Cadillac of the Sky

The P-51 Mustang first flew on October 26, 1940, and it became a great fighter only when it changed engines. The early Allison V-1710 lost power at altitude. Fitted with a Rolls-Royce Merlin, the engine of the Spitfire, the Mustang could escort bombers high over Europe.

In America the Merlin was built by Packard, the Detroit luxury car company and long-time rival of Cadillac. An agreement was signed in September 1940, and the first Packard-built engine, the V-1650, ran in August 1941. The P-51B, with the V-1650-3, entered service in 1943, and the P-51D carried the V-1650-7.

With drop tanks it could fly with the heavy bombers from England to Germany and back. By the end of the war 15,686 Mustangs had been built. The black-and-white bands on the one pictured here are invasion stripes, painted on Allied aircraft ahead of D-Day on June 6, 1944, so that friendly gunners could tell them apart.

The Mustang banks hard through a deep blue sky, silver, its propeller a pale blur, a star-and-bar on the fuselage, a flash of red at the tail. Bands of black and white wrap its wings, and below it clouds pile up in heavy cream and gold.