My grandfather flew that prototype. It is one of my favorite stories from him. It was a ferry flight and they said to go get that P-51 and fly it out. He went out looked around the ramp and didn't see anything he recognized as a mustang. "You mean the thing with the damn buggy wheels?". Yes. That one. He shrugged and went out, went through the checklist, started, taxied out and took off. It pinned him to the seat. He said he was at about ten thousand feet before he caught back up. He said it was the best flying airplane ever and he flew all of them. He got to his location, made an overhead pass and started into the break. "Is that all you got?" Proclaimed the tower..."permission to clear the pattern..."asked Grandpa. "Permission granted". He re entered the pattern over 500 mph, pulled vertically and rolled out of sight, came back and landed. "Report to the tower on shut down". He was in a little bit of trouble over that but he felt the juice was worth the squeeze. Best prop plane he ever flew..

The breadth and depth of Greg's coverage is astonishing. Love these videos.

There were two F-51H aircraft that crashed near where I grew up on March 10th of 1950, flying out of Lockbourne AFB with the 166th Fighter Squadron/121st Fighter Intercept Group. Flying them were Second Lt. Neal Diehl(serial number 44-64616) and Second Lt. William Drazic(serial number 44-64500). A group of five F-51H aircraft left Lockbourne AFB in Columbus, OH with intentions of flying to Selfridge, Michigan on a routine training excercise. Report was Lt. Drazic wanted to buzz his parents' house, which required flying East to Wintersville, Ohio from Columbus, a distance of about 125 nautical miles from Lockbourne field. Lt. Drazic reportedly accomplished buzzing his parents' house before an abrupt maneuver put his aircraft into Lt. Diehl's F-51. Air Force accident reports suggest Lt. Drazic's aircraft crashed to the ground one mile from Fernwood Rd, being killed without exiting the aircraft, and after the collision, Lt. Diehl would bail out of his F-51, nevertheless also losing his life, his aircraft being found three miles from Lt. Drazic's near a coal mining company. Both aircraft were "almost entirely unrecognizable." Lt. Drazic's F-51 was reported to still be burning two hours after the incident with his body still inside and Lt. Diehl being found, also badly burned, by the Ohio State Highway Patrol who first investigated the crash before a wave of military trucks showed up and recovered most of the debris. There are a ton of locals to the crash sites, who believe to this day, that I have talked to, that Drazic and Diehl were peeled off from the three other aircraft headed for Michigan, to investigate a "ufo sighting" during the lapse in official efforts to "chase" unidentified craft between Project Grudge and Project Blue Book, but I figure that simply would be way too coincidental seeing as how Lt. Drazic literally crashed near his own parents' house. People were alarmed by the secrecy and quickness of the military to keep people away from the wreckage and trying to keep anyone from seeing what had happened, rumoring that people had their cameras confiscated after the military showed up and that the two images published in the local newspaper were taken by Ohio State Highway Patrol before the military responded to the two crash sites. One fella I met claimed to know a guy to have a piece of one of the aircraft but refused to mention who or what exactly he had. Very creative imagination on some of these folks! There is currently a memorial at the Jefferson County Airpark (2G2) where a Steubenville Herald Star newspaper from March 11th, 1950 with front page article and before-mentioned images alongside an uncuffed prop, missing two of its four blades, "supposedly" recovered from the wreckage of one of the two above-mentioned F-51H aircraft, mounted to a display pole beside the newspaper in a glass box.

Hands down, the best place on KZfaq to get your WW2 aircraft history fix… great work as always Greg!

Sure hope you cover the Douglas Skyraider. It missed WWII combat but so did some other Super Props. It was designed during WWII and used the iconic B-29 Wright R 3350. Seems like in some ways the panicle of the Super Prop. And perhaps with best combat record.😎

The Superprop series are simply brilliant, nice work Greg.🛩

The truly crazy thing is private race teams are doing over 500 mph with P-51's at like 5000 ft. The true highest performing mustangs of all time are air racers like Voodoo which once recorded a pass at 554 mph

Well, the P-51H was designed not only to be fast, but had very long range, too. It would have been used on attacks on Japan from Iwo Jima and Okinawa had Operation _Olympic_ actually started in November 1945.

