Good books about late P-51 Mustang and F-82 Twin Mustang development?

[BarnOwlLover]

I'm thinking in a few days of pursuing purchasing at least one book about the Mustang and/or the Twin Mustang (I live on a fixed income so this will slowly build up depending on funds). I'm particularly interested in the lightweight Mustang developments, as well as the P-51H, and the F-82. I know of the Valiant Wings P-51D/K book that talks about the late P-51s, including a chapter on the lightweights and various photos and diagrams of them. There's also the Building the P-51 Mustang book that I heard has at least some stuff on the lightweights and the H.

There's also a recent book on the F-82 that details the XP-82's restoration to flight status as well.

Would anyone recommend these or others that they want to mention?

 

[drgondog]

Not really a book request, but a "wish list" item. After reading his Building the P-51 Mustang book, if he's still around or still writing, this article makes me wish Michael O'Leary would write a book about the XP-82/P-82 Twin Mustang:

Articles, News and Links

The following link takes you to an article written by Kevin S. Tanner, editor with Air Classics Magazine http://xp-82twinmust...

xp-82twinmustangproject.blogspot.com

That and the Alpha Archive in southern California where he got photos for that Mustang book (and probably other stuff he's authored--does it even exist still?) seems to be pretty impressive as far as having rarely seen photos.

The 'Alpha Archive' was O'Leary's fictional name for a couple of major sources for existing NAA photographs (including my co-author Lowell Ford). IMO the ploy was to attempt to circumvent Boeing proprietary licensing ($$) process. He left a lot of folks fuming for lack of credit (to them) for their contributions.

After our book was published, both Lowell and I shipped boxes of docs, images, etc (copies) to Boeing for their Archives.

Not sure O'Leary will ever be able to get a book published again using NAA images without bad breath Boeing legal group after him - unless he engages in payment plan.

 

[BarnOwlLover]

So as far as finding those images now, I guess I'm kinda screwed unless I want to write a book and pay big bucks for them since most of them now belong to Boeing.

So SDASM it is for me on the image front. At least the one P-51H book out there does give credit to NAA/Boeing.

Or gives me an excuse to buy your books when the successor to the P-51B book comes out and I can save up.

I've overall been looking for images of mostly the lightweight Mustangs, P-51H and P-82 as far as development/prototypes, mock ups and wind tunnel models. I guess this does give me an excuse to start reading my books I already have and look for other good ones--and try and find a good place at home to read them.

 

[BarnOwlLover]

The next few books that I might try and get over the next few months are Bill and Lowell's P-51B book, the Francillion P-51/F-82 series, the late Steve Pace's book on the P-51 (includes the F-82) and if possible David McLaren's P-51H and F-82 books. I also can't wait for Bill and Lowell's Lighweight Mustang (possibly including Merlin P-82) book to get ready for release.