Difference in P-51B/C Landing Gear vs P-51D/K

[51fixer]

There is a big difference between the early P-51 landing gear and the P-51D.
The biggest difference is in the up-locks and the inner gear door system.
Princess P-51C


Bald Eagle P-51D


Rich

[warbird1]

Just curious, I've always wondered why the inner gear door on the Mustang has the different piece of metal on it? Is it a structural thing or what?

[N3Njeff]

Is it where the tire would rub on the way up? thats what I have always thought...............good question,

[Chris]

Thanks for the pics. Looks like the C has the clamshell door cylinders on the front of the door and moved the accumalator to the spar. Correct? Looks like completely different setups. Very little interchangable I imagine

[Hal B]

Thanks for the info. Rich. I knew they were different; but not quite THAT different...

[Neal Nurmi]

Hey Rich -- Great post. I too was surprised at how different the setups are.

When Pete originally built up the airplane, he redid a -D fuselage and from what I remember used a lot of -D parts throughout the airplane. Is she now completely a -C? Who did the modification work in England and where did they get parts? How much actually had to be redone? Did Pete do an "authentic" job on the fuse or was it cobbled up to look good on the outside?

Thanks...

Last edited by Neal Nurmi on Sat May 31, 2008 11:06 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[Matt Gunsch]

The reason for the change was on the early D models, several airplanes crashed because the clam shell opened slightly in flight because the gear leg was tapping on it. At high speed, it would open slightly, the slip stream would catch it, rip it open and the wind would catch the exposed gear and wrench it out of the wing, causing the wing to be ripped off.

[Matt Gunsch]

[quote="Neal Nurmi"]Hey Rich -- Great post and fascinating thread. I too was surprised at how different the setups are.

When Pete originally built up the airplane, he redid a -D fuselage and from what I remember used a lot of -D parts throughout the airplane. Is she now completely a -C? Who did the modification work in England and where did they get parts? How much actually had to be redone? Did Pete do an "authentic" job on the fuse or was it cobbled up to look good on the outside?

Thanks...

Pete had a B model wing he found in Israel, and tail from a scrapped plane in the states, and used parts of a D model fuselage. He found the canopy in a parts house. made the fairings from patterns he pulled off of the Mantz P-51C.
BTW, that plane should be repainted as Shangri La, there was never a nicer looking B model.

[bdk]

Rich, does the D-model have a torque tube to connect the uplocks together above the wing (similar to a T-6)?

[visaliaaviation]

Other differences between D and earlier types are the door shapes. The inner door differences are easier to spot on a D because of the raked leading edge. C and earlier are straighter spanwise at their leading edges. The leg doors of D appear to be very similar, but wont fit the earlier hole because of slight dimensional differences AND the location of where this door "bends" (front view) to account for the Expanded Leading edge. As many have no doubt noticed the root section of the D is different and quite a bit larger than on those Mustangs that went before.

AFAIK, and would love to get a definative confirmation or correction(!!) the fork, oleo and the basic geometry of the gear swing appear to be identical, from Mustang I thru D/K. However, the leg doors of D have slightly different swing geometry than earlier and the cast tabs on the gear trunion prevents this part too, from interchangability.

[51fixer]

Rich, does the D-model have a torque tube to connect the uplocks together above the wing (similar to a T-6)?

When they designed the changes to make the -D they focused on lightening the airframe. They attempted to make the latches on the inner door hold the main landing gear up. This eliminated all the uplock linkage as seen in Princess. It didn't work as advertised and blame for some inflight breakups went to partial extension of the MLG. NAA then added uplocks for the gear leg to the -D. It was a much simpler design and as I install these parts into Enchantress I will try to get some pics. A hook was hung from each lower longeron. It has a spring and a direct linkage to the gear handle bellcrank on the R/H side of the cockpit. There are 3 push rods and 2 bellcranks (1 on each side) on the cockpit floor at the firewall that make up the linkage. Actually the hooks go opposite each other. 1 forward and 1 aft so a torque tube wouldn't work.
Rich

[51fixer]

Hey Rich -- Great post. I too was surprised at how different the setups are.

When Pete originally built up the airplane, he redid a -D fuselage and from what I remember used a lot of -D parts throughout the airplane. Is she now completely a -C? Who did the modification work in England and where did they get parts? How much actually had to be redone? Did Pete do an "authentic" job on the fuse or was it cobbled up to look good on the outside?

Thanks...

Stephen Grey purchased it and commissioned a rebuild of this airframe which took about 5 years. The fuselage was rebuilt and is more like a -C but not totally 100%.
Much of the wing was rebuilt as well. There are -D parts but it is hard to find them.
Rich

[visaliaaviation]

D parts hard to find? I know weve' been over this before but the upper cowl is off a D and lacks the characteristic hump of the B/C's. Also obvious is the lack of canted panel line in the A frame location.

Not knocking the "restoration" in anyway and I too would rather see it back in Shangri-La colors or how about an accurate "Bald Eagle" scheme?

[Chris]

C'mon guys Picky- picky. I think it looks great

[visaliaaviation]

Picky? I said I don't have a problem with the restoration. What's wrong with correctly identifying the parts? Especially when we're discussing differences??

Sometimes when people differ over weather or not the glass is half full or half empty, they might lose sight of the fact that the drink itself might be swill.