This is a story of the XP-51J lightweight Mustang– the aircraft shown in Figure 1. The story is not long as only two of this P-51 variant were built, and they did not fly for very long, nor did they get into combat. Their short history ended when the Army sent them from North American Aviation to Allison for engine testing – until now. Recently some information, including several pictures of the XP-51Js, was found in the archives of the Rolls-Royce Heritage Trust (RRHT), which contains history of the Allison Division of General Motors. This story summarizes what has been known about the XP-51J, some of which is untrue, and the new information found in old Allison and National Archives records. Unfortunately, no flight test reports have surfaced, but some information can be inferred from the pictures that have been found.
     The North American P-51 was a particularly well-designed aircraft. Even though the early Allison V-1710 powered Mustang was 1,500 pounds heavier than a Spitfire IX, it was 38 mph faster at 20,000 feet when both were using 1,000 hp.1 After 1,081 Allison-powered P-51s (including 620 British Mustang Is) and 500 similar A-36As were built, the engine was switched to a 2-stage, 2-speed supercharged Rolls-Royce Merlin built in the U.S.A. by Packard. The additional supercharging gave the Mustang the high-altitude performance that made it famous.  During the remainder of the war, 13,686 Merlin-powered Mustangs (P-51Bs, -51Cs, -51Ds, -51Hs and -51Ks) were built. By the end of the war, 370 of the 555 lightweight P-51Hs, powered by the later V-1650-9 Merlin, had been built, but none were used in combat.2 The remaining 185 P-51Hs were built after the war was over.

The Lightweight Mustang
     Particularly during wartime, there is always a need for higher performance aircraft. Although the P-51 with the Merlin engine was a great aircraft, it was scrutinized for ways to improve its performance. Both the USAAF and the RAF had found that the Mustang was unnecessarily heavy. After reading a report on the subject, General Arnold, Commander of the USAAF, had North American Aviation begin work on a lightweight Mustang, the XP-51F, whose empty weight was to
be less than 6,000 pounds.
     In January 1943, representatives of North American Aviation submitted to the Air Materiel Command a new design for a fast, highly maneuverable, and high rate-of-climb fighter  . . .

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       It should come as no surprise to readers that the first airplane factory was founded in Dayton, Ohio, or that it bore the name Wright. What may come as a surprise is that those original buildings still stand, and until three years ago they were still part of a functioning factory.
     The Wright Co. Building 1 was only the fifth structure ever constructed by the Wright brothers for their aircraft. It followed the two wooden buildings the brothers constructed at Kitty Hawk, N.C., in 1900 and 1903, and two hangars constructed in 1904 and 1906 at the Huffman Prairie in Dayton, Ohio. The Kitty Hawk hangars were left to the elements, and vandalism, while the Huffman Prairie became part of Wilbur Wright Field, the last hangar being demolished by the Army Air Corps in 1937. With their demise, the National Park Service now considers the Wright Co. Building 1 to be the world’s oldest surviving structure constructed for powered flight. In 2012 it became the focus of a National Park Service plan to turn the Wright brothers’ first airplane factory into a museum complex dedicated to the history of early aviation in Dayton, Ohio.

The Wright Company
     Wilbur and Orville Wright had been trying to sell their Wright Flyer to the U.S. Army since 1905, but not until February 8, 1908, did the Army Signal Corps finally accept a bid from the Wrights for an observation aircraft, with the specification that it be capable of flying 40 mph for 125 miles while carrying two persons. Despite Orville’s disastrous crash in 1908, the brothers delivered their first "Military Flyer" to the U.S. Army Signal Corps in 1909, receiving $25,000, plus a $5,000 bonus
for completing all requirements ahead of schedule. The Army contract meant the brothers could finally move out of their bicycle shop and build an aircraft factory in Dayton. In late 1909 Wilbur and Orville collected $400,000 from a group of New York investors, and the Wright Co. was incorporated on November 22, 1909.
     Initially, the company occupied a rented corner of the Speedwell Automobile plant on Essex Avenue (now Wisconsin Boulevard), an industrial area in southwest Dayton. Speedwell was one of six automobile manufacturers located in Dayton at the time. The Speedwell factory was only intended as a temporary site while the Wright Co.’s first factory building was being constructed. At the Speedwell site the Wright Co. produced the Model B Flyer, the world’s first mass-produced
airplane, and the Model R, a single-seat racing version of the Model B. Meanwhile, Charlie Taylor, Wright’s chief mechanic, continued to build the Flyer’s engines in the back of the West Third Street bicycle shop. The original location of the Speedwell Automobile plant is now a vacant lot at the southeast corner of Wisconsin Blvd. and Miami Chapel Rd. It is marked with a metal sign indicating its importance.
     In January 1910 the Wrights broke ground for the first building ever constructed for the purpose of manufacturing airplanes. The site was in a cornfield on the south side of West Third St., about 1.5 miles west of the Wright’s bicycle shop. The one-story structure was modest, incorporating
a curved roof that resembled an airplane hangar. Inside, it  . . . 

