P-51 was:
fast
very fast sustained cruise speed (for a piston plane)
Very maneuverable, better than most Luftwhiners believe.
VERY inexpensive.
Very good range.
Good if not excellent weapons platform.
Excellent vsability in D models and later.
Maybe the best high speed maneuverability of any piston plane of WWII.
At least on a par with any in dive.
At true combat weights it also posessed reasonably good climb and turn rates.
As the combat reports at Spitfireperformance.com indicate, it was truly
a world beater in it's day.
http://www.spitfireperformance.com/m...t-reports.html
Sergio
Great plane
Although it aLso had bad points
1: Not very manouvrable at lower speeds , certainly worse than 109 at lower speed dogfights
2: Poor armament compared to most other fighters of its day
3: Quite unstable, DIrectional Stability not so good
4. Needed lots of trimming for speed changes
5: Poor climb rate
Many planes of the era had very good high speed manouvrability FW190, Me262, Tempest, Gloster Meteor.
Test pilots thoughts on P51 :-
http://pages.sbcglobal.net/mdegnan/_...cteristics.gif
I am sure if we had lists and lists of Luftwaffe combat reports, we would see that their planes were also world beaters![]()
I love the P51, its great fun to fly and master in the sim.