perfect to the task and the 8th Air Force immediately began to switch its fighter groups to the Mustang, with 14 of its 15 groups converting.
The Luftwaffe pilots learned how to avoid the U.S. fighters by grouping in huge numbers well in front of the bombers, then attacking in a single pass and leaving. This gave the escorting fighters little time to react. In this strategy the Luftwaffe fighters would dive below the bombers to gain speed, pull up and make a firing pass at the belly and least armored portion of the bomber, then "hit the deck" before the escort fighters could react.
But in May a new policy was instituted which allowed the fighters to 'free-hunt', roaming away from the bombers and attacking the German planes wherever they were found. The numerical superiority of the USAAF fighters and the flying qualities of the P-51 made this policy highly effective, and after the Luftwaffe had suffered catastrophic losses both in defense of the Reich and in the failed attempt to fight off the Allied invasion in France, the US, and later British, bombers had little to fear from German day fighters after the summer of 1944.
P-51s also distinguished themselves while fighting against advanced enemy rockets and aircraft, be it V-1s that were launched into London (a P-51B/C with high-octane fuel was fast enough to catch up with one), and even the Me 163 Komet rocket interceptors and Me 262 jet fighters, though considerably faster than the P-51, weren't invulnerable. Chuck Yeager, flying a P-51D, was the first American pilot to shoot down a Me 262 when he surprised it during its landing approach.
8th, 9th & 15th AF P-51 groups claimed some 4,950 aircraft shot down (approx. 50% of all USAAF claims in the European theatre) and 4,131 destroyed on the ground. Losses were approx. 840 aircraft. Top scoring P-51 unit was the 9th AF's 354th FG, with 701 air claims and 255 ground claims.
The P-51s were deployed in the Far East later in 1944, and operated there both in close-support and escort missions. |
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