However, at high altitudes, its capability dropped off significantly, particular above 15, feet m. Nonetheless, for the reconnaissance and ground attack tasks that it was assigned to, it was very successful. Back home in America, the plane was largely ignored.
The majority of P51s were shipped to the British, although others were used by the Canadians and the Polish. After testing them, they said that whilst it showed promise, they were still uninterested and turned down an order commitment. These aircraft were deployed to North Africa in to be used for photo reconnaissance.
There was still a major problem with the Mustang, and that was the drop in performance at high altitude. The British proposed a solution in the form of their own Rolls-Royce Merlin engine, as used in the Spitfire. They collaborated with the American designers of the plane to fit the P with this vastly more powerful engine. The use of the Merlin engine resulted in a tremendous increase in the performance of the plane, such that it was able to clock up an incredible mph kmph at over 30, feet m!
That was more than mph faster than the previous Allison powered Mustang could ever have hoped to achieve. Deliveries of the new and improved Mustangs began at the end of New features included fuel drop tanks, which meant that the warplane could stay in the air for much longer. YouTube Channel: www. You need to log-in to rate articles.
Looking for your store account? Recommend This Article You need to log-in to rate articles. You need to log-in to comment on articles. Watch a P Fly Over mph. Log-In Get access to additional features and goodies. This left the fuel, which Steve anticipated to be the least concerning of the trio, with a capacity of gallons.
Following the first practice the team noticed particularly dark exhaust staining, however on initial inspection the engine seemed in good health. It was not until they drained the fuel tank the following morning that they found only 55 gallons of fuel remaining — the rich-running Merlin had consumed roughly 57 gallons of fuel, which, Steve mentions, is more than an R would have been expected to burn, by way of comparison.
Running the numbers, they realised that had the full course been flown, Steve would have only had eight gallons remaining after landing. This was rather alarming, and necessitated the fitment of a new carburettor.
To further put this into context, with the new and correctly performing carburettor , 54 gallons of fuel was used for the full distance attempt. Another of the key things that the practice runs helped to prove out was the dive profile — a somewhat contentious point, mainly due to the ambiguous wording of the rules from the Federation Aeronautique Internationale FAI , which state that once the flight performance begins, you cannot exceed m ft.
For the practice attempt, the run-in was entered from ft AGL above ground level , which gave a first pass of mph. Later attempts would use more height to edge the initial speed even higher.
When flying the record attempts, there is a strict altitude limit of ft imposed during the turnarounds and even here, the speeds the aircraft reached created unforeseen problems. The practice runs uncovered that the instruments on the static system airspeed indicator, altimeter and vertical speed indicator would begin to read erratically as Steve climbed in the turns.
Passing through ft, the altimeter would start swinging ft in either direction, which, with the hard cap at ft, was not ideal, especially for something so critical to the success of the attempt.
An idea to use spotter aircraft circling at ft was put forward, but given the somewhat hazy conditions on the day of the attempt due to the local forest fires, the visibility was between 5 to 6 miles Steve erred on the side of caution. Of course, this would lead to sacrificing some performance by capping height in the turns to ft or thereabouts!
With the recce and practice runs completed, the team could think about going after the record for real. As well as the defined course itself, Steve had a prescribed climb and entry procedure to follow. To put these numbers somewhat into perspective, Steve also detailed the power settings that are commonly used on stock Mustangs during a race at Reno.
The timing clocks are, as you might have guessed, 3km apart, so at peak speed the timed section of the course would flash by in little over 12 seconds.
From there, Steve would enter a huge turn around to bring him back to the runway but, when pulling only 2. The pilot, Steven Hinton, has won multiple times in the Unlimited Class.
In , Voodoo reached an average speed of mph. This far exceeded the previous speed record in the books. Voodoo is currently the fastest of the P models and is ranked as the fasted piston in the world. These planes have fought and served with and for the Armed Forces over the years and now they battle in a race for the best of the best.
The P Mustang has so much history to its name. This plane has fought in many wars for the United States and has been flown by so many of the great military men of the times. Nothing compares to the speed and aerodynamics of the P, as the slimmest fighter with long-range capabilities and speed like no other.
The broken records, dating back to its inception, prove the P Mustang is one of the top-performing planes in military history. What more could the U. Air Force ask for in a fighter? This plane does it all and has it all. Want to stay up to date on ticket offers, news updates, upcoming events, and more?
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