Sired by the English out of an American mother, the Mustang has had no parent in the Army Air Corps or at Wright field to appreciate and push its good points, as Major Thomas Hitchcock, then Assistant Military Air Attache in London, wrote on 8 October 1942. But the British contribution to the Mustang goes beyond providing the Merlin engine that turned the P-51 into the key escort fighter for the B-17s and B-24s over Germany.
As per Rene J Francillon usual hallmarks, this aircraft’s history is placed in the context of the international relations and tensions that led to its conception, and of its first customer, the Royal Air Force, operations during World War II, from the low level reconnaissance missions over Fortress Europe to the higher performance of Mustang IIIs and IVs that challenged the Luftwaffe in its lair.
This first Volume (covering E-books vol. I+II) of the two-part Mustang history contains more than 390 photographs over its 195 high-quality glossy paper pages and adresses: 1) the development of all the Mustang and Twin Mustang versions including the wartime two-seaters, the post-war revivals for counterinsurgency operations; 2) the operations during World War II of RAF and Commonwealth air forces units; 3) the listing for each country (twenty eight air forces, excluding the RAF and the USAAF/USAF), that have had the P-51 in their inventory, in various quantities; 4) a technical description of the P-51D, the performances of all versions; 5) a four-view plan of the Malcom-hooded P-51B/C are provided, along with the list of all production batches, manufacturer contracts and air force serials.
A separate second Volume (covering E-books III+IV) covers the US government operations (USAAF/USAF and NACA/NASA), Korean War operations of all countries involved, as well as the civilian racers and warbirds.
