In today's designation of aircraft, the “P' denotes “Maritime Patrol.” But in another era, the “P” meant Pursuit, as in a Long Range fighter.

For a plane to be truly combat effective, it has to be good in many of the following attributes: Ceiling, Firepower, Maneuverability, Range, Speed and Survivability. For the plane to be noteworthy, it has to excel in several of the above categories. Not to minimize the P-38 Lightning, or the P-47 Thunderbolt, both storied fighters from World War II, but it is the P-51 Mustang, that is known as perhaps the greatest fighter of World War II. It excelled with its range, speed, and even maneuverability.

In 1940, the British Royal Air Force (RAF), came to an agreement with North American Aviation to build a new fighter. The agreement came about in part by default, as the British and the French were not able to buy an adequate amount of the Cutiss P-40 Warhawks, as Curtiss was in full production of the plane for the United States Army Air Force Corps (USAAC). NAA offered a design that was based on the P-40 but with better range and performance. The new design even initially used the same engine, an Allison V-1710-39 that was used in the existing Curtiss P-40 Warhawk . The prototype, NA-73, was quickly built, and labeled “XP-51.” (Experimental) The initial nickname “Apache” surfaced. It was soon changed to “Mustang.”

The P-51A fighter served in combat from 1942 to 1944. The plane served well, although not at high altitudes. In 1944, the RAF replaced the engine with a British Rolls-Royce Merlin engine. The new engine gave the plane more horsepower plus the capability of excelling at high altitudes. Due to these greater efficiencies, the P-51B now had a range of over 1000 miles. And with drop-tanks added to the wings, the range increased to 2600 miles. Further changes resulted in the P-51D variant. The airplane now had a maximum speed of almost 450 m.p.h. The armament included 6 - .50 caliber machine guns (3 per wing) and 1,000 lbs of external bombs. These changes enabled the plane to accompany B-17 and B-24 bombers deep into Germany on bombing missions. No longer could the German Luftwaffe easily shoot down the unaccompanied bombers. The nature of air war over Germany was dramatically altered by the presence of the P-51D. And it was in Europe that the P-51 made its reputation. The planes also accompanied the B-29 in the Pacific theater.

Over 15,000 Mustangs were built. Contrast this amount with the quantities built of later day planes: 9,800 F-86 Sabres, 5,000 F-4 Phantoms, and only 556 F-14As, the most produced variant of the F-14 Tomcat. Variants of the P-51 went all the way up to P-51H. A separate variant was the A-36A, a ground attack version of the P-51A. The F-51Ds (the nomenclature changed in 1948, it was hence dubbed an F-51) saw use in Korea until it was finally retired in 1953.

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