Happy 80th Birthday!

I still say that the P51 was "Back designed off a Spitfire"

It resembles indeed the Spitfire MK XIVe with the short wing version and a better bubble cockpit.

claiming the "P51" was a uniqu esign is IMHO , an American wish for something innovative (as if Mass production for a war effort that supplied Russia, UK, and the reamaining non axis world -was chopped liver).

The P51 had a few deprtures from the SPits but it also had a DNA relatiohip (including switching from Allison to Merlin engines.

P51 was designed for one major thing --long range support of bombing missions. It worked beyonf all dreams and Goering announced it first that Germany was gonna lose based on P51's flying into Germany almost unopposed. LAter It did take over other ground support and "marine-like" support services , and Germany, always ready to snatch defeat, never developed or produced the Henkels or the Me206 jets in any amounts that would have had an effect. (I suppose that , by 1945 the UK woulda had its jets fully flying and by 1946 we would hve had the core o the Saber jet designed.

Americans shot themselves in the foot aviation wise from the beginning. The Wright bros. patent fights with Glenn Curtis was a biggie.

The main advancement of the P51 was in the low drag cooling system, which gave it the needed range and speed. I copied as many details of it as possible in my own plane.

you fly with the Confederate Air Force?
or is yours a unique design?

Iv done several air brush stripes, appliques and insignias for buddies in the CAF who built replica war birds from availble frames (I think thats how it was done). Id love flying with em (Just as long as nowhere did it have to contain a helicopter anywhere in the line ).

Do ya have a real plain ya lucky bastard or is it RC ? Are ya trying to get to heaven sooner ?

The RAF contracted with North American to provide a fighter-bomber. Before the Mustang was ready for production, Hawker came up with the Typhoon,j and the RAF was no longer in the market for a fighter-bomber. But they observed that the North American prototype was underpowered. The engines used weren't actually Rolls Royce, they were Alison versions of the Merlin built under license.

The aircraft was originally developed for close air support, ground support. That changed when the RAF cancelled the order.

EDIT: I just checked, and the engine built under license was built by Packard.

yeh. Thats right. It was the vast Studebaker/Packard? Willeys. Kaiser? Kelvinator homulka that produced weapons for the Brits , engines under Merlin license, and STUEBAKER trucks for the Rusians, without which the Ri=usskies couldnt drag those 88's and105 Howitzers to start a "Blitzkreig back to Germany"

I am not sure whether it was the WWII Willeys tht developed the General Purpose Vehicle (Jeep), one of the worst, and best SUVs on the planet. Course, the WWII jeep (I had one for many years till I swapped it to a nuttier collector for a major collection of Paleo-Indian artifacts)
It had an IH limited slip differential for the back wheels only (FWD came later I think, around The Bulge "Time" because it required you to stop, get out and slip the WArn hubs (and mostly get shot pr blowed up real good.

Here's an excellent resource:

Aviation History-dot-com's P51 page

Aviation History-dot-com is a first class resource, and the author provides sources for his articles. Here's the link to the home page: Aviation History Online Museam.

Done some volunteer work with restorations but no flying. (Name now changed to the more PC 'Commemorative A F')
I have a couple of hangars full but all experimentals, low & slow types (25 - 60 mph) ultralight types to 260 mph racers.
Had my fill of helicopters in Nam, just being hauled to and from the boonies, no left seat time.