North American F-82 Twin Mustang
The North American F-82 Twin Mustang was a twin-fuselage, long-range escort and night fighter built by North American Aviation, first flown in 1945 as the P-82. It was designed to escort B-29 bombers on very long missions against Japan, but arrived too late for that war; instead it served the young U.S. Air Force as a bomber escort and radar-equipped all-weather interceptor, and fought in the opening weeks of the Korean War. North American built 272 of them; the type was retired in 1953, five survive, and one flies again.
Why It Mattered
The Twin Mustang mattered because it answered a reach problem no existing escort could solve: guarding B-29 Superfortress bombers throughout flights of more than 2,000 miles (3,200 km) to Japan, far beyond the range of the P-38 Lightning or the single-seat Mustang. It never flew that mission: the war ended before the type reached service, and none saw service during the conflict. The Cold War gave the design its career instead, as an interim escort for the strategic bomber force and as a radar-equipped, all-weather interceptor. When war came in Korea, the Japan-based Twin Mustangs were among the first American aircraft in action, and their crews were credited with the first three North Korean aircraft destroyed by United States forces. The Aviationist calls it the last piston-engine day fighter the United States Air Force acquired in number.
Design Notes
Despite the name, the Twin Mustang was not two Mustangs bolted together: it was a largely clean-sheet design that shared only a minority of components with the P-51. Its two lengthened fuselages were joined by a new center wing and tailplane, and the armament of six .50-caliber machine guns was concentrated in that center wing. Both cockpits were fully equipped, so the two pilots could take turns flying and rest in turns on the very long missions the aircraft was built for. The prototypes and the first production aircraft used Packard-built Merlin engines, and the two propellers turned in opposite directions. Later production aircraft switched to Allison V-1710 engines after the Merlin license negotiations failed, and the Allison versions proved slower and poorer at high altitude. In the night-fighter versions, the right-hand cockpit became the radar operator's station, and the radar itself rode in a pod slung beneath the center wing.
Operational History
The XP-82 made its first flight in 1945 — the surviving accounts do not agree on the day — and the first production aircraft were delivered in January 1946. In February 1947 a Merlin-powered P-82B named Betty Jo flew nonstop from Hawaii to New York, covering 5,051 miles (8,129 km) in about fourteen and a half hours, a flight Smithsonian Magazine records as the longest nonstop flight ever made by a propeller-driven fighter. Redesignated F-82 in June 1948, the type settled into two careers: F-82Es escorted Strategic Air Command bombers, while the radar-equipped F-82F and G replaced the P-61 Black Widow as Air Defense Command's all-weather interceptors. When the Korean War began in June 1950, the F-82 was pressed into combat duty from bases in Japan, flying some of the first American combat missions of that war. Covering the evacuation flights at Kimpo airfield on 27 June 1950, Twin Mustang crews were credited with the first three North Korean aircraft destroyed by United States forces, and Lieutenant William Hudson's Yak-11 was recorded as the first American aerial victory of the war. The Twin Mustangs went on to fly strike, escort and night-intruder missions over Korea, but the MiG-15 outmatched the piston-engined force and jets, led by the F-94 Starfire, took over their missions in the early 1950s.
Afterlife
The type left service quickly once jets were available: the last Twin Mustangs, winterized F-82Hs in Alaska, were sent for disposal in June 1953, and the type's retirement dates to that year. Five F-82s are known to still exist. Two of them, both F-82Bs, are displayed by the National Museum of the United States Air Force at Dayton, Ohio, and one is Betty Jo, the Hawaii-to-New York record aircraft. Another survivor is the second prototype, 44-83887, which the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) flew as a ramjet testbed before it was wrecked in a runway accident and left damaged beyond repair on Walter Soplata's Ohio farm. Restorer Tom Reilly acquired the remains in 2008 and rebuilt the aircraft to airworthy condition over the following decade. On New Year's Eve 2018 its test pilot accidentally took it into the air during a fast taxi run, more than sixty years after the type had last flown. It is reported to be the only Twin Mustang in flying condition, loaned to the Valiant Air Command Warbird Museum in Titusville, Florida.