The P-51
In 1940 two men by the name of Raymond Rice and Edgar Schmued designed a new
fighter aircraft for the North American Aviation Company. They called their
new plane the P-51A Mustang. The first flight of the Mustang took place on October
26, 1940. So impressed with its performance was the Royal Air Force (RAF) that
it immediately ordered 320 of the aircraft. The aircraft had a maximum speed
of 390 mph (628 km) and had a range of 730 miles (1,200 km). It was 32 ft 3
in (2.65 m) long with a wingspan of 37 ft (11.28 m). The aircraft was armed
with 4 machine-guns and could carry 1,000 lb (454 kg) of bombs. It performed
so well over the European skies that the RAF immediately ordered 820 more to
dominate the skies over Britain. During this time the North American Aviation
Company continued to work to improve the airplane and in 1943 they began producing
the P-51B, which could reach speeds of 440 mph (710 km) at 30,000 ft (9,000).
Between 1940 and 1945 a total of 15,469 mustangs were built. In the air it destroyed
a total of 4,950 and a total of 4,131 aircraft on the ground. During the Second
World War the mustang flew a total of 213,873 missions. This aircraft was so
reliable that it continued service throughout the war and we even used them
into the Korean War.
The Vought-Corsair
In 1938 the United Aircraft Corporation began working on a new fighter, the
Vought-Corsair. Tex B. Beisel used the most powerful engine available at the
time for the plane, the 2,000 hp Pratt & Witney X-R2800 Double Wasp 18-cylinder
radial. The Vought-Corsair was very impressive in its test flights and on October
1st, 1940 it became the first aircraft to reach a speed of 400 miles per hour.
The Vought Corsair had a maximum speed of 425 mph (684 km) and had a range of
1,015 miles (1,635 km). It was 33 ft 1 in (4.60 m) long with a wingspan of 41
ft (12.47 m). The aircraft was armed with 6 machine-guns and could carry 2,000
lb (907 kg) of bombs. Along with the United States the RAF also received about
2,012 of these aircraft. During the Pacific war it shot down 2,149 enemy aircraft
while only losing 189 in 64,051 missions. This is the greatest kill ratio ever
recorded in the history if air warfare.
The Grumman Hellcat
On June 30, 1941 the United States Air Force (USAF) signed a contract with the
Grumman Engineering Company to produce a new carrier based fighter. Shortly
there after the Grumman Hellcat F6F-3 flew for the first time, but it was not
delivered to the USAF until October of 1942. The Grumman Hellcat F6F-3 had a
maximum speed of 376 mph (628 km) and had a range of 1,090 miles (1,750 km).
It was 33 ft 7 in (10.24 m) long with a wingspan of 42 ft 10 in (13.06 m). The
aircraft was armed with 6 machine-guns. In January 1943, they were assigned
to the aircraft carriers, Essex, Yorktown and Independence. The Grumman Hellcat
became the most important aircraft of the carrier fleet and in the last 2 years
a total of 2,545 were delivered to the USAF. In 1944 the Grumman Aircraft Engineering
Corporation replaced the Grumman Hellcat F6F-3 with the Grumman Hellcat FF6-5.
The engine of the new aircraft was improved and additional armor was installed
behind the pilot. It could also carry 2,000 lb (907 kg) of bombs. In the final
stages of the war the Hellcat showed itself to be clearly superior to Japanese
Air Force's main fighter, the Mitsubishi A6M.
