Uruguayan Mustang F51-D

[Marcelo Pricoli]

First of all, I wish to thank Mr. Lubomir Koutny and Mr. Robert Pajas for the patience they have had me taking time to answer my questions and send data and drawings that I have requested.
Is that our level of construction is well below the demands of modelers who write on this site but this will be a great experience for me and that I can learn, understand and master the art of scale model aircraft to teach my studentsand thus improve our standard of construction and fidelity of the models we choose to do.
to start, I chose to build a plane that is flown in our country.
on November 1, 1948 our country buy the amount of 25 F-51D Mustangs, 11 B-25 Mitchell and three C-47 and I think a hunting party, a bombing and a transport.
hese Mustangs F-51-D had belonged to the ANG (Air National Guard) of the United States. Uruguay rejects the sending of the P-47D Thunderbolt being unfit for the operation and maintenance in our country, instead chose the Mustangs as an advanced trainer and light fighter.these aircraft were brought in flight to our country low under the purchase contract No. AF 33 (38) S-328 (Part I and II) so the May 8, 1951 establishing the Group of game No. 2 with 25 Mustangs in stock and these planes played an invaluable service for over 10 years.
for a detailed description of what these planes for us, literally transcribed below, a letter from the North American company to Mr. Ernesto Belli, dated 1959, addressed to Mr. Ernesto Belli, this person still alive, isaviation history and a great friend and supporter of the School model airplane JV44 Uruguay.
so i says the letter I quote:
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NORTH AMERICAN AVIATION INC.
INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT
LOS ANGELES 45, CALIFORNIA
1959

The Air Force North American Aviation
F-51 Mustang Figther.

