North American Aviation P-51 Mustang (Osprey Production Line to Frontline 1) [Paperback]

Michael O'Leary (Author)

Book Description

Series: Production Line to Frontline | Publication Date: August 28, 1998

Regarded as the finest US fighter of the World War II, the Mustang was built in astonishing numbers - 7956 P-51Ds alone - as the might of America's overwhelming industrial base swung into line behind the nation's global war effort. This new series follows the great fighter types of the conflict from the raw metal phase, through construction and testing, to the combat theatres of Europe, the Middle East, China/Burma/India and the Pacific. Using official and private archival black and white and colour material, all the facts behind the Mustang's construction are revealed. Complemented by an introductory text explaining the production processes involved and the evolution of the fighter, plus detailed photo captions, the professional images taken by North American Aviation's own photographic department set the scene for the later front line views captured by air and ground crews and USAAF photographers alike. The detailed appendices include comprehensive production batch lists of aircraft constructed during the war years, scale drawings illustrating all major types and a cutaway over a double page spread.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Text outlining aircraft production and history, combined with photography, scale drawings and cutaways and full appendices make these books an invaluable resource for aircraft lovers everywhere.

Product Details

• Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: Osprey Publishing (August 28, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1855327031
• ISBN-13: 978-1855327030
• Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 7.2 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #728,629 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Production Line to Frontline, the story of the P-51 Mustang, June 30, 2000

By 

Gabriel Ochoteco (Brisbane, Queensland Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: North American Aviation P-51 Mustang (Osprey Production Line to Frontline 1) (Paperback)

A book for WWII aircraft and modeling enthusiasts. Great little softcover which starts with the circumstances and people leading into the design, developement and prototype testing of the P-51, argueably the most successfull allied fighter plane of that war. Not a page without a top quality black and white photograph or funky color prints of war propaganda posters. Lots of close up shots of technical details as well as factory layouts, assembly line photographs, windtunnel testing info, and gossip on the people involved in this machine's inseption. Well balanced writing, mixing engineering info, historical snaps and human anecdote, ending in a short chapter featuring a number of fighter aces who flew the Mustang.Made for three satisfying evenings of reading. Give us more Michael O'Leary!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars GREAT addition the the P-51 story, February 6, 2009

By 

D. May (Santa Monica, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: North American Aviation P-51 Mustang (Osprey Production Line to Frontline 1) (Paperback)

It's too bad this book is out of print and costs so much, but it is quite a nice addition to your P-51 library, if you can afford it. True to it's name, the book has lots of photos and back-story on the development and production of this incredible aircraft...most, if not all of which, I personally have never seen before, in all of the books I've ever read on the P-51.

The printing quality and paper are excellent, as are the photo selections. This isn't necessarily a close-up detailing book for the modeller or tech.-head, it's more of a documentary style chronicle of how it was built, and how it was used.

My ONLY gripe (and the reason I gave it 4 stars instead of 5), is the egregious number of typos! For such a fine book, from a respected publisher, it seems remarkable that the Editor didn't handle their spell-checking a little bit better!

But that aside, buy it if you can. I got mine for about $45 by being patient and waiting for the right time to make my purchase. It's about $25 more than it sold for new, but it was worth it, considering how hard it is to locate one anymore.