Essential and Dispensible WW2 aircraft.

Scott M. Kozel wrote:
The Amaurotean Capitalist wrote:
"Scott M. Kozel" wrote:

You keep calling it a "Merlin-engined Mustang"
Because it used a Merlin engine. QED.

No, it used ---

while in fact those
built by NAA utilized a Packard built engine that was a modifification
of the Merlin design.
The Merlin 61 used in the initial Spitfire IX's was also a
modification of the Merlin design. The fact remains that the V-1650-3
and -7 were two-stage Merlins produced under licence by Packard.

That is partially true. Packard modified the turbocharger to produce
more high-altitude power,

When you say "turbocharger," are you referring to an exhaust gas driven
compressor? Or mechanically driven?

==bob

and modified the alloys of some of the major
engine components to adapt the engine to U.S. mass production
engineering and processes. The Rolls-Royce Merlin engines were hand-
built. U.S. mass production processes allowed vastly greater
quantities (over 16,000) of the V-1650 to be built in a timely and
reliable manner. Packard added considerably to the design of the
engine, which includes and is integral with its production processes.

If there was no P-51 then North American would have been producing
more B-25's at their Dallas plant and probably at Inglewood as well.
Which leaves the US with what they had at the time; the P-38, the
P-39, the P-40 and the P-47. Now which of these are you going to stop
production of in order to develop a better long-range fighter design?
The longer-ranged P-47D doesn't come along until April 1944 (and
requires that British Typhoon tear-drop canopy in any case), the
dive-brake-equipped and longer-range P-38L doesn't appear until May
1944, and neither the P-39 nor the P-40 are ever going to become
high-performance, high-altitude long-range fighters.

If there was no P-51 then some U.S. company would have greatly
accelerated the production of something of similar performance. Most
likely an advanced P-38 and/or P-47.

Both the U.S. and the British each produced a number of excellent
advanced warplanes in WWII. In a universe without the P-51, certainly
something else of similar performance would have been produced.

Bob Matthews wrote:

Scott M. Kozel wrote:

That is partially true. Packard modified the turbocharger to produce
more high-altitude power,

The main improvement that Packard incorporated into the Merlin was
adopting the Wright supercharger drive quill. This modification was
designated the V-1650-3 and became known as the "high altitude" Merlin
destined for the P-51. The ability of the supercharger to maintain a
sea level atmosphere in the induction system to the cylinders allowed
the Packard Merlin to develop 1,200 horsepower at 26,000 feet.

When you say "turbocharger," are you referring to an exhaust gas driven
compressor? Or mechanically driven?

Sorry, I miswrote. It was mechanically driven by the engine, a two-
speed two-stage supercharger.