Called back into active duty as air support for Unites States troops in Korea and as a figther plane , North American Aviation`s F-51 Mustang is now in its eigth year of service with the U.S. Air force (as of July 1951) and still making History.
Since VJ-Day , Mustangs have served with many Air Forces and National Guard units and constantly racked up records wherever piston powered airplanes met, whether in closed course dashes, long range Speedy runs or mock air battles.
The first united states figther airplane to pus hits nose over Europe alter the fallo f France, the F-51 (then called the P-51) scurried back and forth across the channel, taking on the best the Axis Could put in the air.
Mustangs meet and conquered every german ship from the early Junkers to the sleek, twin-jet Messerschmitt 262s.
Altought first designed for the brittish as a medium-altitude figther, the mustang excelled in Edge-hopping strafing runs and long-range escort duty. With beefed up Kings, the A-36 version of the Mustang took to dive bombing like mallard to marsh. It made a name for itself by blastingtrains, ships, and enemy installations in western Europe and by clobbering Axis defensas prior to allied invasión of Scicily and Italy. The late ErniePyle, famed Scripps.Howardwar correspondent, writing of the dive-bombing type of Mustangs, declared “the dreaded german Stuka Could never Couch them even for sheer frightfulness of sound”.
Flying on both sides of the World, Mustangswere equally important in the air Wars over the Burmese junglas and chinese rise fields of the far East as they were over the industrial centres of the Reich and the oil fields of Rumania.
An Amazing array of firsts was piled up by mustang while carrying the war to the heart of the german fatherland.It was the first single engined plane based in Britain to penetrate Germany, first to reach berlin, first to go with the heavy bombers over the Ploesti oil fields and first to make a major-scale all-figther sweep specifically to Hunt down the dwindling Luftwaffe.
The Brittish in january of 1940 asked North American Aviation to Guild, on sub-contract, an airplane of another company, J, H. (Dutch) Kindelberger, the president of the firm, countered with a proposal that North American turn out completely new ship. The brittish skeptically agreed, specifying Orly what armamento and fixed equipment the ship should carry. The Mustang, roughly sketched in a London Hotel room by Kindelberger and J.L. Atwood, then company vice-president, was the result.
Altought the first one rolled out the door 117 days later—without an Enghien ando n wheels borrowed from a trainer—it wasn`t test flownfor another month and a half. Kindelberger recalled that”we got that first one out Fast, but it was full of Bugs.it was a hard pull from the inicial Mustang, off the production line Turing the battle of britain, to the smooth figthing machine that helped Lick the Luftwaffe” nineteen months later the mustang had seen action over occupied France.
Best know of the many advanced ideas incorporated into the designo f the Mustang was the laminar flown wing , base don principles developed by the NACA in extensive wind túnel reseca. The airfoil intriduced several distinctive features. The greatest thickeness in cross section of the wing had been moved back and gradually tapered off to the training Edge.
When the setcion was perfected, the air flowed smoothly up the long inclineand over the point of greatest thikeness befote breaking down into turbulence.
To make the Mustang clean of line, various methods were used,For one thing, the second degree curve method of streamlining was employed for the first time, wich “got all the bumps inside”.
At the first a 1325-horsepower, inline, liquid-cooled Allison Engine was selected to reduce the frontal area and to better streamline the fuselage.
Altought North American engineers had achieved a needle-nose effect with this Enghien and a close-fitting cowling, a major problema was locating the large, drag-producing radiador scoop. This finally was streamlinined into the underside of the fuselage just aft of the pilot.
Drag would be reduced by positioning, reasoned engineers, Air would flow into the scoop, slow down , absorbing headt from the Enghien coolant flowing through the hot radiador. By the time air Leith the scoop it would expand and lessen drag.
At least that was what mathematical calculations indicated , although figures dont`t lie, they sometimos spray from te straight path when put totest in airplane.because unforeseen factors often can turn a fine airplane into a clunk, there was considerable suspense prior to test flights of the modified Mustang.
When all the returns were in and statistics evaluated , however the engineers got more than they bargained for.The radiador scoop`s resistente to the air stream had not Orly been cut to zero but, due to expulsión of hot air, the modification actually led tp a net gain.
Clean lines of the Mustang were, by far, not its Orly assets, its control and balance were such that when the pilot operated the stick he was not conciousof moving the control columna, but that he was moving the airplane itself. This prometed frequent references to the F-51 as a “real pilot`s airplane”.
One of highest honnors accorded to the Mustang was its rating in 1944 by the Trumman Senate War Investigating Committee as “the most aerodynamically perfect pursuit plane in existente”.
Despite its unequalled war record, the Mustang was not, at first, accepted by the U.S. Army Air Force. The Mustang remained unsung until British pilots began streaking them to the continente to blast enemy Shopping and installations as well as the Luftwaffe.
Testifying befote a Congressional Armed Services subcomité alter the war, the late General Hap Arnold said that on only one occasion did he overrule an Air Materiel Command`s recomendation on Aircraft procurement.
The General recalled that after seeing North American´s productionline turning out Mustangs for the British, General Carl Spaatz, organizing the Eight Air Force, told him, “thats the plane i want”. AMC had previously turned the plane down.
“if that`s what you really want, you`ll get it” Arnold said he told Spaatz. “I overruled the AMC and ordered North Amerincan to produce an amrican version of the Mustang . I was never sorry for that decision”.
Company figures show that 15.367 Mustangs were turned out during the war at the Los angeles and Dallas plants for as little to the American taxpayer as $17.200 apiece for the airframe. Nine production versions of the Mustang were built, differing chiefly in type and power of motor and kind of armamento carried.
