Very cool video of a P-51!

[waterinthefuel]

For all you P-51 lovers out there, here is a great video!

http://www.airshowbuzz.com/videos/view.php?v=baccdea1

 

[Haut Medoc]

Re: Very cool video of a P-51!

That is one beautiful machine......

 

[IOSLVR]

Re: Very cool video of a P-51!

What a beautiful aircraft! Nice video witf.

 

[Scaaty]

Re: Very cool video of a P-51!

Love it when the air show comes my way..the B-17 and the Mustang give rides, and come right over the tip of my peninsula REAL low...slow on the 17...ya can hear the 51 vibrating the tree's as it approaches full blast!

 

[Boomyal]

Re: Very cool video of a P-51!

Great vid WIF. A timeless icon, the P-51, and a real tribute to American knowhow. (although I still have a large place in my heart for the P-47 and Vought F4U Corsair)

It is hard to believe that the Mustang took 120 days from concept to prototype and it was originally only going to be a lendlease plane. The US was slow to adopt it because North American would not pay bribes to the procurement honchos.

In the end, it's superiority was so pronounced that they were forced to adopt it.

 

[JB]

Re: Very cool video of a P-51!

Many believe that the Mustang was the best fighter of WWII, but it's name and success were authored by the Brits.

The original was built for the Brits, who gave it the name Mustang, but high altitude performance was lacking.

They tried replacing the Allison engine with the supercharged Rolls Royce Merlin and came up with a winner. Packard then built the Merlin under license from RR.

Not even the howl a Ferrari V12 raises my hair like a Merlin powered Mustang.

 

[QC]

Re: Very cool video of a P-51!

I am close to a big vintage warbird collection at Chino Airport. Had a P-51 over the house on Monday, and we are on a hill so he was pretty close. Awesome!!

Why is it that most things that are technically superior either look or sound sooooo good? There are definitely exceptions, but the best engines sound awesome. Not just things built to look good. One can argue that a Ferrari is supposed to look great, but a fighter plane? It is supposed to perform great. I don't think anybody stands there and says, well let's put a really cool looking air duct on the bottom because it will look cool. They need it, and it looks awesome. And I don't think any engineers say, if we add 4 more cylinders it will sound better. Those things are weird to me.

 

[PW2]

Re: Very cool video of a P-51!

My father during WW II worked on repairing damaged wing sections on P-51's, along with other fighter planes, at Sand Point Naval air station in Seattle. He used to love that plane. There apparently was a lot of wood used in those old planes.

And there was nothing like the sound of the old RR Merlin engines. There was a lot of surplus engines around the Seattle area after the war, and they became the dominant engine in unlimited hydroplane racing. They weren't called thunderboats for nothing.

I attended the Reno air races one year years ago, where they actually raced P-51's. Man, that was an impressive sight!

 

[Boomyal]

Re: Very cool video of a P-51!

They ended up scrapping countless of those engines in post war years. Same with Allison engines as well. Any of those engines would be worth a small fortune today.