The fact you are willing to track down every bit of info you can to be as accurate as possible, while also outright stating when things are educated guesses at best, is awesome to me. And being as I am a technology and science nerd, and love all the engineering of the pre and post WW2 era and how quickly things changed in just 10 years, this channel rocks.

There is one of these that often flies into the Warbird Roundup airshow at the Warhawk Museum in Nampa Idaho. Tail number 464551. It's a bit plain looking compared to the colorful paint other Mustangs sport, but it runs great and it's neat to see such a rare bird flying around. It definitely does sound a bit different than other Mustangs.

Greg: Many extremely great photos and great narrative. Lots of good info. Thank you to the max. I used to work at Half Moon Bay Airport back in the '60s and '70s. The guy who ran the place, Frank Sylvestri, had flown P-47s in WW2. His son, Paul, was a high school pal. I rode down there on my '50 H-D Panhead (still have her). One day we could hear a P-51 enter the pattern. The classic pop-pop of the the Merlin on final. Nice, no bounce landing. In it came, toward the gas pump. This action was enough to actually bring out the old man from the office. The pilot was a guy with his kid in the back, in a P-51H! I handed up the gas nozzle. All we had was 100-130, but who makes 130-145 any more? Anyway, they went inside and got their hunnert dollar hamburgers (plus, probably, a milk shake for the kid). They came back outside, fired it up and were outta there. Very cool. I gassed a P-51H!

Oh, my sweet Greg - never underestimate our interest in random niches of history. Seriously, you're so good at going in depth without wearing us out. Great content.

I'm going to say it. You are most probably the most important Aviation information Source on KZfaq. Thank you.

Glad you covered the P-51H, there just isn't too much information out there on this highly refined version of the Mustang and you are right, all attention was focused on jet aircraft.

Modern diesel pickups have huge water-oil coolers. Ever increasing power and towing capabilities (and how common performance mods are) need ever bigger coolers.

When I was a kid back in the 60’s I bought an Aurora 1/48 scale P-51 kit and was irritated that when I opened it the plane had the wrong shape. It turns out I had bought a now rare P-51 kit which for some reason wasn’t labeled as an H, the box said simply P-51. On eBay the asking price for one with the original issue box art is $250.

Thanks Greg for always posting such high quality content! Much appreciated :D

Credit to NAA, they seemed to improve upon the D in nearly all areas. Cool to see the ANG period pictures, I like to see the various states on the planes.

Now I have read, many years ago, that the lightweight frame for the P-51H was derived not from the P-51D, but instead was based on the frame developed for the P-82 Twin Mustang

Thank you Greg…What a Super way to start the day …!

Loving the expansion of the superprop series. I would request that you consider looking at the Commonwealth CA15 and Martin Baker MB5 for inclusion in this series please.

The H. A P51 seldom discussed. A video on the twin Mustang might be a good follow on to this one. Thanks!

Great video! I read in Chuck Yeager's autobio he described the P51D as being very pitch sensitive on take off with a full fuel load in the fuselage tank. It surprised me a bit that even a pilot of this elite skill level and expertise would describe it as being really touchy and even could be dangerous in this situation.

Thank you for this one Greg. My father was a P-39 instructor (this irritated him because he wanted to fight) during the war. He did deploy to Nuremberg in June 1945, flying the P-51D doing aerial recon vs. the Soviets. He also did military testing of the P-63. After the war, he was the first CO of one of Ohio's ANG Squadrons at Wright Patterson from 1946-1951. He had both D & H models of the P-51s in his squadrons. Thank you for the picture of the Ohio ANG Mustang in your video As usual; your presentation was fantastic.

I've always been fascinated by the potential of the P-51H. Thank you for this.

Hey Greg. I'm 54 , have studied how to fly off and on all my life. Haven't got my pilots license yet . There's always something coming up. Life . I'm gonna try to do this soon . You've been a great teacher . Thanks man. Jeremy Wilson.

Yea. Any day Greg puts out a video is a good day.

Thank you very much for posting this. Your video presentations are always of the highest standards and your hard work in creating such content is very much appreciated.

Just missing the super corsair. great job as usual

Watching within 30 seconds of being published, superb😉

I love the sound of p-51s being talked about in the morning

Thanks - it makes me realise what a wonderful plane the Sea Fury was, particularly with the original Bristol Centaurus engine. I also find the later Mustang less aesthetically pleasing to my eye than the earlier models.

