From Muroc to Albuquerque

[357th_KW]

On July 18th, 1943 Colonel Mark Bradley, Chief of Fighter Projects at Wright Field flew P-51B-1-NA 43-12112 from Muroc Field (later re-named Edwards Air Force Base) to Albuquerque, New Mexico and back.  "I took off and flew to Albuquerque at 25,000ft, simulated full power over that city for 15 minutes, and then flew back to Edwards with plenty of gas left.  The mission to Berlin had been accomplished."

 

43-12112 was one of the first production P-51B aircraft and had been modified with a 93 gallon steel fuselage tank (this would later become an 85 gallon rubber tank in production aircraft) and was fitted with two 75 gallon drop tanks along with a full load of ammunition.  It was crashed later in 1943, and the airframe apparently still survives today, sitting in Idaho Falls.

 

 

It's commonly stated that the USAAF was completely convinced of theory of unescorted daylight bombing, and this never wavered until the Schweinfurt raid (either August or October 43 depending on the telling of the myth).  In reality, the USAAF had been working on developing long range fighter escorts before ever launching a bombing raid into Germany, and the additional internal fuel in this P-51B came about as a result of requests from the USAAF to North American Aviation (as well as to Republic and Lockheed) dating back to February 15th, 1943.  All USAAF P-51Bs in the ETO would be equipped with the additional fuselage tank from February, 1944 onward.

 

The first production P-51B was completed on March 31, 1943 but it would take nine more months before the aircraft could be put into combat service in the ETO.  Part of this delay was due to a labor strike at Packard, holding up production of the V-1650-3 engine, but much was simply due to the time lag required to produce aircraft, test them, ship them, reassemble them, and allow for the final training and workup of a fighter group in theater.