Introduction The North American P-51 Mustang is undoubtedly one of the most famous fighters of all time. The P-51 was really a joint project built by an American company to British requirements and it reached its peak performance when fitted with a British Merlin engine. North American Aviation originally built the Mustang in only 120 days, to a British request for an American fighter to help the beleaguered RAF. The resulting aircraft saw combat with the RAF in 1941 and was found to be a very good match for the FW-190 and BF-109. Although the Mustang was a good fighter, the Allison engine faired poorly at higher altitudes. The British suggested fitting the Mustang with one of the superb Merlin engines that were powering the Spitfire and Hurricane. The new engine totally transformed the Mustang and gave it the performance that would make it a legend in its own time. The P-51 was built in several different versions as the war progressed, but the most famous was the P-51 D model. The “D” used a Packard built Merlin and was the first Mustang to feature the bubble canopy that gave the P-51 its distinctive profile. The D model also carried six .50 cal machine guns (up from four in the B model) and had an amazing long range, and in the Pacific, P-51’s flew missions with a round trip of over 1500 miles. The H model of the Mustang was one of the last production models. It featured a more powerful engine and was lighter than the D model, and as a result it was faster and more agile. However, it had a shorter range due to a reduction in the size of the fuselage fuel tank. After World War 2, the Mustang had a brief but distinguished career in Korea, before finally being retired. Today, the P-51 enjoys great popularity as a toy for the super-rich and many still fly in private hands and at air shows. Installation and Documentation The Wings Of Power (WOP) P-51 is available as a 70MB download for $24.99. The purchase is via credit card and is straightforward. Installation is via a simple auto installer and all you need to do is give it the password from your confirmation E-mail and you’re ready to fly. Before you fly, I highly recommend reading the included PDF manual. The manual is quite long and gives a good amount of detail about the real aircraft as well as checklists and flying notes on the F’s version (both of which are also available via the in- game kneeboard) The detail in the manual is very good and gives enough instruction that when you load up the aircraft, there is very little confusion as to what does what. Although the manual is well done overall, there is one area that I did find strange. Part of the opening of the manual is devoted solely to extolling the virtues of the flight dynamics process, and it does so by making references to the Wings of Power bomber package. Although the information is interesting, it seems out of place unless one happens to own the bomber package, in which case it makes perfect sense.
Visual Model The visual model is probably one of the biggest elements in a successful payware package, and the one in the WOP P-51 is very well done. Both models are detailed and do a good job of capturing the unique shape of the P-51. There are several textures included in the package and all of them are crisp and show no mismatching across different sides of parts. Weathering is also present on the textures and looks very realistic since even the cleanest of flyable Mustangs have exhaust stains on the cowling. The pilot figure lacks the complexity of some other models, but he still looks good in the cockpit. Speaking of the cockpit, it is possible to zoom into the cockpit in the external view and see all of the controls and gauges in their places, even though they don’t move. There are also a good number of superb repaints out there for the Mustang, but if you use the included program and change the flight model, all of the 3rd party repaints get wiped out. All of the usual animations are incorporated in the package
and they are well done with one exception. The propeller has animations for
the blades changing
pitch, and although it is a nice touch, the developers made a mistake here.
When the blades of the propeller are in the low RPM range, they move parallel
to the airflow on the WOP model which in incorrect. On a single engine airplane
like the Mustang, there is no reason to have the prop feather (unless the
aircraft is a motor glider) and I was able to find out that the actual angle
should
be about 25 degrees. Although this is a minor error, it does stand out because
the rest of the visual model is so well done. For having as much visual detail
as the P-51 does, the model is very frame rate friendly and frame rates during
my testing were very close to what they would be using default aircraft.
Panels and VC VC’s are now approaching the point of becoming an art form, and the WOP team did a good job on the Mustang VC itself, but the presentation leaves quite a bit to be desired. All of the controls are where they should be and all of them move as they should. The gauges are done well and are very smooth and readable, even at high zoom settings. Almost everything one could imagine in the VC is clickable, and tooltips are present to help read gauges that are in somewhat awkward positions (like the floor mounted drop tank gauges). Both aircraft have VC’s that reflect the subtle differences in the models, (such as the H model’s lack of mixture controls and its “all” position on the fuel selector) and for that the developers are to be commended. Where the VC falls short is in how the WOP team chose to set it up in the sim. The default view is insanely close to the panel and looks like the pilot is leaning over the stick with his nose pressed against the gunsight glass. Although this can be rectified by setting the zoom to about .71, that zoom setting means that if you look to the sides, the wings look strange and have a slight “fish-eye” effect. This is a somewhat basic error, but given the amount of research the team says they did, and the fact that the error remained after the patch was released (despite being reported), there is no reason it should still be in the package.
Although the 2d panel seems to be dying out among FS warbirds, the WOP P-51 includes a 2d panel, but the panel is defiantly flawed.
All of the gauges in the panels work as they should and are perfectly legible. Each panel is supported by numerous sub-panes that give access to things like the fuel system, gear and flap controls as well as the throttle quadrant. The bitmaps are also well done and look quite realistic with the weathering effects.