Interesting to see the change in the “buzz” number prefix’s. The are photos of PF-, TF-, and FF-. I’d always thought that the prefix was fixed to the aircraft and didn’t change. Greg notes the he thinks the straight leading edge is the primary visual identifier while I had always gone with the taller tail and rudder assembly. In one of the other comments, it’s noted that there was a a P-51H in civilian hands. As a CAP cadet in the late sixties we had gone to a fly-in at a little grass strip in Plainwell ,Michigan. I was excited to see a P-51 there, the second one I’d seen. The first was a couple years earlier when Bob Hoover performed with his P-51D when the new county airport opened. Looking at the one parked on that grass strip, I realized it had a taller tail and it was an H model. I had also noticed the the tall tail on a Mustang at the 2023 Oshkosh. It’s no longer just the mark of a P-51 H as it was adopted for all the Cavalier Mustangs as well. Just the same, a well done video, Greg.

If I recall correctly, the H model were mostly issued to ANG Interceptor units for home defense. Thus eligibility for Korea would have been moot and well explained by Greg. Honestly, the P-47 would have been better in Korea and the argument of logistics for them were in my opinion biased to the F-51. Additionally, Oil coolers in modern aircraft are interesting. Inline fuel/oil coolers, air/oil coolers, and fuel cell mounted coolers. Another great job Greg, We all do appreciate it.

Thanks for posting. Will have to watch after work! By the way, the Georgia Air Guard had a few of those that were received after they came home from Korea and had not been re equipped with F-84's... Many years ago I met a pilot who had flown one.

Please do Dehavilland Hornet if you have enough material for a full video. Thank you so much for these

The Merlin fitted to the P51H was a R-R Merlin 100 series. R-R (like all manufacturers) continuously worked all the little flaws out of the engine and kept developing it make higher power for longer and with even more reliability. They actually referred to the 100 series as 'The Ultimate Military Development' for obvious reasons. Interestingly by mid war they could make minor modifications to standard Merlin 66 to boost it to 2050 hp (emergency power) on 150 octane. This power boost was all part of the development of the 100 series seen later on the P51H.

I'd love a dedicated video on the P-47M and N which to me are bordering into Superprop territory.

On the note of water to oil based oil coolers, many Japanese cars have such coolers, typically built into the oil filter mount. My ‘08 Nissan Altima with a 3.5 L had such a cooler. And in my experience, many Mercedes diesels engines work roughly the same way

Amazing video as usual. If you could look at some of the twin engined superprops, like the sea hornet etc. That would be amazing

Curious to hear about the American turbo project. Enjoyed this video too!

Great video. I always found the H subtly less aesthetically pleasing than the preceding models. With the stretched radiator housing and the slicked out nose section she went from being curvaceous in the right places to the wrong places to my eye.

I love this nerd stuff. Keep it up man, awesome depth and explain it in a way that a layman can understand :)

Always quality content!

My father piqued my interest in flight from an early age (3), when I went for my first flight in his '53 Bonanza and I was hooked. From that flight on I had vivid, recurring dreams of flying around and looking down on the city lights . . . and then we moved to California and after our first night flight, I realized the city lights I was seeing in my dreams were the exact ones I was seeing there in real time - rural Michigan didn't have the odd, orange-ish colored freeway and street lights that were the norm/standard in California - astral projection? I've learned to hang glide ('77) and parasail ('82) since that time (1970), while also achieving my private pilot's license in '78. Had to give up flying airplanes because I couldn't afford to either buy a plane or rent/lease one to stay current. These days its all hang gliding and parasailing, which I prefer due to the quiet vs the constant engine noises. Still have an occassional dream of flying after over 50 years. Just something about the perspective you get when flying that you have difficulty explaining to anyone who hasn't flown. It is completely addictive and you can rarely get enough of it, once bitten by the flight bug. Who needs drugs when you can go fly w/o them?!?

Great video Greg! Thank you!

Enjoyable as always Greg!

Greg, you have one of the few channels in which I will literally drop whatever I am doing and immediately watch. That is the highest compliment I can give.

Great video, Greg. Thanks for making it.

Thank You for Your time and efforts Greg.

I love this series, thank you Greg!

Fascinating as always. Keep up the good work.

Thanks again, Greg.

A high performance Mustang indeed. Learned a lot from this video, and a whole lot about a plane I have come to fear in War Thunder.

