The Mustang P51 was a North American single engine single seat fighter and fighter-bomber first used in World War Two. It was first developed in the USA in 1940 in response from the British for an aircraft to use under licence from the US. Certain refinements followed, including the replacement of the US Allison engine with a UK Rolls-Royce Merlin engine which had a tremendous effect on performance. Further testing was carried out in the UK, the result of which was the definitive Mustang P51-D, considered a worthy adversary of the German Luftwaffe aircraft. Its engine comprised a Packard V-1650-7 licence-built version of the two-speed, two-stage supercharged version of the Merlin 66. It was armed with six .50 calibre (12.7mm) AN/M2 Browning machine guns. From late 1943 to 1945, the USAAF Eighth Air Force used this aircraft to accompany bombing raids over Germany. 

Our 1:72 scale model of the Mustang flown by Captain Donald R Emerson is one such aircraft. Born on 17th May 1923 in North Dakota, he enlisted as a USAAF armourer as soon as he left school. He then trained as a pilot and by 1944 he was a fighter pilot. He joined the 4th Fighter Group of the famed 336th FS, 8th Air Force based at RAF Debden, Essex – the Eagle Squadron, a group of volunteer US Pilots flying with the RAF.  In July 1944 he made the rank of Captain. He had multiple successes, flying over 89 missions, most of which were in his Mustang P51-D 44-13317 VF-B on which he had commissioned his personal nose-art of a mad, fists -up Donald Duck. On Christmas Day, 1944, in another Mustang, he led a mission with fellow Mustang pilots against a group of FW 190s. A furious fight ensued.  He was lost in cloud, ran out of ammunition and in trying to get home, he was short down and killed just short of friendly territory. He was 21 years old.

Our evocative model of Capt Donald Emerson’s Mustang features the colourful Donald Duck nose art, as well as his personal flight 413317 and VF-B markings on the fuselage and tail. The silver aircraft features the three white and two black ‘invasion bands’ round the fuselage and the wings, applied to Allied aircraft just before the D-Day landings to identify friendly aircraft. The US Star features boldly in white on dark blue on the aircraft too.

As with so many of the WWII aircraft which Oxford researches and produces, there is such history behind each one and always a story worth telling.