Dan Martin's North American P-51D Mustang "Ridge Runner III"

Dan Martin, of Hollister, CA, owns and operates this beautiful North American P-51D Mustang "Ridge Runner III" (S/N 44-72483) that is available for airshows, flybys and film and is also a regular unlimited racer at the Reno National Championship Air Races.

The P-51 was designed and built by North American Aviation after the British government approached them to build P-40 Warhawks under license. North American believed they could design a better fighter, and the British government gave them 120 days to prove it. 102 days after the order was placed, the first Mustang was completed, flying for the first time on October 26, 1940. The prototype and subsequent P-51A utilized the Allison V-1710 liquid cooled engine. Lacking an effective engine supercharger, the Allison provided insufficient power for the high-altitude environment the P-51 was designed to operate in. By replacing the Allison engine with a Rolls-Royce V-1650 Merlin engine that had a two-stage supercharger, the necessary power and performance was gained. The Merlin engine, which was built in the U.S. under license by the Packard Motor Car Company, was installed in all further P-51 models from the “B” through the “H” versions.

The P-51 was the United States supreme air-superiority fighter in the European Theatre of Operations (ETO) during WWII. It served as a fighter-interceptor, Bomber-escort and fighter-bomber. With the powerful Merlin engine and droppable fuel tanks, the Mustang was able to penetrate deep into German territory where no previous Allied fighter had been able to go. The P-51 could escort bombers to all but the deepest targets inside Germany. With a fighter escort, fewer bombers were lost to the Luftwaffe’s fighters. Reichmarschall Hermann Goering, Supreme Commander of the Luftwaffe said “ When I saw Mustangs over Berlin. I knew the war was lost.”

The P-51 was considered by many to be the finest fighter that the U.S. produced and flew in WWII accounted for almost half the enemy aircraft destroyed in Europe by U.S. fighters. The Mustang was equipped with six .50 caliber machine guns and incorporated the advanced K-14 lead computing gun sight. The unmistakable scoop on the underside of the Mustang is the air inlet for the coolant radiator and oil cooler.

A combined total of over 15,500 Mustangs were produced. The greatest number of Mustangs were built as the “D” model, with over 8,000 built. Today less than 150 Mustangs remain flyable or restorable to flying condition.

Dan's P-51D is painted in the scheme of Major Pierce W "Mac" McKennon. Major McKennon commanded the 355th Fighter Squadron, 4th Fighter Group of the Eight Air Force (European Theater) and recorded eleven aerial victories in his career

While strafing parked aircraft at Rosenheim-Gahlingen Airdrome in Germany on April 16, 1945, an airfield gunner put an explosive round into the cockpit of his Mustang. Despite being wounded on the right side of his head, face, and neck and bleeding profusely, Mac managed to land at a Forward Operating Location, where they picked the shrapnel from his wounds and bandaged him up. He was advised not to fly back to Debden, but he ignored this advice and led his squadron home. This would he his last combat mission, as he was medically grounded until his wounds healed. Three weeks later, on 8 May 1945, Germany unconditionally surrendered and the European War was over.

Major McKennon stayed with the 4th Fighter Group until the last of its personnel arrived Stateside aboard the RMS Queen Mary in New York on November 9, 1945. The next day, the 4th was inactivated at Camp Kilmer, New Jersey. He applied for and was granted a permanent commission in the peacetime USAAF, retaining his wartime rank.

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