The P 51 Mustang, the American Fighter And Fighter Bomber that was key in winning the war

The North American Aviation P51 Mustang is an American longrange, singleseat fighter and fighterbomber used during World War II and the Korean War, among other conflicts. The Mustang was designed in April 1940 by a team headed by James H. Kindelberger of North American Aviation (NAA) in response to a requirement of the British Purchasing Commission. The Purchasing Commission approached North American Aviation to build Curtiss P40 fighters under license for the Royal Air Force (RAF). Rather than build an old design from another company, North American Aviation proposed the design and production of a more modern fighter. The prototype NA73X airframe was rolled out on 9 September 1940, 102 days after the contract was signed, and first flew on 26 October. The Mustang was designed to use the Allison V1710 engine, which had limited highaltitude performance in its earlier variants. The aircraft was first flown operationally by the RAF as a tacticalreconnaissance aircraft and fighterbomber (Mustang M