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According to Freeman's biography p.236
By February 1944 more than 100 9th Air Force Merlin mustangs were escorting 8th air Force bombers, destroying three to five times as many German fighters per sortie as the more numerous P-47s between January and March, Before the end of March Doolittle asked for all his p-47s and P-38s to be replaced by Mustangs as soon as possible.
P.239
the performance ofthe German twin-engined fighters was never adequate against day fighters, but the speed and manoeurability of the modified FW 190s an Me 109s had been impaired by the weight of their new guns and armour. Until the D-9 version of the former was available, belatedly re-engined with the Jumo 213, they could not compete with the Mustang.
And p.241
Monthly losses, which included most of the experienced German fighter pilots, averaged 450 in the first five months of 1944, only 246 of Germans's single-engined day fighters remained operational.
Those things were true during 1941 also and yet the U.S. Army Air Corps persisted with the P-38 program. For that matter the P-47 was also expensive to produce. Aircraft cost was apparently not a major consideration for the WWII U.S. Army Air Corps.The P-38 was much more expensive to produce, to maintain and much more difficult to fly on the edge.
....But a new slat design introduced with the Friedrich series and onwards solved the problem.... .
I agree with all of this. But the fact remains that the U.S. Army Air Corps took their time adopting the P51. They were betting the P-38 and P-47 would be war winners. Only when the P-38 and P-47 fell short of the mark was the P-51 pushed to the front of the pack.The Mustang solved many problems in one nice package. It had range, it performed equal to or better than most, it was quicker to build, cheaper to build, and easier to learn to fly and fight.
In June 1940, Henry Ford had offered to manufacture 1,000 aircraft a day if the Government would let him do it his way, and during a discussion with Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau Jr. regarding what the Ford company might produce, Ford's son Edsel tentatively agreed to make 6,000 Rolls-Royce liquid-cooled engines for Great Britain and 3,000 for the U.S.[2] However, at the beginning of July Henry Ford stated that he would manufacture only for Defense, not for Britain, and the entire deal was declared off.
The Mustang was indeed what the Allies needed, and at the time of its introduction into service it was actually the fastest fighter in the skies at most altitudes. The Mustang was fast, rolled turned well, had good control forces at most speeds and most importantly it had a very long operating range.
Now the Mustang wasn't without disadvantages to enemy fighters ofcourse, the Bf-109 could mostly outturn and outclimb the P-51 Mustang pretty effortlessly, and the FW190 generally turned climbed a little bit better as-well at low to medium alts while it was the other way around at high altitudes (And thats where the bombers flew). But overall I'd have to say that by the time of its introduction the P-51 was one of the hottest birds in the sky, and it remained so until the end of the war. The Dora-9 was the P-51's equal in many ways, featuring slightly better performance at low to medium altitudes while the Mustang was superior from 20kft and upwards, and this while having almost double the range.
In short the P-51 is one of the greats within the history of fighters, and it certainly helped save the Allied airforces from utter defeat. The P-51 levelled the playing fields for the Allies in many respects while it gave them the advantage in others. The Spitfire was being mauled pretty badly by LW fighters, esp. by the FW190, at the time the P-51 showed up; The P-51 changed this and took the fight to the Germans, and you gotta give some credit for that.
Tend to agreeHello Soren
Quote:" The Spitfire was being mauled pretty badly by LW fighters, esp. by the FW190, at the time the P-51 showed up.."
Now on what you based your claim. Fighter Command had taken beating from LW fighters in 41-42 but in 43 situation was much more even, sometimes LW roughed RAF sometimes it was other way around, and IIRC P-51Bs began their operations in ETO near the end of 43, so situation was already rather even in fighter combat when Stangs appeared
Packard V-1650 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
I am under the impression the Packard Merlin engine was a British program. The American government turned down a July 1940 offer by Ford Motor Company to produce the Merlin engine for American use.
Juha said:And on Rall, I doubt that a man who claimed 174 aerial victories while flying Bf 109F or later was "was quite vary of" the slats of his 109, at least according to his memoirs many of his fights were classical turning fights.
Shouldn't the Spit XIV be compared to the P-51H? Hardly any of either type aircraft made it into operational service by May 1945.The Spit XIV was nearly superior (as a dogfighter) in every key tactical category to either the 51D or 51B
They were remarkably equalI am under the impression the Spitfire Mk IX was more or less equal to contemporary German Me-109 and Fw-190 fighter aircraft. The new Spitfire version plus adoption of air combat tactics similiar to those Germany used evened the odds.