Well done Greg!

There is a P-51H racing at this years Reno Airraces

Another great show Greg

thanks Greg. I always look forward to your thoughtful presentations

Thank you. A nice cap to my Friday. Always good content.

I love superprop series! Awesome as always

Excellent coverage.Beautiful aircraft ❤👍

My P-51H story. I was at Lackland AFB in 1967 for basic training. I was there for was called "casual" status after basic, that is waiting for a school slot. I saw a sort of museum on Lackland with a variety of aircraft outside (including a F-105). There it was, a P-51 but unlike most P-51s. I went inside to ask about it and the men running the "museum" said the pilot's log book is "right their" on that shelf. I read it. That P-51H was flown from New York (ANG) to Kelly Field and towed over to Lackland where it had remained.

I can't say for absolutely sure (it was a 'H') but at the Hamilton Air Show in Ontario,Canada back in the early 80's I saw a P-51H fly low & slow, then it raised flaps, cranked on the power and went straight up until you couldn't see it anymore ! A prop-job ! WOW

Another brilliant video Greg! Love the superprop series.

Great video Greg…love the background information.

You’re second to none, Greg. Thank you.

Love your videos! Provides some great background to building model planes.

Hugely respect the experience, knowledge and perspective, and ability to go in-depth and to the maths.

Thank you for yet another highly interesting video! I'd love to hear your assessment of the F-82, a personal favourite of mine, too.

yesssss another superprop video!! yyou are absolutely one of myy top favorite yyoutube creators of all time, love your videos

This was amazing - always been fascinated with the H model, as well as the P 47 N. Absolute peak of the airframe

Greg i love your presentations. So interesting to hear that you are a very serious car guy.

Have a super great day Greg. And thanks for the content

Just rewatched the original video again last night with my kids. What a pleasant surprise this morning!

Thanks Greg.

The A-1 Skyraider was pretty awesome. Short reminder about water injection, It enabled cooler air (dense/ cool air = more oxygen = more power) As a US Navy Aircraft Mechanic I can highly see the value of removing engine performance settings from the pilot's control. The Pilots are pretty busy. Side note, My 96 impala SS has an oil and transmission cooler. If you are an engine nerd, find a way to be around a Merlin Engine when its started and warmed up. It's like taking a ride in a B-17, once in a lifetime cool.

Dude thanks so much! Just asked for this!

Great video

I am so excited for this

Great! Had an H at my local airport several months ago and am very curious about them. Thanks Greg!

I love Superprop series. And for that matter, I love this videos.

Very informative

Thanks-I love these videos, especially the super-rare H model Mustang. . . . .

The video I've been waiting for since I was like 10 years old! Will be savored from the elliptical trainer a bit later!

Was blessed to get a ride in the late Bill Hogans P51H back in 75. Thanks dad. Alot of late fighters like this didnt make it, not because of bad design, but because the military has so many parts for early models in stock that its hard to justify taking on new models. The advancement in jets was worth taking on to the militaries future.

I only was aware of the P-51 (D/G). Sea Furys are so cool ! Didn’t know they were made by Hawker

Keep them coming 👌

I opened youtube this morning and not only did I get a new Greg’s cideo but also a new Not A Pound For Air to Ground video…I’m gonna be late for work!

Outstanding!

The thing that impressed me most about the sea fury was its very high speed for a radial engined aircraft - at a relatively low altitude of 18000ft, where beyond this staged supercharging began to really show its advantage. I hope this new discussion/video will be around the De Havilland Hornet or Sea Hornet.

Thanks for another Great and information Rich video 👍 You rock Man 🤟❤️

That was another fabulous documentary, thank you very much! Always admired the Mustang, but this ultimate model must have been quite something!

Thank you

Very great information on the late 1940 developments of superprops...

Very interesting video on the P-51 H that was perhaps the fastest of all P-51 variants. As it was lightweight it must have been a joy to fly with excellent flight characteristics. In my opinion it wasn't tough as the P-47 or the formidable Sea Fury but they were more expensive. Good job 👏 👍 as always..

Thanks Greg

Thank you i always wonder how this plane is perform thank for the detail👍

I love a Greg Video when I move back :D

Excellent !

Thank You Again Greg 😀😊❤️😎👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼 Love The “H” Model P-51