Naval Heresy....!

DaveQ

DaveQ

Charter Member
A Navy prop fighter without a circular front??

A2A's P-51D in post-war U.S. Navy livery. Sorry, can't add an arrestor hook!

NavyP-51D.jpg



...and coming aboard - drat now what do I do? Catch a wire by hand??

NavyP-51D2.jpg



Just a bit of fun with the paint kit!

DaveQ
 
If you have Accel, you can add an (invisible) tailhook just by adding appropriate text to the aircraft.cfg file?

Not my cup of tea (I like my Mustangs with blue noses or RAF camo... ;)) but a very nice repaint, none the less. :applause:
 
I like the weathering, looks good. Nice to see new paints done so they don't look like they just left the paint shop.
 
glennc said:
I like that - and who knows? Maybe there was a Naval Mustang used for "something".

Glenn
Click to expand...

There were a few but I doubt they ever carried full Navy blue paint jobs. A P-51A was trialed early in the war and Project Seahorse saw a single P-51D evaluated in 1944. Apart from the lack of a radial engine the 'D has poor directional control at low speeds and the Navy abandonned the idea of long-range bomber escort when the fall of Iwo Jima put 20th AF P-51's within range of the Japanese home islands. Two P-51H's were also trialled in 1948 but by that time the Navy had lost interest in more piston-engined fighters. They performed much better than the 'D, most likely because of the taller fin and larger rudder.

As I say - just a bit of fun

DaveQ
 
The Navy went as far as doing tests of performance between the Corsair and Mustang. They found that the Mustang could only out-perform the Corsair above 25,000 ft, and below that altitude they were simply tied at best. The Mustang had the advantage of having a much lighter airframe, but once arresting gear and wing-folding mechanisms were added to the aircraft, greatly increasing its weight, it would have trumped any advantage the Mustang had over the Corsair anyway. That in combination with the Mustang's rather high wing loading when compared to typical Navy fighters, canceled any further investigation into whether or not the Mustang could have been a Navy fighter.

While I am partial to some other Mustangs, it is great to see this adaptation done! There have been a number of profiles of just such Mustang "what ifs", and it definitely looks great in overall blue - the weathering is superb as well. Excellent job Dave!
 
One carrier trial was done with the Mustang. Only a five knot or so window existed between running out of rudder control at low speed and overstressing the fuselage with an arrested landing. It might have been possible to modify the aircraft enough, but the British experience with the Navalized Sptifire probably showed it to not be worth the effort. The F8-F Beercat (so named after the barrel it resembled) was already in the pipeline. Arcane things like logistics and parts commonality even assisted in keeping the F4U off most carrier decks long after it was apparent that even Marines and Brits could fly them.

The aircraft used for the deck trials was in bare aluminum. I believe there is a photo of it in "Hundred Thousand".

Cheers: T.
 
Thanks for all your comments - I thought it looked quite cool too....!:cool:

Uploading now. Also going up is Marvin Arthur's 'Blondie', one of Don Allen's masterpieces from the 4th FG at Debden. I've posted this before but this is updated with 2028 x 2048 .dds textures.

Next up is John McGinn's 'Da Quake' 44-13954 (see signature). This aircraft has an interesting history; bellied in out of fuel at Cap Ferrat, near Bordeaux in France, it was alledgedly recovered in 1982 and put on show. It was subsequently shipped to the UK and was to be restored to flight status. However, it may not be 'Da Quake' that was dug up: also it has recently changed hands and disappeared.


DaveQ
 
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