Where the panel falls short is in its presentation. Whereas the VC has the eye-point far too close, the panel puts the eye-point too far back. The end result is that the sim panel shows more gauges than a real P-51 pilot has in their line of sight and produces a fish-eye effect that almost looks like a cartoon in its perspective. Another side effect of this is the panel also has far more side visibility than most tail draggers possess (especially a Mustang). As with the VC, the amount of research that the developers did makes this error stand out like a sore thumb. Flight Model After seeing the somewhat flawed VC, and very flawed 2d panel I was really hoping the flight model was better than some of the other elements in the package, and for the most part, it is very well done. Before I discuss the flight model, it is worth mentioning that the WOP team has chosen an interesting way to model the power settings. In a lot of FS aircraft, the maximum power programmed by the developers is often the maximum takeoff power. While that works well for GA aircraft, warbird’s maximum takeoff power is often a bit less than the power the engine can produce at full power. The WOP Mustang models the power and throttle position exactly as in the real airplane, so if you want to get realistic performance, you do need to look at the checklists and pay attention to power settings. Each aircraft has its own flight model, and I think the WOP team is to be commended for going the extra mile and making two flight models. In addition to the differences between the D and H models, there is also a utility included that allows you to fly the Mustang with the weight of guns, ammo and fuel that would be carried by a combat Mustang, or fly it in a stripped down and lightened civilian version.
Takeoff in the Mustang is quite interesting, as one might expect from a 2000HP taildragger. The tailwheel lock is almost a must to keep the P-51 on the runway, and differential braking and a lively dance on the rudder pedals also help to keep the Mustang going in the right direction. If you push the stick too far forwards, the P-51 will almost catapult itself onto its back. Although the real Mustang could nose over on takeoff, I have been told that the WOP P-51 greatly exaggerates this trait. Once in the air, the P-51 can either be a pleasure or a challenge to fly, depending on fuel. The P-51 holds fuel in two wing tanks and also in an 85-gallon (for the D model) tank located behind the pilot’s seat. The problem with the fuselage tank is that when loaded, it shifts the center of gravity so far aft that the Mustang wallows around the sky and any attempts at aerobatics will most likely end in a spin. In combat, P-51 pilots would burn off of the fuselage tank until it got to about 40 gallons, at which point the CG was within reasonable limits and the P-51 was capable of dogfighting. If you set up the Mustang in the civilian trim, it loses the fuselage tank, which is accurate as most P-51’s currently flying have a second seat where the tank used to be.
Aerobatics in the Mustang are a pleasure, although the other flaw in the flight model does appear in that region of flight. Although the Mustang is quite agile, it cannot be flown by simply whacking the stick and rudder around. To really get the most out of the Mustang, smooth control inputs are required and when you finally get the hang of smooth inputs and float the P-51 over in a perfect loop the first time, you get a real sense of accomplishment. Overall, the Flight model is smooth and the WOP team did a great job of giving the P-51 a sense of mass and inertia. Once you get tired of boring holes in the sky and decide to actually fly somewhere, you will find that the Mustang is really a good cross country flier. Since the Mustang was originally designed for long range escort missions, flights of almost 1600 miles are possible at altitudes of over 20,000 ft and at groundspeeds between 220 and 300 mph.
In the low speed regime, the WOP Mustang has some nice traits, but it is also where the flight model’s biggest flaw manifests itself. If you set the aircraft up in level flight right below the stall speed and hammer the throttle from idle to full, the P-51 will snap roll from the torque, which is a very nice touch. The P-51 will also stall and spin, but the stall behavior is where the flight model comes apart. In a wings level stall (power off) the P-51 would break straight forwards and stay controllable as long as the airplane was coordinated; this isn’t the case in the WOP version. In the sim, a straight, power off, coordinated stall results in a spin that is often unrecoverable, this, according to a real world Mustang pilot, is totally incorrect. Slowing down to land requires a lot of planning ahead since you will most likely be coming down from high altitudes, and the Mustang is a very clean design that bleeds speed off only reluctantly. I have to say that I was very impressed by the fact that the WOP team seems to have gotten the drag for the gear and flaps to a reasonable value and have therefore eliminated the common (and incorrect) ability to come in on approach way too fast and then just crank in flaps to magically slow down. When on approach, the Mustang can be quite a handful to fly if you don’t get your speed just right, and a low speed stall at low altitude is definitely not a good thing.
Although the flight model has its fair share of flaws, it is worth mentioning that the flight model can truly be flown “by the book” and all of the numbers (range, speed, power settings etc..) in FS are very close (within a few percent) to the numbers Shockwave provides from the real world P-51 manual. Sound The sounds in the P-51 are well done. I have had the chance to hear a Mustang overfly my home several times a year as part of an airshow training schedule, and I can say that the external sounds are very close to what a real Merlin sounds like. All of the sounds are very clear and show no obvious looping or static. The Interior sounds are also of very high quality, and I would imagine that they are pretty close to what a real P-51 pilot would hear. Summary Support for the P-51 is good on technical issues, and most problems on the forum are resolved quickly. My only complaint about the support is that the developers should have paid a little more attention to suggestions from the FS community, as all of the flaws I mentioned here were mentioned to them at least once by a real world P-51 pilot before the 1.1 patch was released. Overall, this package is well done, but it does have some large flaws that really should have been fixed in the patch. I think that most simmers would enjoy the package (I know I did) , but true purists, or those lucky enough to have time in a real P-51 will most likely find their enjoyment sullied by the errors in most aspects of the package.
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