The Lightweight Mustangs

Following America’s entry into the Second World War, the USAAF immediately began preparing itself for the battles ahead. One of its new requirements was for a fighter that could fly deep into Europe or over the vast distances of the Pacific. While this included extending the range of all of the USAAF’s tactical aircraft, particularly fighters, in what was called the Fighter Aircraft Range Extension Program, particular attention was given to the North American P-51 Mustang. The ground-breaking American program resulted in the design of the Lockheed P-38J and the North American P-51B, which were both intended to escort USAAF long-range bombers to any target they were tasked to attack. The pair was still in development when the USAAF undertook the infamous raids on the Bavarian city of Schweinfurt in August and October 1943. The only escort fighters available at that time were the shorter-range Republic P-47s Thunderbolts. The raids were disastrous for the bombers. Spurred on by the events at Schweinfurt, the American designers pressed ahead on a series of improvements to the P-51 Mustang. In parallel to the North American XP-51B development, the Lightweight Super Mustangs were proposed. With the idea accepted, plans were soon on the drawing board. Each aircraft was to be fitted with the famous ‘bubble’ canopy and increasingly more powerful Packard V-1650 engines, the latter being American versions of the Rolls-Royce Merlin engine. The end result of this work was a new generation of extremely lightweight Mustangs – impressive fighters that were arguably better than any Spitfire then in service. In this book James William Marshall lifts the lid on a little-known element of the P-51; he also debunks the ‘Bomber Mafia conspiracy’, which claims that US aircrew unnecessarily lost their lives because of the stubborn conviction that the ‘bomber would always get through’. This, then, is the story of just how the United States eventually developed what was arguably the best single-seat long-range fighter of the war – the final production version of the Mustang, the P-51H.