Build originally for the british . the first Mustang didn´t have a U.S. Army Air Force pursuit ot figther designation. It was called the NA-73 after its North American contract Lumber. With its Allison, inline liquid cooled Enghien (V-1710-F3R), this Mustang proved itself a Swift and powerfull medium-altitude figther. There was plenty of firepower packed in its two .50 caiber fuselage machine guns and its four .30 caliber and two .50s in its Kings…eight guns in all.
After the acceptance of the Mustang by the U.S. for service, the designation given it was the F-51. This airplane was different from the British version in that its Kings-structure was modified to acomódate four 20mm cannons. Fuselage guns were eliminated. Bullet Prof. Glass was used for windshields.
The Mustang after the F-51, the A-36, differed in a few important features from other planes in this series. It had four hydraulically-operated dive-breakes. One above and below each wing , to fit the airplane for its specialty, dive –bombing. A bomb rack under wing to carry a total load of 1.000 to 2.000 pounds and six .50 caliber machine guns (four in Kings and two in fuselage synchronized to FIRE through its three –blade propeller)equiped the plane for battle.
The combat debut of the screaming A-36 left the Axis staggering in pantelleria and, later in Sicily and italy.Mustang dive-bombers shattered all records with 1.000 sorties in 17 days of action. Perhaps the most spectacular A-6 feat was sinking a 50.000 ton Italian transporto f the Conte Di Savoia class when both its bombs made direct hits.
Unlike the A-36, the next Mustang in the series, the F-51A, had no dive brakes or fuselage guns ..only four .50 caliber wing machine guns. The hight altitudes at which german planes performed made alterations necessary to raise the Mustang`s ceiling. Therefore, the F-51B, next in the series, was equipped with a 1650 horsepower, Packard-build RollsRoyce merlin Enghien (V-1650-3) with two-stage supercharger for greater power at higther altitudes. A four –blade prop replaced the three-blade of all previous versions. There were four .50caliber guns in the wings .The F-51B has bomb Racks..redesigns of those on the A-36.. for holding two 100, 300, or 500 pounders.
Only a few features differentated the Mustang thal followed. The F-51B, from the previous versions. First Mustang with a full –vision Hubble canopy, this was the first F-51, along with the F51B, to accompany U.S.bombers to berlin in march of 1944. armed ith six .50 caliber machine guns in the wing , the F51D carried a 1.000 pound bomb under each wing or either of the following: six 5-inch rockers in rail type lauchers or 10 HVAR rockers. For added protection of pilots in combat, radar was intalled in the tail of later “Ds” to warn of planes closing in from behind.
Similar in externallines to other Mustangs, the F-6, designed for photographic missions, went through five different production models A, B, C , D, and K. The -6 was variation of Mustangs from the first F-51 through the “D” version. It carried one to two cameras in a special compartment build into the fuselage of various production types. While other single –seat, Fighters had to sacrifice eigther firepower or bomb-carrying capacity when adapted to Photo recconaissance work, the Mustang retained its six machine guns and normal bomb load or long-ranger fuel –tanks further to increase its effectiveness on recconaissance flights.
Another Mustang , the TP-51 is sometimes confused with a special model job which gained World –wide publicity shortly after D-day. The TP51 was a two –place machine , bassically an F-51D modified for pilot training at the request of the Air Technical Service Command. It was the first modern, front line figther adapted to dual instruction for transition, gunnery, and technical training. This Mustang differed from the F-51D in having secind pilot facilities and having its equipment relocated or removed.
In some reports of General Eisenhower`s famous mustang “Piggy back” , flight to Survey battle progress on Normandy beachheads. Its has been stated that the plane used was the TP-51 version. Actually General Ike`s airplane, piloted by Major General Elwood Quesada, chief of the 9th. Air Force Figther Command, was a specially modified Mustang with second SEAT but without dual instruments and controls of the TP-51.
Last of the long lineo f Mustangs was the F-51H, long-ranged Fighter powered by the 2.000 horsepower Packard-built Rolls Roycemerlin Enghien.
Ten per cent stronger than the “D” mustang and 700 punds ligther, the F-51H was by far the fastest (490 miles per hour), most maneuverable, higthest climbing(42.000 feet ceiling), fastest climbing (rate of climb 6 per cent faster than that of the “D”) and longest range figther (over 2.000 miles) of the entire series.
Wile its was not produced in time to engañe in World War II combat, the F-51H, with 10 “zero-rail” rockers under its Kings, carried a destructive blast equal to a destroyer`s full broadside. In adittion to its six .50 caliber machine guns , the F-51H had racks to carry bombs wheihing up to 1.000 pounds or extra fuel tanks mounted under the Kings.
Even in the jet-age following Worl War II, the Mustang did not go the way of must wartime, prop.driven Fighters…into obscurity. Some of them are stationed overseas with fron line defensive groups, but the majority were assigned to duty with National Guard outfits.
At Craig Air Force Base (Alabama), advanced single-engine training base, Mustangs play a vital part in gromming ypung figther pilots. In Korea , F51`s from out of mothballs, provided air support for ground troops, as well as doing other duty. A tribute to the ageless, spirited Mustangs, only prop-driven Fighters from Fighters from World war II to battle Russian-built MIG15s over Korea, are their victories in damaging and dispersing enemy jets.
Of the nine Mustang production designs, only the “B” and “C” versions were sold as surplus to sibilinas. The private planes pf such record-smashers as Paul Mantz, Joe de Bona, and Jacqueline Cochran are souped –up models of these early Mustangs.
It is now common practice for F-51s to break records. Added to their many marks of distinction are two feats of captain Charles F. Blair.
In january of 1951, Captain Blair set a new non-stop trans-atlantic record when he flew his flame-red Mustang from New York to London in 7 hours and 48 minutes.
On may 29, Captain Blair piloted his Mustang from Bardufoss, Norway , across the North Pole to Fairbanks, Alaska ….a distance of 3450 miles … in 10 hours and 29 minutes. This is the first time that any man has made a solo flight over the pole in a single-engine aeroplane.
In setting his new mark, Blair , a commercial airline pilot with more than 420 Atlantic crossings ando ver 18.000 hours in the air, praised his F-51 as an unussually safe airplane to pilot. Not once in his history-making trans-polar flight did he feel in danger, he stated. His further comment om the Mustang is typical from seasoned pilots or from new pilots.Captain Blair said that the flight in his Mustang was “an easy one”.

