Steve Pace - Mustang Thoroughbred Stallion of the Air

Aerial photographer Mitchell D. Babarovich captured Impatient Virgin? on Mustang Fly Day. Following its recovery and restoration, this Malcolm Hood-fitted P-51B (N5087F) made its first flight on 24 July 2008. (Photograph by Mitchell D. Babarovich)

The Mustang will forever be remembered as the escort fighter that ranged over German-occupied Europe to beat the Luftwaffe into the ground. Its prowess convinced many that it was the finest fighter of the Second World War. It then took on an entirely different role in the Korean War, serving as a close-air support aircraft that was instrumental in holding back the tide of the North Korean army at the Pusan Perimeter. Heavily laden Mustangs took off from short pierced steel planking runways to interdict the North Korean supply lines and to support the United Nations front line troops.

From the drawing board, the Mustang was a fast, manoeuvrable fighter right out of the gate, but it took time, experience and an American-built, British-designed engine to turn it into the multi-mission superstar that it became. After only indifferent success as a dive bomber as the A-36, the Mustang matured into a superb long-range bomber escort, an area and point interceptor, fighter-bomber, and a swift, capable photographic reconnaissance aircraft.

The Mustang manufacturing programme that began in early 1941 and ended in late 1945 produced three major versions and one minor version of the type: the P-51, A-36, F-6 and TP-51. Two of these, the P-51 and F-6, spawned numerous other variants. They also influenced a great number of proposed versions including a major production spin-off: the side-by-side-bodied Twin Mustang. North American produced 15,586 Mustangs of all types including those built for the US Army Air Forces and five Allied air forces in the Second World War: the Royal Air Force, the Royal Australian Air Force, the Royal Canadian Air Force, the Royal New Zealand Air Force and the South African Air Force. Some 30 other friendly air forces ultimately employed them as well.

More books and feature articles have been written on the Mustang than any other combat airplane. Other popular aircraft have enjoyed lots of ink in their own right but none of them have been represented in as many publications as the legendary Mustang. There are many reasons for this but none of them are more relevant than its overall combat success rating. In short, the Mustang proved to be one of the best combat aircraft in history.

This work on the Mustang comes in 16 parts, each one having its own rationale to explain the numerous aspects of this highly respected fighter plane from the past. The very detailed appendices, tables and sidebars feature first-person accounts and make this 100,000-word volume on the Mustang unlike any other. Moreover, with the help of several serious Mustang photographers and photograph collectors, some 200 photographs, most of which have never been published, are included herein.

The Mustang remains an admired attraction and one cannot go to a major air show anywhere in the free world today where a Mustang is not present. Some are on static display whereas others impress demonstrating their great flying abilities with graceful manoeuvres. Because their fame only continues to grow, there are more surviving Mustang warbirds worldwide than any other Second World War fighter. It is arguably the most popular warbird in the world.

The longevity of this legendary fighter airplane speaks for itself. It was a fighter pilots fighter in the truest sense of that phrase. In the final analysis the Mustang has more than earned this book and also each and every one of the many positive descriptive adjectives it has received.

Steve Pace
Tacoma, Washington, USA
July 2012

James H. Dutch Kindelberger (left) and Leland J. Lee Atwood came from the Douglas Aircraft Company to take over management of the newly formed North American Aircraft, Inc. in 1934. Together they made NAA, Inc., one of the most successful aircraft production companies in aviation history. (