Eeyore wrote:

Eunometic wrote:
Essential and Dispensible WW2 aircraft.
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USA:

P-51; the P-38 had sufficient range to cover untill the P-47M with a
wett wing which actually could excede the range of the P-51.

You'd have to be nuts to think the P-51 wasn't essential. It was vital in
Europe.

Why you list it under USA is odd too since it was originally designed for the
RAF as the Mustang. The USAAF only adopted it later.

The critical improvement to the Mustang was the fitting of the RR Merlin engine
which was an RAF idea.

Given that over 15,000 P-51s were built by North American Aviation in
the U.S. and paid for by the U.S. government, it was predominently a
U.S. aircraft. Like you said, the later models did use the Merlin
engine.