#1 Piston Fighter was British

Anybody else getting tired of this thread?

Jack
"Steven P. McNicoll" wrote in message
thlink.net...

"Ed Majden" wrote in message
a...

The P51 wasn't a high performance fighter until the Brits installed
the RR Merlin in it. This increased speed and performance making
the Mustang a top long range fighter.


All P-51s were high-performance fighters, the Merlin made it a
high-altitude
fighter as well. It was the high performance of the Mustang I that
prompted
the installation of the Merlin.

Incidentally, while the British were the first to fly a Merlin Mustang,
they
didn't win the race by a great deal. Rolls-Royce flew the first Merlin
Mustang, a Mustang I with a Merlin 65, on October 13, 1942. North
American
flew the XP-51B, a P-51 with a V-1650-3, on November 30, 1942. Before the
first flight of a Merlin Mustang on either side of the Atlantic the USAAF
had 1750 P-51B/Cs on order with NAA.