p-51 with ram jets

Modeling Subjects Aircraft
1

went to lhs to get my gb p51 . on the bottom shelf was a p51 d but it looked strange. it had ram jets… has anyone seen the same kit , and was there a thing going on with the gov. cannot find any paper on it . can anyone shead any light on it.
glen schneider

2

I happen to have this 1/48th scale Hasegawa on the shelf at home…I have only done limited research on the actual plane, found a few pictures of it in test flights. Don’t know if the United States was testing the ram jets or trying to add to the life span of the P-51 during the transition to full jet planes.

3

Wo, Wo, Wo
I must be loseing my hearing (or eyesight) but did you just say (or right) a P51 with RamJets??
Thats a new one on me…

Regards,
a very befuddeled Christian

4

Yep you heard (read) right, it was a converted P-51D (I believe) with a Ram Jet on each wing tip! I’ll take a picture of the kit and post a link to it when I get home from work…darn job alway gets in the way!

5

http://hometown.aol.com/conroeqb/beguineindex.html

Not ram jets in this particular case…

6

Here’s a pictures of a P-51 with the ramjets. [:)]

http://www.wpafb.af.mil/museum/research/p51-21.jpg

Looks like it would make a nice scratch/conversion build if you can’t find it in a kit.

7

Well I’ll be a… Never saw that one before. Looks like it’d be pretty easy to scratch
build the ram jets…if that’s what they are.
Ray

8

Here is a picture of the P-51 w/ Ram Jet Kit from my stash. It is a 1/48th scale Hasegawa kit. It is kit #09377. It has a copyright date on the box of 2001 so you might be able to find them at your LHS like Glen, or maybe at one of the online retailer advertising with FSM and there’s always your favorite online auction site.

9

I can’t see the point. You’d get a huge amount of transonic drag, especially from the propellor, and the ramjets would use up all that nice avgas in the Mustang’s wings in no time. Plus, they’d be just so much extra weight and drag when not in use.

Chris.

10

If memory serves, I don’t believe it was made to extend the life of the P-51. Rather, the Mustang was used as a vehicle to carry out tests on the ramjet. A ramjet was also fitted to the bottom of a P-61 as well. Again, in both cases they were for testing purposes only and not as a means of improving or extending the service life of these planes.

Eric