P-51 Mustang
Propulsion Into The Jet Age - Part VI
Mustangs had been supporting the Allied effort in the Pacific since the P-51D fighter models became available. As early as April 1945, single pilot Mustangs were fighting 1,500 mile round trip missions over the skies of Japan. There were never enough aircraft early in the Pacific war but after VE Day (Victory in Europe) – WWII turned its full attention to the Pacific theater. More pilots and their aircraft could be made available to fight long, problematical battles. These Pacific theater missions pushed the pilots and aircraft to the point of fatigue even though at a moments notice a pilot and aircraft needed to be fresh for combat. The distances between battle zones were calculated in several hundred, not a thousand plus miles, usually over the endless expanses of ocean. The margin of error was so narrow for a squadron of P-51’s setting out for a raid to Japan that the Air Force had B-29 Bombers assigned to provide navigation. Now the fighters could avoid getting lost over the Pacific Ocean but the bomber crew wasn’t able to solve the fatigue of flying a powerful and demanding fighter more than eight hours.
The Mustang was so successful in Europe that it created a new requirement – the need for a standard long range, high altitude escort fighter. It was just a few years earlier that the Air Force didn’t anticipate that escort fighters were needed at all. But now, after the experience of the European air war, the importance of fighter escorts was part of the strategy of a complete air supremacy plan.
In January, 1944 North American Aviation, the builder of the Mustang, began development of an even longer range, more destructive model. They anticipated the Pacific theater military needs and to save development time while capitalizing on the success of the P-51 Mustang airframe they extend its capabilities one more time. They dubbed their new, ultra long range fighter the P-82 and it made its first flight in April, 1945. Volume production of the aircraft started too late to have any significant impact on WWII. Only twenty were delivered before the war ended of the original order for 500. The contracts initially canceled for further deliveries but later restarted.
The new P-82 fighter looked considerably different, yet strangely familiar to previous Mustangs. It was effectively two modified P-51H WWII fuselages combined into a twin-boom configuration with a dedicated stabilizer. It vaguely looked similar to a P-38 Lightening. Each fuselage initially carried a fully configured cockpit and allowed its two pilots to share the tasks of flying and fighting. Yet each pilot could fly the aircraft individually. Producing a new propeller driven aircraft was a climactic development effort since the world had progressed to the jet age. As America learned about German jet fighters and from our own research, government contracts for jet fighters were taking the aviation industry by storm. If the new P-82 had not been part of the Mustang heritage it may never have reached production. Its performance was impressive. Powered by two Packard built, 1380 hp Rolls-Royce Merlin V1650-23 engines, the initial P-82 Mustang’s would have a maximents to fly, offering a break to the primary pilot. The F-82 even offered a tilting, adjustable seat to the pilot, a feature not found prior to the F-82 in fighter aircraft.