North American F-82 Twin Mustang

Les P/ F-82 Twin Mustang d'escorte sur Wikipedia.en

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The [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] F-82 Twin Mustang was the last American piston-engine fighter ordered into production by the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien].

Based on the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], the F-82 was originally designed as a long-range escort fighter in World War II, however the war ended well before the first production units were operational, so its postwar role changed to that of night-fighting.

Radar-equipped F-82s were used extensively by the Air Defense Command as replacements for the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien].

During the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], Japan-based F-82s were among the first USAF aircraft to operate over Korea.

The first three North Korean aircraft destroyed by U.S. forces were shot down by F-82s, the first being a North-Korean [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] downed over [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] by the USAF [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien].

Design and development


Initially intended as a very long-range (VLR) [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], the F-82 was designed to escort [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] bombers on missions exceeding 2,000 mi (3,219 km) from the Solomons or Philippines to Tokyo, missions beyond the range of the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] and conventional P-51 Mustangs.

Such missions were part of the planned [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], which was forestalled by the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] days after the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien].

In October 1943, the North American Aircraft design team began work on a fighter design that could travel over 2,000 mi (3,219 km) without refueling.

It consisted of a [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] design, somewhat similar to the experimental German [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien].

Although based on the lightweight experimental XP-51F, which would later become the P-51H Mustang, it was actually an entirely new design.

North American Design Chief [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] incorporated two P-51H Mustang fuselages lengthened by the addition of a
57 in (145 cm) fuselage plug located behind the cockpit where additional fuel tanks and equipment could be installed.

These were mounted to a newly designed center wing section containing the same six .50 in (12.7 mm) [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] as a single-engine Mustang, but with more concentrated fire.

The outer wings were strengthened to allow the addition of hard points for carrying additional fuel or 1,000 lb (454 kg) of ordnance.

The two vertical tails were also from the XP-51F, but incorporated large dorsal fillets for added stability in case of an engine failure.

The aircraft had a standard landing gear with both wheels retracting into bays under each fuselage center section.

The XP-82 was to be powered by two Packard-built Rolls-Royce V-1650 Merlin engines.

Initially, the left engine was a V-1650-23 with a gear reduction box to allow the left propeller to turn opposite to the right propeller, which was driven by the more conventional V-1650-25.

In this arrangement both propellers would turn upward as they approached the center wing, which in theory would have allowed better single-engine control.

This proved not to be the case when the aircraft refused to become airborne during its first flight attempt.

After a month of work North American engineers finally discovered that rotating the propellers to meet in the center on their upward turn created sufficient drag to cancel out all lift from the center wing section, one quarter of the
aircraft's total wing surface area.

The engines and propellers were then exchanged, with their rotation meeting on the downward turn, and the problem was fully solved.

The first XP-82 prototype (44-83886) was completed on 25 May 1945, and made the type's first successful flight on
26 June 1945.

This aircraft was accepted by the Army Air Forces on 30 August 1945. AAF officials were so impressed by the aircraft while still in development that they ordered the first production P-82Bs in March 1945, fully three months before the aircraft's first flight.

Prototype XP-82s, P-82Bs and P-82Es retained both fully equipped cockpits so that pilots could fly the aircraft from either position, alternating control on long flights, while later night fighter versions kept the cockpit on the left side only, placing the radar operator in the right position.

Although some P-82B airframes were completed before the end of [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], most remained at the North American factory in California waiting for engines until 1946. As a result, none saw service during the war.

Like the P-51 Mustang, the first two prototype XP-82s, as well as the next 20 P-82B models were powered by British-designed [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] engines, built under license by [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien].

These provided the fighter with excellent range and performance, however, the Army had always wanted to give the Twin Mustang a purely American and stronger engine than the foreign-designed P-51's V-1650 (built at Packard plants, dismantled after the war).

In addition, the licensing costs paid to Rolls-Royce for each V-1650 were being increased by Britain after the war.

It therefore negotiated in August 1945 with the Allison Division of the General Motors Corporation for a new version
of the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien]-100 engine.^{[Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien]}

This forced North American to switch subsequent production P-82C and later models to the lower-powered engines.

It was found that Allison-powered P-82 models demonstrated a lower top speed and poorer high-altitude performance than the earlier Merlin-powered versions.

The earlier P-82B models were designated as trainers, while the "C" and later models were employed as fighters, making the P-82 one of the few aircraft in U.S. military history to be faster in its trainer version than the fighter version.

Record-setting

On 27 February 1947, a P-82B 44-65168 named Betty Jo and flown by [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] made history when it flew nonstop from Hawaii to New York without refueling, a distance of 5,051 mi (8,129 km) in 14 hr 32 min
(347.5 mph/559.2 km/h).

This flight tested the P-82's range.

