I learn something new every day about my 2nd all-time favorite WWII airplane, The P-51 Mustang.
ENJOY!
ENJOY!
Fatal Flaw To The Best All-Around WWII Fighter - P-51 Mustang
- Thread starter BlueOvalFitter
- Start date
wemay
Site Donor 2023
Matter of opinion that it was even the best all-around fighter.
My favorite WWII planes were the Messerschmitt Bf 109 and Focke-Wulf Fw 190. The P-51 was my second all-time favorite.
I think it was the Allison engine.
Article title seems to me to be click bait.
Its the coolant filled radiator in the scoop that took damage fairly easily. One bullet through the cooler and the plane's engine could overheat in 2 minutes or less.
Armoring the area was introduced in later models as a fix.
One of the reason's the P-47 and Corsair with air cooled radial engine's were so durable. Stories of cylinders being shot off these engines and the plane still getting the pilot home.
I think it was the Allison engine.
The Allison engine was only in the original and unimpressive P-51. When it was fitted to the Rolls Royce Merlin it became the superior fighter aircraft we remember.
Jackson_Slugger
$50 Site Donor 2022
Agreed, but even with the Allision the Mustang still had impressive low and mid level performance and the "Apache" variant was made into a dive-bomber...
Mustangs have always been too pretty boy for my taste. Make mine a Hellcat or a Thunderbolt. 
I suppose the lower visibilty of the earlier ones wasn't an issue in the dive bomber role. Low visibility to the rear is not ideal as a fighter though certainly common.
If memory is correct air that went into that scoop, came out and added more thrust due to the heat and nozzle shape?
Its called the Meredith Effect...
In the U.S., North American Aviation were watching European fighter
design and thinking about putting Meredith’s ideas into use. In 1940,
the P-51 designers also prioritized the cooling system to make best
use of the Meredith Effect. The NA-73X prototype had movable inlet and
exit doors on the rad scoop. Eventually, a revised, fixed inlet was
used with a boundary layer bleed, based on wind tunnel testing of a
full-scale P-51, minus outer wing panels. This was to determine a
cause and fix for inlet separation in the rad scoop, which was
accompanied by a serious, audible rumble. The long duct of the P-51
was a big improvement over the short ducts used on the Spitfire and
BF109.
Despite the fact that many tests were run by North American with
regards to cooling drag, there is still extensive speculation today as
to what drag reducing benefits the P-51 actually enjoys due to its
design and the Meredith Effect. Some say the P-51 could offset up to
90% of the cooling drag, others variously insist it produced a net
thrust of 250-400 pounds. Calculations with wild assumptions abound on
the Internet, but I’ve never seen a definitive answer with real flight
test data.
In the U.S., North American Aviation were watching European fighter
design and thinking about putting Meredith’s ideas into use. In 1940,
the P-51 designers also prioritized the cooling system to make best
use of the Meredith Effect. The NA-73X prototype had movable inlet and
exit doors on the rad scoop. Eventually, a revised, fixed inlet was
used with a boundary layer bleed, based on wind tunnel testing of a
full-scale P-51, minus outer wing panels. This was to determine a
cause and fix for inlet separation in the rad scoop, which was
accompanied by a serious, audible rumble. The long duct of the P-51
was a big improvement over the short ducts used on the Spitfire and
BF109.
Despite the fact that many tests were run by North American with
regards to cooling drag, there is still extensive speculation today as
to what drag reducing benefits the P-51 actually enjoys due to its
design and the Meredith Effect. Some say the P-51 could offset up to
90% of the cooling drag, others variously insist it produced a net
thrust of 250-400 pounds. Calculations with wild assumptions abound on
the Internet, but I’ve never seen a definitive answer with real flight
test data.
Similar threads
- Locked
