Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire How high can a P 51 Mustang go?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sgp5qel1VUk

Remarkable.

Good stuff, thanks.

Ever wonder what the altitude record for a helicopter is?

Didn't one fly over Everest once?

Well maybe not literally, from Wiki:

On June 21, 1972, Jean Boulet of France piloted an Aérospatiale Lama helicopter to an absolute altitude record of 40,814 feet (12,440 m).[48] At the extreme altitude the engine flamed out and the helicopter had to be (safely) landed via another record breaker — the longest successful autorotation in history.[49] The helicopter had been stripped of all unnecessary equipment prior to the flight to minimize its weight and the pilot was breathing supplemental oxygen.
World Altitude record by Helicopter – 42,500Ft About thirty years after the record set by Jean Boulet on a SA315 B “Lama” helicopter, Fred North, professional pilot, takes an AS 350 B2 “Squirrel” to the fantastic altitude of 12954 m.

This one was two miles higher than Everest.

Thanks for finding that.

Here's more info on Col. Blair's P-51 flight over the North Pole using a celestial navigation technique provided by Navy Capt. Philip Van Horn Weems:

http://www.navworld.com/navhistory/emmott2.htm

Weems retired again at the end of the Second World War, but kept as busy as ever. One of his achievements, in his spare time, was to join with two friends of his, likewise interested in navigation, to establish the U.S. Institute of Navigation in 1945. Because of Weems' reputation and knowledge, Col. Charles Blair sought him out, as Lindbergh had done earlier, for instruction in celestial navigation when Blair planned to fly over the North Pole, from Norway to Point Barrow in his modified P-51 Mustang single-seat fighter in 1951. Weems settled on a totally pre-computed solution for Blair, which involved plotting his flight in advance, and working out the altitude of the sun for a number of points along the path. These sun-altitudes were then joined to form a graph. In flight, all Blair had to do was to take a sight and compare his observation with the predicted altitude from the graph. The difference between the two values indicated how for he was off track or off schedule. Weems and Blair carried out the computations four times, in case Blair had to delay his take-off by a day and also to allow for having to delay the hour of take-off from noon to one o'clock. Everything worked as planned, with Blair not having to lay pencil to paper after he passed Spitzbergen on the Norwegian side of the pole. He made his landfall at Point Barrow one minute ahead of his ETA.

Weems, however, overheard Blair saying, "It was nothing", to an engineer when queried about his navigation. "Don't say that!" said Weems. "That kind of navigation is still fairly complicated, and if you tell people there's nothing to it, they'll try to fly over the pole in ignorance of all the ins and outs of celestial, and kill themselves!" Blair agreed, and toned down his navigational modesty.

856 ft?

A thread title in question form and no answer in the thread... happens all the time here.

Got an answer?

42,500 feet

Robert Scott flew a Republic P-43 over Mt Everest in 1942.

It's in the link. But, since you asked, it's stated above by hanco.

Didn't a Spitfire go over 50,000?

i think its over 50,000

From wiki:

"On 5 February 1952, a Spitfire 19 of 81 Squadron based at Kai Tak in Hong Kong reached probably the highest altitude ever achieved by a Spitfire. The pilot, Flight Lieutenant Ted Powles,[123] was on a routine flight to survey outside-air temperature and report on other meteorological conditions at various altitudes in preparation for a proposed new air service through the area. He climbed to 50,000 ft (15,240 m) indicated altitude, with a true altitude of 51,550 ft (15,712 m). The cabin pressure fell below a safe level and, in trying to reduce altitude, he entered an uncontrollable dive which shook the aircraft violently. He eventually regained control somewhere below 3,000 ft (900 m) and landed safely with no discernible damage to his aircraft. Evaluation of the recorded flight data suggested that, in the dive, he achieved a speed of 690 mph (1,110 km/h, Mach 0.96), which would have been the highest speed ever reached by a propeller-driven aircraft, but it has been speculated this figure resulted from inherent instrument errors.[120]"

I'm not the only old fart here whose hearing is shot. No offense intended, and , as I pointed out, it happens all the time.

BTW.... I have a young friend who landed a borrowed Mustang with the gear up a few years ago.

I love this site. You guys rock. The topics tossed around here are so much better than what goes for interesting stuff from the media.

On purpose or accident???

I flew this one on my 70th birthday:

51flght by Sharps Man, on Flickr

But if I had been a young lad during WWII....I would have opted for this one:

P-47_Thunderbolt_42-25068_2012_(7977124689) by Sharps Man, on Flickr

A lot tougher and meaner with 8 50 caliber guns! Several got their pilots home with cylinders shot away. In contrast....one round through the cooler of a 51 and you had two options:

1. Land within five minutes before the engine seized or

2. Bail out!!

During latter stage of the war they were able to accompany our bombers all the way to Berlin through the use of added fuel cells!

I always thought the same thing. There was a fantastic special on a P47 pilot and if I recall he landed a plane with nothing but cables holding the back end together.

Sharpsman- what other birds have you flown. I would love some opinions on which was most comfortable over distances and what a pilots take on was the most fun to fly etc... share anything you like. I will happily read whatever you might have to say on the subject.

I've flown probably everything from a Stearman up to the latest model agricultural aircraft because over 40 years I put in a little over 24,000 hours glued to the seat of one!

SNJ5 by Sharps Man, on Flickr



My son has two of these and the AT-6 aka SNJ are probably the two most fun to fly! Handle like a dream! The 51 I few was awesome. Put that dude in a climb and the speed just doesn't want to drop off like many other aircraft. It's really aerodynamically designed for speed and climb ability!

As for comfort...the Cheyenne II is a really nice aircraft as well! Goes across country very nicely at 32,000' ASL!

pa-31t-620-cheyenne-2__1 by Sharps Man, on Flickr