24-05-2020, 20:09
Flying Through Time - Mustang and Spitfire
Forces TV - 2004
Another misleading title as the spitfire is hardly mentioned.
The Mustang has an interesting history. The North American Corporation had impressed the British procument people with their Harvard trainer and so in 1940 they were asked to modify the Curtis P-40 for use as a fighter bomber for the RAF. North American instead said they could knock up a new plane of their own in four months, and so 109 days after the contract was signed, the first Mustang took to the air. It had a new design of low-drag wing, a lightweight aluminium skin and a large fuel capacity giving it a much greater range than any other single engine fighter. The Allison engine, however, gave poor performance at high altitude and so the British decided fit a Merlin engine which turned it into an outstanding aircraft. It was the only fighter with the range to be able to escort the American bombers on their daylight raids into the heart of the Reich and supposedly Goering said that when he saw Mustangs over Berlin he knew the war was lost.
The Mustang was still in service with several air forces in the Korean War and was last used in action by the Dominican Republic in its civil war in 1965.
Forces TV - 2004
Another misleading title as the spitfire is hardly mentioned.
The Mustang has an interesting history. The North American Corporation had impressed the British procument people with their Harvard trainer and so in 1940 they were asked to modify the Curtis P-40 for use as a fighter bomber for the RAF. North American instead said they could knock up a new plane of their own in four months, and so 109 days after the contract was signed, the first Mustang took to the air. It had a new design of low-drag wing, a lightweight aluminium skin and a large fuel capacity giving it a much greater range than any other single engine fighter. The Allison engine, however, gave poor performance at high altitude and so the British decided fit a Merlin engine which turned it into an outstanding aircraft. It was the only fighter with the range to be able to escort the American bombers on their daylight raids into the heart of the Reich and supposedly Goering said that when he saw Mustangs over Berlin he knew the war was lost.
The Mustang was still in service with several air forces in the Korean War and was last used in action by the Dominican Republic in its civil war in 1965.