(story production date – july, 1951 - )
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the model I chose to build the P-51 Mustang to make the conversion to F-51D, the only difference visible to the naked eye is the antenna of the radio-goniometer located in the rear-upper fuselage behind the cockpit .
the design of the plane belongs to Earl Stahl and wasobtained from "theplanpage.com"
fuselage: All frames are made of sheet 1 / 16 and also all the stringers, in the picture also can see the badges of the Uruguayan Air Force (FAU). Hopefully we can do a good job with this model and during construction process I'll show photos of each stage.

[Marcelo Pricoli]

here some pictures of the uruguayan mustang´s f51 Units i take this from a friends site http://www.pilotoviejo.com at this stage i cutting all keels from 1/16 sheet hope soon post pictures of the startings!

[Marcelo Pricoli]

this is the emblem in the tail of the 1st. chase group, but i have a dude about the roundel color of the image, i thinking is light sky blue but some guy from a another forum tell me "warning , the color is yellow not light blue" when see my roundels print in the cover paper of the model, i doing calls to driend in museum. IPMS´s, and library searching for a color picture of the F-51 Units!

[Marcelo Pricoli]

a little progres in the fuse
really is a big ship!

[Marcelo Pricoli]

"filled in"the entire nose, to much sand paper here!

[Marcelo Pricoli]

i asked and searching a substitute for the comercial product for apply on the wood to doing a better covering finishing.dont remember the name,but looks as a wood finishing.i thinking in mixing balsa dust with white glue and put in the holes and inperfections.may be the balsa dust work better with mixing with another product?

[Marcelo Pricoli]

i mixed talk pownder with strong dope and obtain a good texture like a soft cream to cover holes and inperfections, sanding with nº1000 sandpaper by hand.
i doing details in balsa scraps.

[Marcelo Pricoli]

WELL: ... little progress in my mustang, of course, my level is so far of the top i wish catch, but i working hard to doing better and better models, iam amazed by the mix of talk pownder and dope, is not equal to the commercial products to cover inperfections on wood, but work similar, next, a coat of 50/50 doped&thinner and sanding to doing "glass" surfaces finishing

[Marcelo Pricoli]

more pictures, sorry about the quality my camera is from cellphone i dont have another better

[Pavel Stráník]

Good job, Marcelo. I would only suggest to make higher number of longitudinal beams, in this case I should add another beam between each couple of them. It is necessary to obtain really rounded shape of fuselage and the weight don´t increase very much. Otherwise, as I can see, critical part will be the bottom of the cooler.

[Marcelo Pricoli]

ok! very thanks for the suggestion!, i add more stringers 1/16 soft! first doing a jig to sand square holes in the bulkheads.thanks
i doing the panel instruments in this way first print the pannel in clear acetate and back the acetate glue a white paper!clocks looks very realistic in the glass circles may be need add a black cover cutting first the circles of the clock instruments to doing a better look.

[Marcelo Pricoli]

is evident the difference watching the more stringers added.better shaped fuselaje is obtain with the addition of i/16 extra stringer and the weight not increased singnificative.
i put a draw of the grip maded for snading sq. holes in the bulkheads.