- Yes
- No
Hello! and welcome to my suggestion for the First British (and first production) variant of the North American Mustang Fighter (Aka P-51), I feel this would be a good High performance fighter for the British tree to compliment the one in the Premium line and provide an alternate playstyle to the Spitfires at similar BRs.
TO THE PEOPLE WHO THINK THIS IS A US AIRCRAFT BEING ASKED FOR THE UK TREE I WOULD LIKE TO ADD THE MUSTANG WAS DEVELOPED FOR THE BRITISH TO BRITISH SPECIFICATIONS, THE ONLY US INVOLVEMENT IN THIS AIRCRAFT IS THE DESIGN COMPANY AND NEITHER THE USAF, USAAC, OR USN HAD ANY INVOLVEMENT IN ITS DEVELOPMENT SO IT IS BY ALL DEFINITIONS A BRITISH AIRCRAFT
History
Spoiler
shortly before the War broke out the British had been keenly interested in some American designs and had established a purchasing commision in the United States, one of this committees roles was the organisation of Production for US designed fighters for RAF service, at which time no US fighters met the standards needed for combat in Europe, with the Curtiss Tomahawk (aka P-40) being the closest but still falling short by a country mile. Whilst visiting North American Aviation to enquire about a potential licence production of Tomahawks the British were informed that NAA could have a better fighter in production sooner than any Tomahawk line could be started.
At the time the UK was wary as NAA had never designed and built a Fully functional fighter before, however took them up on the offer, leading to an intense back and forth of designs for this potential fighter, The British wanted an aircraft with the same armament as the Tomahawks in RAF service to be delivered by the start of 1941 and in March 1940 an order was placed with NAA for 320 aircraft to this specification. The first Prototype, the NA-37X took flight in October 1940, barely 150 days since the order was placed, an unusually quick time even in wartime environments, it was equipped with the desired armament of two 12.7mm and four 7.7mm machine guns and largely impressed the british with its good flight performance and long range.
something interesting to note is that the USAAC could have stopped this order from taking place as it could have been considered detrimental to US interests, however as the Mustang at the time was being developed purely for the British to British Specification with none of the US armed forces involved at all, it was not deemed worthwhile to stop this order. by this point an order had been made for another 300 aircraft bringing the total to 620 aircraft
The Production Mustangs featured some slight differences from the original design, the first was the addition of a Supercharged Allison V-1710-39 engine providing Increased power over the NA-37X, there was also the addition of two extra 12.7mm machine guns between the two 7.7s in the wing alongside several other changes including the addition of Bulletproof glass to the front of the windscreen, From this order the USAAC finally took an interest in the P-51 and retained two units of Mk.Is for evaluation.
When the first production Mustangs appeared in the UK in October 1941 they were the Best performing aircraft at low altitude the RAF had, however dropped off at altitudes above 4,500m making it unsuitable for the High altitude dogfights over britain, however the Mustangs range and armament proved useful in two main regards, Army Cooperation/ ground attack and Bomber escort, to this avail the Mustang Mk.I was the first RAF single engine fighter to operate over Germany after escorting 22 Wellington bombers on a daylight raid in October 1942.
Mustangs also gained fame in low altitude “Rhubarb” operations over Europe in which the Mustangs would fly at extremely low altitudes and unpredictable flight patterns to avoid detection and penetrate deep into Axis territory, leading to extensive damage to Axis logistics and grounded aircraft, due to the Mustangs ability to outrun all enemy aircraft at sea level during this stage of the war, over the first year and a half the Mustangs destroyed around 200 Trains, 200 Bridges and an unknown number of enemy aircraft to the loss of only 8 Mustangs.
The Mustang Mk.I served all the way until 1945 in which all of the early Mustangs were struck off the RAF register for scrapping after the war finished.
Images
Spoiler
Image showing the positions of the 12.7mm (Red) and 7.7mm (Blue) machine guns
The second Mustang Mk.I shortly before delivery
A Mustang Mk.I in flight above the english country in 1942
An early production Mustang armed with RP-3 Rockets for testing
A Mustang Mk.I Alongside various other American Designed aircraft including a Curtiss Kittyhawk Mk.I, Douglas Boston and Lockheed Hudson
Another Mustang Mk.I with an experimental RP-3 Modification
Specs/ Armament
Spoiler
Performance
Crew: 1 (Pilot)
Engine: Allision V-1710-39, 1,220hp
Max Speed: * Max Speed: 382mph at 4200m
Length: 9.80 m (32.15 ft)
Width: 11.29 m (37.04 ft)
Height: 3.72 m (12.20 ft)
Weight: 2858 kg (6300 lbs)
Max. Combat Weight: 4808 kg (10600 lbs)
Ceiling: 9144 m (30,000 ft)
Max. Range: 2755 km (1712 Miles)
Armament
Guns:
- 4 x 12.7mm Machine guns (2 under engine, 1 in each wing) (400 Rpg)
- 4 x 7.7mm Machine guns (2 in each wing) (500 Rpg)
Rockets:
- up to 8 x RP-3 rockets
Bombs(unconfirmed):
2 x bombs up to 500 lbs
Place in game
Spoiler
I feel this would be a good addition to the British Tech tree at Rank II or III, potentially following on from some other US designed aircraft like the Kittyhawk, It would provide an alternate playstyle to the Hurricanes and Spitfires, Trading manoeuvrability for higher top speed and armament.
in terms of BR i would put it at 3.0 or 3.3 as it is slightly worse than the US P-51C with a slightly better armament but worse Flight performance due to a worse engine and potentially a worse secondary weapon load.
Sources