Recon mustang

Air Classics, Aug 2001 by O'Leary, Michael

SUPERBLY RESTORED NORTH AMERICAN P-S/A MUSTANG IS ONE

OF THE HIGHLIGHTS OF THE YANKS AIR MUSEUM

During December 1941, North American Aviation at Inglewood, California, was building 3.5 Mustangs per day to fulfill the order for Britain's Royal Air Force but company president Dutch Kindelberger felt that he could raise production to a whopping ten fighters per day within three weeks of a substantial Army order. Colonel Homer Sanders, frustrated commander of the 51 st Fighter Group in India whose pilots were finding it increasingly difficult to fight superior Japanese equipment with Curtiss P-40s, commented on 26 August 1942 that "apparently the go-ahead signal was not given (for Mustang production) or there would certainly be some available for combat duty by this time. It appeared there was a tendency by the Material Division to hinder the development of this airplane, which can only be accounted for by the fact it was strictly a North American product and Material Division could claim no credit for it."

However reluctant, the Army did order Mustangs. Back at the factory, North American was in a tremendous state of flux. Between the start of the war in Europe and the Japanese sneak attack on Pearl Harbor (a period spanning two years and two months), the company had gone from a capability of building 70 aircraft per month to a mass-production facility that could churn out 325 aircraft in the same time period. This had also been a period of frantic hiring, the company swelling from 3400 employees to over 15,000 with buildings being rapidly erected to handle production.

With the Army's initial order for 150 Mustangs now under production, the Air Corps decided to convert 57 of these P-51 airframes into armed photo reconnaissance platforms for use in Europe and North Africa, while the remaining 93 Mustangs on the order were transferred back to the RAF as Mustang Mk. IAs. It is interesting to note that all these aircraft were fitted with four 20mm cannon in place of the standard machine guns. The cannons carried 125 rounds per gun, and five rounds with linkage weighed three pounds. This compared to one pound for three .50-caliber rounds and links. North American's cost to produce these aircraft was $26,741 each but when profit and government furnished equipment were added, the price went to $58,698.

Of the aircraft pulled for the photo recon conversion, the 33rd and 102nd airframes in the P-51 contract were withheld by North American for experimental engine work. The prototype camera installation was undertaken at NAA (P-51-1-- NA), while the remaining 54 were depot modified as P-51-2-NAs but were later redesignated F-6As. In an attempt to give this variant some special distinction, the name Apache was briefly adopted.

The Air Corps next NAA order was for a dive bomber version - the A-36 - and 500 were built. With the awarding of the A-36 contract, and further testing on earlier aircraft underway, the momentous decision was made to order a fighter variant of the Mustang for the Air Corps. Fitted with the new Allison V-1710-81, 1200 examples of the P-- 51 A were ordered on 23 June 1942 under contract AC-30479, with the factory designation NA-99. As production forged ahead, reports were coming back from the combat fronts calling for modifications or improvements to the basic design, and one of these was a sand filtering system for the Allison carburetor since North African sand was reducing reliability of the Allisons.

The P-51A would be fitted with four .50-caliber Brownings (two in each wing panel) and associated magazines to carry 1260 rounds of ammunition. As with virtually any other combat aircraft, weight began to grow as the aircraft neared series production the combat weight of the A-model was 8600 lbs, and this was further increased to 9600/10,3000 lbs if 75/150 gallon drop tanks were fitted.

With the awarding of the P-51A contract, extremely high levels of mass production were planned at North American, and assembly lines capable of constructing 20 aircraft a day were set in place. The need for new fighters was so great that the original contract for 1200 P-5lAs was supplemented with further orders for 1050 aircraft. However, the P-51A was to become a fairly limited production fighter as orders were soon slashed to just 310 aircraft. The reason for this drastic contract cut-back? The Mustang airframe had been mated to the RollsRoyce Merlin V-12 resulting in a vastly superior aircraft at medium and high altitude. Combat history in the skies over Europe would soon be re-written.

This did not mean that the 310 P-- 51As would be shuffled aside to training bases - far from it. The P-51A with its excellent low-level capabilities was needed at combat fronts across the globe and the type gave sterling service in action. As with earlier P-5s, many of the aircraft were fitted with a camera behind the pilot and assigned to tactical reconnaissance squadrons. With the F-- 24 camera in place, the aircraft were usually, but not always, redesignated F-6Bs.