1/72 中华民国空军 P-51D "野马"战斗机 1949年, 中华民国空军第4大队21中队, 郑永达中队长座机, 垂尾编号 P-14275 2192

This is the P51 Mustang fighter of the US Army in World War II. He is the Cadillac of fighter planes. Its fuselage design is simple and powerful, with a laminar wing profile, a main wing with a standard wing thickness ratio and five-section flaps (the control surface was also improved later to ensure good and uniform control quality from low speed to high speed), giving it excellent flight performance. The coolers for lubricating oil and cooling water extend forward from the tail to under the wing. Unlike the Spitfire and other fighters, which do not install coolers on the wings, it has a larger fuel capacity than ordinary fighters. Due to policy and quota issues, early P-51s did not have turbosuperchargers available, so they were equipped with the American-made Allison V-1710 first-stage supercharged engine.

Although the V-1710 is relatively compact, it is resistant to damage and has a high serviceability rate. Combined with the Mustang's fuselage design, the early Allison Mustang had outstanding low-altitude performance. However, the lack of a two-stage supercharger meant that the P-51 had to face the problem of insufficient horsepower at high altitudes, which resulted in the early models' unsatisfactory high-altitude performance. Although the early Allison-powered Mustang was once the low-altitude speed king in Europe at the time, it was unable to adapt to the mainstream high-altitude and high-speed air combat ecology in Europe at the time, and could only play a secondary role in low-altitude and high-speed reconnaissance and strafing.

It was not until 1942 when the P-51 began to be equipped with the British Merlin engine that its performance began to improve by leaps and bounds, winning it a large number of orders. Between 1943 and 1944, it met the Allied forces' most important long-range escort needs, inherited and expanded the achievements of the P-38 and P-47, quickly reversed the balance of combat power over Europe, and finally won the reputation of "the greatest fighter in history."