North_American

North American P-51 Mustang

The North American P-51 Mustang was an all-metal low-wing monoplane Pursuit aircraft with an inline engine, and a large protruding air intake on the bottom of the fuselage just aft of the cockpit location. Originally developed in response to a requirement of the British Purchasing Commission as an alternative to the P-40, these aircraft eventually served with the USAAC, the UK, Austalia, Canada, China, France, Polish Forces in Great Britain, and South Africa during the war. In addition the USSR recieved a number of these types but did not use them in front line service during the war. After the war several additional nations procured some of these aircraft, including Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Indonesia, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, the Philippines, Somalia, South Korea, Sweden, Switzerland, and Uruguay.

Per reference [8] it took its first flight on 26 October 1940, and entered service in January 1942 with the Royal Air Force. The P-51 was built in several variants, with the primary variants analyzed at this website being:

the P-51B/P51C
the P-51D

The P-51B and P-51C were in general identical, with the P-51B being built in the North American Plant in Inglewood CA while the P-51C was built in Dallas TX. The P-51B/P-51C aircraft were configured with a razorback fuselage while the P-51D was configured qith a bubble canopy. Per reference [8] over 15,000 of this type aircraft of all variants were built.

As shown in the images below distinguishing features of this aircraft including;

an inline engine
a razorback fuselage shape on early variants
a bubble canopy on later variants
a low mounted wing
inward folding retractable landing gear

[Image Sources: Public Domain via Ref [8] - as annotated by this site]

[Source: Ref [14b] - US Government/Public Domain]

P-51B_3-view

[Source: Ref [8] - Public Domain]

In order to try and better develop weight estimating relationships an effort has been made to estimate the length of the fuselage aft of the firewall, and the length of the engine section forward of the firewall based off scaled drawings. Together these two distances add to a term called the "structural length" and do not consider any portion of the engine or propeller shaft the extend foward of the fuselage/cowling, or any empennage that extends aft of the fuselage structure. The drawing below shows the current best estimate of these dimensions obtained from available drawings of the airplane and will be updated with any real world data that becomes available. For any aircraft with an inclined firewall, an attempt has been made to locate an approximate center of this location.

P51-Dims

The table below summarizes the current data collected on this type aircraft, identifying sources for the data

		P-51B & P-51C	P-51D	Secondary Source	Notes
Primary Source		1	2
No of Crew		1	1
Engine:
Qty		1	1	5
Model		V-1650-3	V-1650-7	5
Displacement	(cu in)	1650	1650	5
Power
Military	(HP)	1600	1720	5
War Emergency	(HP)
Normal	(HP)
Take Off	(HP)	1280	1315	5
Eng Dims
Length	(ft)
Width/Dia	(ft)
Height	(ft)
Base Engine Wt	(lb)	1700	1715	5
Propeller
# Blades		4	4
Dia	(ft)	11.17	11.17
Manufacturer			Hamilton Std
Type		Const Speed	Const Speed
Wing
Span	(ft)		37.03
Root Thickness	(%)		15.8%
	(in)		15.8
Total Area	(sq ft)	233.19	236
Wing (less Ailerons & Flaps)	(sq ft)	188.24
Ailerons	(sq ft)	12.73
Flaps	(sq ft)	32.22
Tail Area	(sq ft)	61.05
V Tail Area	(sq ft)	20.02
Fin	(sq ft)	9.61
Rudder	(sq ft)	10.41
H Tail Area	(sq ft)	41.03
Stabilizer	(sq ft)	27.98
Elevator	(sq ft)	13.05
Total Control Surf Area	(sq ft)	68.41
Length
Overall	(ft)
Fuselage	(ft)		27.8
Body	(ft)
Body Depth	(ft)		11.13
Body Width	(ft)	2.92	2.92
Fuel Tank Volume	(gal)		269.8
Wing Tanks	(gal)		184.8
FuselageTanks	(gal)		85
Oil Tank Volume	(gal)		13.8
Water Injection Fluid Tank Volume	(gal)
Wetted Area (sqf)	(sq ft)		862.12
Pwr Ldng	(lb/HP)		7.70
Wing Ldng	(lb/sq ft)		42.88
Struct. Des. GW	(lb)		8000
Ultimate Load Factor	(G's)		12
Design Speed	(mph)		537
Not to Exceed Speed	(mph)

Total Struct Weight		2813	2693
Total Wing		1066	1027
Wing
Ailerons
Flaps
Fuselage Carry-Through
Tail		183	188
H Tail			121
Stabilizer
Elevator
V Tail			67
Fin
Rudder
Body + Eng Section + LG
Body + LG		1564	1478
Body		783	725
Fuselage		509
Engine Section		274
Landing Gear		781	753
Mn Landing Gr			661
Tail/Nose Aux LG			92
Tail Hook
Booms
Nacelles
Total Propulsion Weight		3292	3391
Engine w/ Accessories		1670	1780
Engine(s) as Installed			1692
Accessories			88
Turbocharger(s)
Controls		30	31
Propeller(s)		483	479
2-Blade
3-Blade
4-Blade		483	479
Starting System		25	22
Water Injection System
Tanks
Piping Etc
Cooling System		663	604
Lube System		101	112
Tanks
Piping Etc
Fuel System		320	363
Tanks
Piping Etc
Total Sys. & Eqpmt.		883	966
Instruments		48	50
Surface Controls		108	118
Hydraulics		57	54
Electrical Equip		176	189
Electronics (Purple means incl in Furn/Gray in Useful Ld)		163	161
Arm Prov/Equipment & Armor		246	292
Furnishings		85	102
Anti-Ice (If not in Furn)
Other /Misc
Hoisting Gear
Floatation Gear
Armor Plate

Empty Wt		6988	7050
Basic Mission Useful Load			3069
Crew			200
Equipment
Oil			94
Fuel			1614
Fuel & Oil Trapped in Systems
Water Solution for Engine Injection
Bombs/Torp Etc
Radio (if Not Included in Empty Wt)
Nav Equipment
Oxygen System
Armament			1014
Guns & Ammo			1014
Guns			450
Ammo			564
Pyrotechnics
Camera
Other
Other Useful Load			147
Basic Mission GW			10119

Notes: This website has been developed with a number of low cost or free programs including Hot Metal Pro, KompoZer, MicroSoft Designer and Da Button Factory.com

Rev 3-22-26

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