Unfortunately, all of the Mustangs have some degree of issues, it seems, and the P-51A has the most, as far as I've seen thus far.
These are the issues with the P-51A that I've noted:
- The wing airfoil is dead wrong, portrayed as a standard airfoil rather than the laminar airfoil it should be. The wing airfoil and thickness
should be identical to the P-51D (the wing shape/airfoil on those models look very accurate!). In reality, the only significant three-dimensional difference between the A and D wing is the leading edge.
- The upper surface of the inboard sections of the wings are distorted, with the top of the wings angling down from the fuselage, and then angling back up again - for me, this is worse than the bad airfoil.
For as accurate in shape as the fuselage, nose and tail are, it's just really disappointing how bad the wings are, and I don't see that being fixed in a future update.
- All of the rivets are 3D-modeled, and almost all are far from correct
- Right now there is a prop issue with the P-51A, where the still prop, slow spinning prop, and fast spinning prop models/graphics all show at shared times, rather than individually at the right times (simply a coding issue).
- The landing gear clam shell doors, which operate slightly different to that of the P-51D (talking reality), currently have a weird visual when you start the engine, causing them to suddenly swing down and back up again.
- There is a little model artifact that shows up just outside the left side of the cockpit in external view, that I've noticed when in flight.
- The cockpit is fantastic, though the rudder trim placard is wrong - it should be no different than the aileron trim placard, and just like the D's.
- The rear-view mirror texture is far too rough/non-reflective in my opinion.
With regard to the flight dynamics, one major item that is off, right now, is the max Manifold Pressure. For the stock Allison, at least 52"-MP should be able to be reached, running today's fuel, no problem - that's the red line. Unfortunately, right now it maxes out at only 38"-MP. However, I think this is because the Manifold Pressure gauge needle is not currently calibrated properly, since it takes a while to get it up to 38"-MP, at which point the aircraft is really accelerating at a far greater rate than what 38"-MP will get you in reality. Also, the engine Manifold Pressure to RPM ratio is well off the mark right now (the RPM gets up to 3,000 far too early, when only powering up to 27-28" MP), but that too could simply be because the Manifold Pressure gauge needle isn't correctly indicating the actual MP setting.