![]() Even so, it wasn't hard for the RAF to take to the American Mustang like ducks to water. But early examples of the Mustang sporting Allison V-1710 piston engines were seen as not up to the same standards as Spitfires sporting Rolls-Royce Merlin V12s at higher altitudes where German fighters hunting for bombers often flew. Indeed, it was a British pilot flying a Royal Canadian Air Force Mk.I Mustang that shot down the plane's first enemy fighter, a German Fw-190A, over Dieppe, France, during Operation Jubilee in August 1942.Īt low-to-medium altitudes, British Mustang pilots found its performance to be on par with their own domestic single-engine fighters like the Spitfire and the Hurricane. Dubbed the North American Mustang Mk.I in British service, and the Mk.IA, when fitted with quad Hispano 200 mm cannons for armament, these all-American war machines from Inglewood, California, didn't take long to get on the good side of British pilots. It was in this year that the British Royal Air Force received its first shipment of P-51s, then known as the NA-73 and then as the XP-51, as a supplement to existing squadrons of Curtiss P-40C Tomahawk fighters already in service with the RAF via the Lend-Lease program. ![]() To uncover the full tale of the A-36, we need to go back to 1942. This is the story of the A-36 "Apache," the P-51 Mustang's forgotten family member with a penchant for dive bombing. ![]() In a sea of Thunderbolts and Flying Fortresses giving Axis ground targets all the hell they could handle, a specially modified P-51 airframe joined in on the fun for a time. ever built had a little-remembered ground-attack relative? That's right. ![]() For instance, did you know the greatest piston-engine dogfighter the U.S. ![]()
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