Warbird Information Exchange

I somehow doubt that the engine and instruments were scratch-built Michel.

A grreat achievement, I look forward to seeing pictures of this one in the air.

I know Mike...

Wrongly worded...Ahhh Frenchmen.

Still the whole assembly is scratch built....Quite an achievement.

The Feds can never DE-MIL a homebuilt either.

Since Gerry built this from North American plans, I would if he would be willing to provide some drawings or three-view showing the "actual" dimensions of the A model.

Currently there are no "accurate" three-views of the A-model available. All the ones that are floating around are just B/C/D model drawings with the A-model nose on it. None of them show the difference in fuselage heights of the Allison and Merlin powered airframes.

I build RC aircraft and want to build a 1/5th scale model of the A series (P-51A/A-36) but the only plans available show just that... a B/C/D series with an Allison nose on it.

Just my opinion, but I sure wouldn't after all the years he put in. I think your best bet is to get some good photos from the same angle and approximate distance and do some photoshop or clear overlays to compare sizes and shapes.

_________________
"There are old pilots and bold pilots but few old, bold pilots."

Yeah, I just wish I was close to Chino where I could take some measurements of the A-36 they are restoring, plus the P-51A.

From Connery



Wow, did not know or ever noticed that. Are the differences significant ? I did notice some differences in the belly scoop. But that was it.

Care to educate the curious crowd ?

Tks in advance

There are actually drawings that purport to show the different fuselage height, though maybe not large or otherwise accurate enough for you.

August

The story that I have been told be a few different people, but have not yet been able to verify is this: Since the Merlin is a taller engine than the Allison, to maintain the smooth lines from the larger lower cowling to the wing, the wing was dropped 5". So supposedly the distance from the bottom of the canopy rail to the top of the wing root on the B/C is about 5" more than it is on the A model. It's that measurement that I have not been able to confirm.

Compare the two pix below. You can visibly see that the A model fuselage is shorter.

Connery,

You are correct, the larger "Z" dimension of the Merlin and low mounted carb air intake trunk required the fuselage to be mounted higher on the wing. The wing remained the same between the A, B-C with only relatively minor mods between them. The entire fuselage structure is however VERY different from the lower longeron on down. In the A model the floor of the cockpit is the top of the wing. Its longerons follow the contour of the wing joggling down in the front to accept the lower engine QEC mount points. In the B-C the lower longerons are quite straight (Identical to the D) and pass above the top surface of the wing by about an inch at it's closest point. This mod was done to provide a clean flow of air to the radiator scoop which would have otherwise been obstructed by the lower hanging engine.

John

I imagine this deminsion for the P-51A is the same as the A-36 Yes? Isn't someone at the moment converting their A-36 to a B/C model by dropping a Merlin and front nose clip? Would be interesting to see the converted A-36 and a actual B/C model side by side. To account for the differences.

Shay
____________
Semper Fortis

Shay,

It can be done. In fact, Gerry's initial plan was to use/convert the B/C fuselage parts that he had already engineered to create the A model. After some some careful research it became quite evident that this was not the best way to build an A model. While it would have worked, it would have taken a lot of time, been obvious, and to quote Smokey Yunick, "It would have been a half-assed lipstick fix". As always, Gerry took the high road and did it right. When you see the airplane in person I'm certain you will agree!

John

I assume you mean John Paul's Mustang project which is nearing completion. According to John' son their project no longer contains any A model related fuselage structure and is now all B model. I don't know whether that means the new fuse was sourced from parts or built from scratch but apparently everything A model was traded to somebody restoring an Allison Mustang. (Tom Reilly maybe?)

Maybe Mr. Paul took into account the those differences in fuselage heights.

Personally I would rather see another A-36 in the air. Seems like lot of trouble to go through to have another B/C Mustang. I think restoring the A-36 would have been more unique (out of 500 examples, I'm actually a little surprised that any survived at all) and would have told about the little known past of what was to become the Mustang. If they had stayed with the Apache I would imagine she'd be in the air by now.

Oh well not my plane.

Shay
____________
Semper Fortis

The A-36 that John Paul owned now belongs to the Collings Foundation. It took me years to figure out what parts went where but what I've been able to pretty much figure out is that John Paul kept the A-36 wing but sold the fuselage to Collings. As John Beyl said earlier, the wings from the A/B/C were pretty much the same but the major differences were in the fuselage. To complicate this a little bit more, the wing now belonging to the Collings A-36 came from the Moon Spillers P-51A wreck. Moon used a D model wing.

It was highly confusing for a long time and it took me quite a bit of research the figure out just exactly what parts went where and to who. Other smaller pieces were exchanged as well but I hope this clears up what happened to the A-36.

BTW, from what I've read, the reason that John did not rebuild it as an A-36 is because he always wanted a B model Mustang. Apparently he barely missed out on the chance on the airplane in Montana (which I believe is now the CAF Red Tail) and making a B model out of the A-36 was the best way to go about doing so. Shoot, even Pete Regina had to go through some pretty wild methods to get his B model.

The funny thing, is that initially you had the A-36 and the Moon Spillers P-51A. Now because of all the component swapping, we still have the A-36 and the P-51A but we also get a P-51B as well. Not a bad deal I suppose.

Ryan