The aircraft carried a full internal fuel tank of 576 gal (2,180 l), augmented by four 310 gal (1,173 l) tanks for a total of 1,816 gal (6,874 l).

Also, Colonel Thacker forgot to drop three of his external tanks when their fuel was expended, landing with them in New York.

To this day, it remains the longest nonstop flight ever made by a propeller-driven fighter, and the fastest such a distance has ever been covered in a piston-engined aircraft (the record for the longest unrefueled flight by a propeller-driven aircraft of any type is held by the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien]).

The aircraft chosen was an earlier "B" model powered by Rolls-Royce Merlin engines (see "Survivors" below).

P-82B-NA 44-65168 "Betty Jo".

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Operational history

The Twin Mustang was developed at the end of the prop-driven fighter era and at the dawn of the jet age.

Its designed role as a long-range fighter escort was eliminated by the atomic bombing of Japan and the sudden end of World War II.

With the rapid draw-down of the armed forces after the war, the newly established United States Air Force had little
money for new prop-driven aircraft, especially since jets, such as the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] and other [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien]
fighters had been faster than P-51 Mustangs in the skies of Germany in late 1944.

The completed airframes (less engines) of the P-82 pre-production aircraft already manufactured by North American were in storage with an uncertain future.

However, during the 1947 Soviet Aviation Day display at [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], a surprise appearance was put in by three four-engined long-range strategic bombers.

They were early examples of the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], which was a bolt-for-bolt copy of the Boeing B-29 Superfortress, three examples of which had been interned in the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] after having been forced to land there during bombing raids against Japan.

Since the USSR was expected soon to have nuclear weapons, the appearance of the Soviet Tu-4 was a shock to US military planners, since it meant that the US mainland might soon be vulnerable to nuclear attack from the air.

Until jet interceptors could be developed and put into service, the Twin Mustangs already built were seen as an interim solution to SAC's fighter escort mission for its strategic bomber force and also as an all-weather air defense interceptor.

Early attempts to develop jet-powered all-weather fighters ran into a series of snags and delays.

The [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] had been ordered in December 1945, but it ran into developmental difficulties and the project was eventually totally abandoned in October 1948.

The Northrop [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] was deemed to have greater promise, but it too ran into teething troubles and did not show promise of entering service until 1952 at the earliest.

Due to the lack of any suitable jet-powered replacement, the wartime Northrop P-61 Black Widow night fighter was forced into this role, and in order to help fill in the gap until the Scorpion could be available, night fighter adaptations of the piston-engined North American P-82 Twin Mustang were developed and deployed.

On 11 June 1948, the newly formed United States Air Force eliminated the P-for-pursuit category and replaced it with F-for-fighter.

Subsequently, all P-82s were re-designated F-82.

This F-82G Twin Mustang of the 68th All Weather Fighter Squadron
based at Itazuke Air Base, Japan, was flown by Lts. Hudson and Fraser on
June 27, 1950, when they scored the first victory of the Korean War.

(U.S. Air Force photo)

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Strategic Air Command


The F-82E was the first model to reach operational squadrons and its initial operational assignment was to the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] at [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] in March 1948.

During World War II, the P-51 Mustang had escorted [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] and [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] bombers from bases in England and Southern Italy to targets throughout Nazi-occupied Europe.

However, the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] brought on the challenge of possible B-29, [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] or [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] bomber missions into the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien].

The sheer size of the Soviet Union dictated that a bombing mission would be a 12-hour affair there and back from bases in Europe or Alaska, most of it over Soviet territory.

Also the weather, which was bad enough in Western Europe, would make bombing missions impossible over the Soviet Union between October and May.

With no long-range jet fighters yet available to perform escort missions for the strategic bomber force, the mission of the 27th FEW was to fly these long-range missions with their F-82Es.

The F-82E had a range over 1,400 mi (2,253 km), which meant that with external fuel tanks it could fly from London to Moscow, loiter for 30 minutes over the target, and return, the only American fighter which could do so. It also had an operational ceiling of 40,000 ft (12,192 m), where it could stay close to the bombers it was designed to protect.

The first production F-82Es reached the 27th in early 1948, and almost immediately the group was deployed to [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], in June where its squadrons stood on alert on a secondary air defense mission due to heightened tensions over the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien].

It was also believed that the 27th would launch an escort mission, presumably to the Soviet Union, if conflict broke out in Europe.

From McChord, the group flew its Twin Mustangs on weather reconnaissance missions over the northwest Pacific, but problems were encountered with their fuel tanks.

Decommissioned F-61 Black Widow external tanks were found at [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] that could be modified for the F-82 which were fitted on the pylons of the Twin Mustang that solved the problem.

With a reduction in tensions, the 27th returned to its home base in Nebraska during September where the unit settled down to transition flying with their aircraft.