Why I Am Into P-51 Mustang

There are many historical war planes known. But for me, P-51 Mustang will always be the most influential one. I think it is because the fighter planes made a lot of the achievement during many important battles in the history.

Just like any other boys, I have massive interest in anything that moves fast and can shoot. My Dad, who had always been into World War stories passed down the interest. One of the aircrafts that he thought as “the cool one” was P-51 Mustang, so I have heard many war tales about it.

What is P-51 Mustang?

North American P-51 Mustang was a long-range fighter plane. The single-seat plane was a bomber fighter who had fought many wars including the World War II, Korean war and some others. Before the coming of other jet fighters, the planes used to be the main fighters of the Allies. Mustangs were operated by USA, UK, China, and some other countries during the historical war.

P-51 Mustang was powered by Packard V-1650 V-12 with 1500 horsepower. It was previously powered by Rolls Roys Merlin. Each plane was armed with 6 machine guns. It was able to carry bombs and HVAR rockets.

The brilliant performance of the warbird

In Europe, P-51 Mustang performed brilliantly during the war. In total, there were around 4950 planes shot down by Mustangs. Among the planes they had to combat were the Germany fighter planes such as Bf-109, Bf-11, Me-163, and Fw-190.

Besides shooting down planes and contributing to the victory of the Allies countries in the Germany, P-51 Mustang also defeated many other planes in Europe and fighters of Japanese army and navy. Their record was also impressive.

After the World War II, P-51 Mustang was still the favorite of some countries. In the Korean war, the planes were used as bomber fighters. There were a number of North Korean fighters shot down by the Mustangs during the battle. The Mustangs continued to perform satisfyingly in the war until they were totally beaten by MiG-15 Fagot fighter jets.

P-51 Mustangs were also used by the Israelis. The Middle-Eastern country even labeled the plane as the best fighters they had during the Suez crisis. Not only shooting down enemies and dropping bombs, the planes even managed to sabotage the communication line of the Egyptian military. I think this part was very unique because it was done by cutting down the telephone line with the Mustang’s propeller.

Russia, the only disappointed country.

Anyway, even though P-51 Mustang managed to impress many countries for their battle purposes, there was one country claiming to be disappointed by its performance. It was the Soviet Union- the country was the only nation who said it was dissatisfied with the Mustang’s abilities.

I am not sure the real reason behind this dissatisfaction. I thought it was weird since the other countries were all pleased with the Mustang. Perhaps it was another competition thing: the Soviet Union believed that the performance of Mustangs was not as good as their locally made fighters.