Look at this! Did You know this rare and unusual version of the P-51 Mustang? The link below has some photos and a question: this version entered service or combat? To see all the pictures and answer the question above, please visit the link below and leave your comment.


http://aviacaoemfloripa.blogspot.com.br/2011/01/p-51-mustang-jato.html


Best Regards!

Yes this was a super secret version of the Mustang and was used in combat starting in early 1941. They flew solo so that the Germans were less likely to notice the appearance of this new aircraft (further made easier by the speed achievable with the new Jet Assisted Take Off technology.)

Ha ha!
Not likely-- this was an actual US post-war test-bed project to see if ram-jet technology could be used in flight for prop powered aircraft. Hasagawa released a 1/48 scale kit of the wing-tip ram-jet equipped Mustang by adding resin ram-jets. It was a limited release and quite nice, but now fairly rare. The project was not successful and abandoned in favor of emerging jet engine technology. I don't know for sure, but my understanding is one of the prototype Mustangs crashed during testing.
VR, Russ

You're ruining my program of misinformation!

Matt-- yep I figured that. I'm just a bucket of cold water. I note there are not many responses to the post either, and I wonder about that-- this aircraft is not widely known. One reason I gave my 1/48 Mustang with the wing-tip ram jets up several years ago was that I couldn't find much information about the real aircraft out there. It sure is neat looking with those ram jets though. My understanding is there might have been at least two prototypes, but one crashed, killing the pilot, and the Air Force gave up the attempt to use an existing airframe. I think the tests took place sometime after 1947 because the only photos I could find showed the "new" star and bar insignia with the red bar, which was instituted in 1947, but I could be wrong because I've seen references to it being developed in 1946 at Wright Field, which is where the testing took place I think.
VR Russ

You mean this kit?

The project was very much a success. It proved that a tiny little 50 Kg engine had nearly as much power as the Mustang's Merlin. There was never any serious attempt to find an alternative power plant for the Mustang; the flight test program was designed to determine whether a ramjet would work at all. The crash you were referring to was not caused by the ramjets directly; leaking fuel in the boost pumps outboard of the fuel tanks was suspected to have been ignited by sparks from the wiring.

The ramjet went on to be developed into larger and more powerful versions which were used to power the Bomarc missile among other things. Ramjets are the fastest flying man-made objects in the world. The X-43 reached Mach 9.68 with a burn time of only 12 seconds in 2004. The X-51 flew at mach 5 for 210 seconds in 2010 and is now being developed into a hypersonic missile to be deployed some time in the 2020s.

Yep-- that's the one. It was a very nice kit, but I looked for several months for more detailed information-- never thought to go the accident report route. In the end, I traded the kit. Thanks Jessica for putting up this info. The Hasegawa kit didn't have much information at all, and as I recall, just an info sheet on installing the very nice resin ram-jets and a basic set of decals. I did know it was not intended for use on the Mustang or any other a existing aircraft but simply as as a test bed.
VR Russ