Dav, I wanted to thank you and Drgondog for the persistence in which you made your case for the P-51A. My thinking had been limited by what I'd learned about the Allison powered P-40E at the beginning of the war and believed or understood that the existence of the P-40E as a stop-gap interceptor, poor as it was, was strictly an artifact of the slow development of the P-38. In other words, I supposed the USA had no other options than accepting the limitations of the P-40E awaiting the arrival of the P-38. I knew the P-51 had flown early but didn't really understand that even in its Allison powered incarnation it was a winner. In a perfect world, it should have been adopted by the army and replaced the P-40 as quickly as possible. I don't really understand why this didn't happen. Do you think this is a topic for a new thread or is it a subject that has been beaten to death in this forum. Thanks again, I learned something... Mal