Warbird Information Exchange

Mustang sea naval trials.
Got this link from the B-36 Armament tread. Tks Turbo_NZ

http://www.yolo.net/~jeaton/Propplanes/p51/p51.htm

Cool pictures, thanks!

I vaguely remember reading something years and years ago about
the Mustang carrier trials "not going terribly well".... (words to the effect
that the Mustang wasn't designed and built to take the kind of abuse of
carrier landings like the Grumman Ironworks products were).

Was curious enough to do a Google search on the subject and found this
link:

http://us.geocities.com/koala51d/naval.htm

Bela P. Havasreti

Interesting find.

_________________
The conquest of space is worth the risk of life. - Gus Grissom

Michel,

VERY interesting photo's. I never knew that they even considered the Mustang for Carrier duty. But, I guess in retrospect it makes sense.

Paul

Thought these were pretty neat and interesting photos. I sent them off to share with my buddy Reg Urschler who fly's "Gunfighter". He sent these two reply's.


Yes they did...and as matter of fact this Mustang sat as gate guard for many years at the ANG Unit at Greater Pitt before finally being exchanged for a "plastic" version. It now is flying again somewhere and Dick probably could answer the questions..."where and by whom". I "suspect" we'll see it at the Gathering of Mustangs next year in Columbus, OH.

Reg


Reg and all,

I'm not certain what ever became of that 44-14017 that the photos show on the carrier deck.
However, the one Reggie mentioned as being at Pittsburg ANG, was 44-84900. It had been assigned to NACA as 127, and had been test flown with a variety of modifications.
It is flying today as N51YZ, painted again in the NACA 127 paint scheme, owned Bill Allmon of Las Vegas.

Dick Phillips

_________________
"When once you have tasted flight,
you will forever walk with your eyes turned skyward,
for there you have been and there you will long to return."

Very nice photo's Michel.

I believe the one of it stationery on the deck (with the prop vortices) is in the excellent 'America's Hundred Thousand' by Francis F. Dean.

It appears that the P51 was deemed not suitable for carrier operations due to it's poor low speed lateral control and the strong torque rolling tendency’s in the wave off condition.

And given the it's tendancy to depart without much warning, these trials must have been bloody hairy for the test pilot!

Cheers

Paul

What I heard was hearsay from a Naval Aviator who was privy to the reports but I did not see them first hand.

The primary reason was that USN was a Pratt shop from a logistics standpoint and the additional range and speed that the 51 offered was deemed too little and too late to really supplant the F8 which was just rolling off the assembly line.

Although the 51 is indeed 'tricky' when running throttle up on a missed approach (extreme response is zero-altitude snap roll with flaps down - which is unfunny), it hardly held it's own in comparison to a Skyraider with a 3350 and the monster prop at low speed! That wasn't the factor, just a note that it wasn't a desirable characteristic - which you could also note with all of Grumman's iron birds.

Regards, (and great pics guys)

What they said! COOL and Thanks

Tim