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

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BarnOwlLover

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Nov 3, 2022
Mansfield, Ohio, USA
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?
 
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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.
 
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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.
 
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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.
 
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I guess I'm spoiled for choice, but not on cash and maybe supply. The top four-five or so books I want right now are P-51B: NAA's Bastard Stepchild, the Francillion P-51/F-82 twin volume set, and maybe the Polish Wings 303 Squadron Mustang book and maybe the Mustang Thoroughbred book. However, my next purchases will be dictated by funds and availability. Amazon is currently out of stock on the Francillion books, P-51B is currently almost out of stock, and so is Mustang Thoroughbred it seems.

Kind of wonder if some people are warbird crazy this winter (and yes, I'm trying to buy the physical books, BTW).
 
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The P-51B book is available in UK at a heavily discounted price just now. Not sure what they will charge for postage to the US as it is heavy.
 
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Sorry for posting like a maniac here, but one, I'm thankful that for Bill's and Lowell's book and the Francillion books there's the publishers' or other sites where you can find them or buy direct from the publisher. And two, seeing the preview in the link above, I'm very eager to not only buy Volume 1 of Bill's and Lowell's series on the P-51, but I'm very eager to see what Volume 2 will yield. I know that it'll include plenty of info on the P-51D, XP-51 Lightweights and the P-51H, as well as the stillborn L and M models, and hopefully some stuff on the XP-82/F-82 if they find enough info to include it.
 
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What I told GregP is that you should consider buying used. Then send me a letter w/self addressed envelope and I'll write a personal note on a label and sendit back to you.
 
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I'd rather buy new, because, one, whatever damage may happen during shipping I can blame on the postal or parcel service used to ship, and two, I'm sure of supporting the authors involved. Granted, I don't 100% know if the place I'm going to try in March (or maybe later) to get the Francillion books from is the publisher or not, but at least it's a reputable store. Plus aside from Amazon, I don't see very many on Ebay. At least buying from Osprey's store I get free shipping like I would from Amazon. And some sellers do price gouge relative to MSRP (as well as try and make up for shipping costs from getting it first time around).

In short, I'd rather buy new from a reputable source and also (if possible) support the authors, then try and buy cheap and risk getting shafted. One book was listed as "acceptable" on Amazon used for over $75! Granted, there was one listed in good condition for $35.
 
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It came today and I checked it out a bit. Arrived in mint condition and has tons of information about the Allison and early Merlin P-51s and their genesis and use. If the volume on the P-51D, lightweights, P-51H, P-51M (and XP-/P-82?) is anything like this, it'll be on the wishlist for sure (well, it already is, but its still a work in progress). For the time being, it's taken up residence in a sealed container and sharing space with, among other books (ironically) Audi at Le Mans. Among other things given that, I'm pretty sure we (or I at least) wouldn't have modern Audi and what Audi Sport did in racing without the Mustang in it's own way.
 
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