P-51C-10

P-51C-10

P-40F-10

P-51

P-51C-10

P-40F-10

P-51

USA

II Rank

Battle rating:

AB	RB	SB
3.7	3.7	4.0

Class:

Fighter

Research:11 000

Purchase:22 000

Description

The P-51C-10 Mustang is a rank II American fighter with a battle rating of 3.7 (AB/RB) and 4.0 (SB). It was introduced in Update "Raining Fire".

General info

Flight performance

Unlike the predecessors, the P-51 and A-36, this plane performs well not only at low altitude but also above 3000 meters because of the changed engine (Merlin instead of Allison) and a two-staged supercharger instead of one in the Allison powered models. Level speed is exceptionally good at every altitude compared to the opposition at similar battle rating, it can reach 610 km/h at sea level (RB) and 705 km/h at 7300 meters alt, acceleration is also above the average, it can quite easily reach maximum level speed. Climb rate is good, especially when compared to the other American planes, at low altitude it is slightly above 20 m/s and the plane can reach ~6000 m alt in ~7 minutes. Diving performance is great like in the previous models, its elevator and other control surfaces do not lock up even at 700-800 km/h IAS and can pull 9G at that speed. Medium and high speed maneuverability is good enough to keep up with the BF-109G and other fighters with similar turn for a while, overall it is very similar to the A-36 Apache and since it has a way better engine with better supercharger and their mass is almost the same the P-51C's sustained turn rate has been improved a lot, but low speed maneuverability is still mediocre. The only issue can be its rudder which can lock up a lot above 300 km/h IAS. When flying with full realistic controls the plane requires some trimming, positive for the elevator (+ 5-7) and rudder or ailerons to the right (but only below 600 km/h IAS) if you want to keep the plane straight in the level flight, when turning the plane tends to roll to the right side. Stall characteristics is very good, with the fuel set to 30 minutes it stalls out only when the elevator deflection reaches 90% the only issue being its high stalling speed (175 km/h and 155 km/h with deployed flaps).

Characteristics	Max Speed (km/h at 7,300 m)		Max altitude (metres)	Turn time (seconds)		Rate of climb (metres/second)		Take-off run (metres)
	AB	RB		AB	RB	AB	RB
Stock	685	666	12800	22.0	22.6	12.9	12.9	300
Upgraded	734	708		20.5	21.0	20.2	16.2

Details

Features
Combat flaps	Take-off flaps	Landing flaps	Air brakes	Arrestor gear
✓	✓	✓	X	X

Limits
Wings (km/h)	Gear (km/h)	Flaps (km/h)			Max Static G
		Combat	Take-off	Landing	+	-
853	287	675	460	275	~11	~5

Optimal velocities (km/h)
Ailerons	Rudder	Elevators	Radiator
< 500	< 300	< 550	> 400

Survivability and armour

The survivability is similar to most other prop fighters. The engine is located in the nose, and the fuel tanks are located behind the pilot's seat and in the wing roots. There is significant armor protection for the pilot, but the pilot is still vulnerable from the top, bottom, and sides. The fuel tanks are also vulnerable, and so is the cooling system.

• 38 mm Bulletproof Glass - Windshield
• 11.11 mm Steel - Behind Pilot's Seat
• 6.35 mm Steel - Behind Engine, In Front of Oil Cooling System and Pilot
• 6.35 mm Steel - In Front of Upper Engine
• Self-Sealing Fuel Tanks

Armaments

Offensive armament

The P-51C-10 is armed with:

• 4 x 12.7 mm M2 Browning machine guns, wing-mounted (300 rpg = 1,200 total)

Suspended armament

The P-51C-10 can be outfitted with the following ordnance:

• Without load
• 2 x 100 lb AN-M30A1 bombs (200 lb total)
• 2 x 250 lb AN-M57 bombs (500 lb total)
• 2 x 500 lb AN-M64A1 bombs (1,000 lb total)

Usage in battles

Describe the tactics of playing in the aircraft, the features of using aircraft in a team and advice on tactics. Refrain from creating a "guide" - do not impose a single point of view, but instead, give the reader food for thought. Examine the most dangerous enemies and give recommendations on fighting them. If necessary, note the specifics of the game in different modes (AB, RB, SB).

