Aviation History,
Preserved.
Golden Age executive transport with unmistakable lines.
Spotlight Aircraft Type
North American P-51 Mustang
The P-51 Mustang is an American single-seat, long-range fighter and fighter-bomber of the Second World War, also flown in the Korean War. North American Aviation designed it to a British order in 1940, and it became a different class of aircraft once the Rolls-Royce Merlin replaced its original Allison engine: with external tanks it could escort heavy bombers deep into Germany and back. Production across all variants is reported at 15,686, and the type went on to serve air forces around the world for decades after 1945.
Curator's pick The Mustang mattered because it gave the Allied bomber offensive a fighter that could accompany bombers on missions deep inside Germany and still fight effectively at the far end of the route. It matured into a long-range escort that could also strafe ground targets and fly photographic reconnaissance. That versatility made the type as valuable against ground targets as it was against fighters. When Merlin-powered Mustangs arrived in numbers in 1944, the Eighth Air Force regained the confidence to strike deep, with escorts that stayed for the whole mission.