Bent Up North American NA-73X ...

[Mark Allen M]

Some rarely seen photos of the North American NA-73X.
All photos credited to: Paul Varga via: https://www.facebook.com/groups/5936088466462695

Here's a link with a decent explanation of the mishap and history behind the NA-73X
https://www.thisdayinaviation.com/tag/n ... on-na-73x/

Text credited to: Tom Griffith via: https://www.facebook.com/groups/5936088466462695

"Over the years I've read that there are two basic stories...one is "predictable" - pilot error. Supposedly, Balfour, when someone (not sure just WHO it was) told him that they'd go over the basics of the aircraft with him, but he (reportedly), in effect said, "I've been a pilot for years and am NAA's chief test pilot, and I can figure it out for myself." Truth? Who knows. AND, as the story goes, when he was landing, he "did something wrong" with the fuel selector valve, and put it on a tank with no fuel, then the engine died during approach to Mines Field, and, upon touching down, gear down, into a soft field (of maybe strawberries!), the mains "dug-in," and it went tail over nose and wound up as we've seen it in those few photos (the only ones we've ever seen up until Paul Varga treated us to the new photos, AFAIK) of the bent-up NA-73X.
The other story is, Balfour did NOT make any errors in fuel tank selection, but that he had the nose "a little high" and the carburetor air intake, being a couple feet behind the nose of the aircraft, got "blocked" from enough incoming air and not enough air for combustion was being drawn-into the intake and (supposedly) the engine "died," and the resulting loss of power put him into the ground.
NAA, apparently, after this "untoward event," studied the problem, and as a result, down the road, the NA-73's that were getting ready to be built the same way, replete with the "short carb air intake" like the one on NA-73X, after being built with the same setup, were later modified and the intake extended to right behind the prop spinner. I've read that maybe half a dozen production NA-73's had the "short carb air intake" when they rolled off the line, but were "fixed" fairly soon (you've most-likely, see photos of the USAAF's two XP-51s both with the "short" and "long" intake, so they and the others built that way before the "long" intake became a feature of production NA-73's and follow-on Production Allison Mustangs).
When NA-73X was rebuilt, it, too, was "fixed. It's been known that NA-73X was repaired/rebuilt and flew again several months later".

[quemerford]

Cracking shots as ever Mark: thanks very much for posting.

[Spitty]

Looks like the roll over structure worked

[Tourist-51]

Terrific photos, several of which I had never seen before.
Not all of them show NA-73X though, some of the pictures are of one of the two XP-51s retained by the Army for testing.
The easiest way to differentiate between NA-73X and the XP-51s is to look at the windshields, the one on NA-73X is a one piece rounded glass, on the XP-51s it's a three part affair.

[Mark Allen M]

Yeah! I added those non-NA-73X photos purely for interest sake. If you open the Facebook link (yeah! I know) you’ll see plenty of additional interesting photos.