SB

The P-51C-10 has outstanding performance compared to other planes that can meet in the same bracket (Enduring Confrontation 3, BR 3.7-4.7), level speed is higher at all altitudes than anything that it can face, so it can easily escape from anything when it finds itself in a trouble, climb rate is also very good and allows it to quickly get to the 3000-5000m alt. This plane like all other Mustangs does not overheat when the radiator is set to 90-100%, it also does not slow down the plane, so it can always cruise with enabled WEP which is not limited, always engage other planes with humongous speed advantage and make use of very good mid and high speed maneuverability. Sustained climb rate is worse than that one of the BF-109F-4, or G-2 by 2-4 m/s, escaping from them by climbing away should be avoided, but still allows the plane to get pretty quick to 3000-5000m alt, also the zoom climb is very good.
One of issues that the plane has is quite disappointing armament, sometimes it takes some time to shot down the enemy fighters and it is even worse against the bombers and attackers with higher durability, but attacking with a speed advantage and surprising the enemy should solve it.
The other issue is unsatisfactory turn rate at low speed, engaging other fighters in dogfight should be avoided (instantaneous turn rate is actually good when the plane has lots of energy to spare), especially the BF-109F-4, G.55s or Yaks and anything that can turn better than them, the speed advantage should be used instead to beat them.
Because of these points, the preferable tactics for this plane should be Boom and Zoom and other maneuvers that do not purely depend on turn rate and more on the plane's speed. Dogfighting can work to some extent and against some planes like the Fw-190A (which does not really stand a chance against the razorback Mustang) but to that the player will be forced to sacrifice speed advantage and make the plane vulnerable to attack from slower planes with a way better turn rate.
The plane when it is upgraded can also used as a starter plane in the higher bracket (Enduring Confrontation 4, BR 5.0-6.3) where it should not have any issues with beating tier 4 German, Japanese and Italian fighters, most of them that can be meet there have very similar performance and the P-51C is even better than the D-5 version in some ways.

Manual Engine Control

MEC elements
Mixer	Pitch	Radiator			Supercharger	Turbocharger
		Oil	Water	Type
Not controllable	Controllable Not auto controlled	Controllable Auto control available	Controllable Auto control available	Separate	Not controllable 2 gears	Not controllable

Modules

Tier	Flight performance		Survivability	Weaponry
I	Fuselage Repair	Radiator		Offensive 12 mm
II		Compressor	Airframe		FSBC mk.1
III	Wings Repair	Engine		New 12 mm MGs	FSBC mk.5
IV		Engine Injection	Cover		FMBC mk.1

Pros and cons

Pros:

• Outstanding Boom & Zoom capability
• Great performance at altitude
• Very fast at all altitudes, especially with a leveling-out dive
• Due to wing shape, very agile at high speeds
• Quite good cockpit visibility
• Large fuel capacity (1 hour 45 minutes maximum flight time)
• Fantastic top speed and acceleration
• Very good sustained climb rate

Cons:

• Only four 12.7mm M2 Browning machine guns with mid-war belts which don't do much damage
• High stall speed and mediocre low speed maneuverability
• Not so great at ground pounding, only a few loadout options

History

Describe the history of the creation and combat usage of the aircraft in more detail than in the introduction. If the historical reference turns out to be too long, take it to a separate article, taking a link to the article about the vehicle and adding a block "/History" (example: https://wiki.warthunder.com/(Vehicle-name)/History) and add a link to it here using the main template. Be sure to reference text and sources by using <ref></ref>, as well as adding them at the end of the article with <references />. This section may also include the vehicle's dev blog entry (if applicable) and the in-game encyclopedia description (under === In-game description ===, also if applicable).

Media

Excellent additions to the article would be video guides, screenshots from the game, and photos.

See also

Other variants in-game

• P-51 (Family)

External links

• Official data sheet - more details about the performance