North American P-51 Mustang was one-man fighter aircraft with long flying range. History of Mustang aircraft begins in year 1940, when British trade committee was looking for help from the North American Aviation company with manufacturing figter aircraft Curtiss Hawk 87 - A1. However, the company offered its own project of purely new aircraft design. The company promised better aircraft parameters than Hawk 87. The Britons accepted the offer with expectations. The first off-the-shelf Mustang was finished in May 1941, and shipment of aircrafts arrived to the Britain the same year.
Mustang was charakterized by its long flying range, agility, and speed. Thanks to its advantages, it was used as escort fighter for American bombers flying over Germany. It was equipped with four 20 mm machine guns. The later version of Mustang could also carry unguided missiles, or two 454 kg bombs. More than 15,000 aircrafts were manufactured, and they were flying in many countries, for example in Canada, the Soviet Union, Poland and China.
Source of information:
- North American P-51 Mustang - Wikipedia. Link to the source: en.wikipedia.org.
- Aircrafts between years 1939 and 1945. Jaroslav Schmid. Fraus 1992, Pilsen.
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