Considered the best fighter plane of World War II, the P-51 Mustang, born of a British desire for a fighter to fend off the Luftwaffe and North American incorporating lessons learned from the P-40 Warhawk and the latest developments in aerodynamics, didn’t really excel as a fighter until the British Rolls-Merlin engine was added.

Innovative wing design, featuring laminar flow technology, helped the P-51 decrease drag which added speed, agility, and with less drag comes better fuel mileage.

  

The importance of the P-51 Mustang can be noted from an infamous quote by Herman Goering commander of the German Luftwaffe which concerned the appearance of P-51s escorting B-17s over Berlin.  Goering said, “When I saw Mustangs over Berlin, I knew the jig was up.”

The United States built nearly fifteen thousand P-51 Mustangs and this design served in world air forces into the 1980s.

This P-51 Mustang can be found at the EAA Airventure Museum in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.

For more information please see: P-51D Mustang