V-1650-9 ever engined D model?

[Pandacat]

I vaguelly remember reading somewhere that some of the late war D models were equipped with Dash9 merlin and many pilots reported achieving 75hg MP under WEP. Is that true? Or just some unverified rumor?

[USARStarkey]

75 inches was attained with the -7 and 150grade fuel, not the -9 and it is certainly no rumor. the -9 had water injection and could attain 90" of manifold pressure, not 75. This produced 2200BHP and propelled the H model mustang to 487mph.

[Friedrich-4B]

I vaguelly remember reading somewhere that some of the late war D models were equipped with Dash9 merlin and many pilots reported achieving 75hg MP under WEP. Is that true? Or just some unverified rumor?

 

AFAIK the last Dallas built P-51D was taken off the assembly line and re-engined with a Packard V-1650-9A Merlin (which didn't have water injection) as the sole P-51M-1-NT; this was a demonstrator for the projected P-51M series:

 

P-51M Mustang

NA-124

 

On 21 September 1944 USAAF contract AC-2400 was approved for the manufacture of 1,000 P-51M Mustang airplanes in Dallas, Texas. These were to be identical to the Inglewood-built P-51H airplanes but powered by the non-water methanol injected 1,380 horsepower V-1650-9A engine that was optimized for low altitude rather than high altitude combat operations. To get the program started it was decided to take the last production Dallas-built P-51D-30-NT airplane (45-11743) and build it as a P-51M-1-NT demonstrator.

 

The P-51M demonstrator was successfully flight tested at Dallas by an NAA test pilot. As evaluations of this airplane proceeded NAA began to gear up for P-51M production beginning with the first of 999 production airplanes being set aside for structural loads testing. This particular airplane would never receive a USAAF serial while the remaining 998 production P-51Ms would carry the serial numbers 45-11744 through 45-12742.

 

The 998 production P-51Ms originally ordered were cancelled due the end of World War II.

 

Appendix: P-51M Production in Dallas, Texas

NA-124

 

P-51M-1-NT, 1, 45-11743, 400th and last of 400 P-51D-30-NT airplanes; Dallas-built P-51D airplane with V-1650-9A engine

P-51M-NT, 0, 45-11744 to 45-12742, these 998 P-51M airplanes were cancelled.