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      In the summer of 1958, I made my first trip out of the United States, to Sweden, on the International Air Cadet Exchange (IACE). I was one of five American Civil Air Patrol (CAP) cadets who spent two fascinating weeks touring the country, along with pairs of cadets from Belgium, Canada and the United Kingdom. Hosted by the Swedish Air Force (Flygvapnet), we visited air bases and other locations from Kalmar, in the south, to Abisko, well above the Arctic Circle.  We were introduced to Swedish aviation, culture and society, making friends and developing interests that for me, at least, have been important parts of my life ever since. I will attempt to recreate the point of view and impressions of an 18-yearold on his first major international journey. But, first, a brief explanation of the IACE.

IACE History
     Sweden was the fourth country to participate in the International Air Cadet Exchange. The first UK-Canada exchange, in 1947, sent 46 cadets and two escorts from each country. American CAP cadets went first to England in 1948. Canada’s invitation to Flygvapnet brought Swedish Flygpojkarna cadets to Canada in 1950.

Selection for IACE
     I joined the CAP in 1955, in a small eastern Oregon town. The longest journeys I had made, to that time, were annual visits to grandparents in southern California, 1,500 miles away. Sweden was only a name in books, a place lying somewhere north of Germany. By late 1957, I was eligible for the IACE. I successfully passed the selection board that chose me to be one of two from Oregon for the 1958 exchange.

En Route to Sweden
    The journey to Sweden carried me on a variety of USAF airplanes. A small Air Force C-45 transport flew me to McClellan AFB, in Sacramento, California. From there, the cadets from the western United States and Hawaii moved on to Andrews AFB, Md., outside of Washington, D.C., aboard a YC-121F turboprop Constellation. After briefings at nearby Bolling AFB, D.C., we moved on to Germany via Newfoundland and Scotland, aboard a C-118 (DC-6A).
     At Bolling, I met the other four cadets who were going to Sweden. They were Pete Gay, from Maine, Cliff Covey (New Jersey), Larry O’Quinn (North Carolina) and New Mexico’s  . . .

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     WWII aviation enthusiasts and Hollywood tend to remember specific fighters, such as the P-51 Mustang or the P-47 Thunderbolt, and bombers, such as the B-17 Flying Fortress or the B-29 Superfortress. Often forgotten or misunderstood are the much smaller and slower monoplane and biplane piston-engine aircraft that were used to train thousands of United States Army Air Corps and Air Forces pilots. These aircraft, built mostly by such companies as Stearman, Fairchild and Ryan, were used in what some deemed the most important stage of a cadet’s training career: primary. Each possessed certain strengths and weaknesses. Some of these aircraft can still be seen flying out of small airports in the United States, offering rides to those willing to pay $50 or more for a half hour of flight. Their occupants probably have no idea that over 60 years ago these airplanes played a vital role in laying a foundation upon which the United States built a mighty air force.
     On September 29, 1938, the day when European leaders reached an agreement at the Munich Conference that was supposed to avert war in Europe, Maj. Gen. Henry Harley "Hap" Arnold, who had just become Chief of the United States Army Air Corps, outlined for President Franklin Delano
Roosevelt the miniscule size and strength of the USAAC in comparison to Nazi Germany’s Luftwaffe.1 Arnold wanted a bigger air force and proposed a plan to produce 4,500 pilots in two years starting in 1939. Primary flight training would initially be provided at Randolph Field, Tex., as well at nine civilian flight schools owned by eight contractors. By 1944, over 60 civilian schools were responsible for providing primary training to all army flying cadets.
     When Arnold formulated his plan, the civilian contractors had fixed-base operations or flight schools with airfields and facilities, years of commercial and military aviation experience, and the flight instructors and mechanics in place, but they lacked the aircraft necessary to carry out flight training. In January 1939, the original eight contractors possessed a total of 24 planes. Even then, the USAAC could only make 86 planes available with another 81 projected to arrive later in the year.
This was far short of the 400 primary trainers proposed for the 4,500 Pilot Plan. Although the 4,500 Pilot Plan was revised downward to less than 2,500, the USAAC was not only short 230 primary trainers, but by law could not loan government aircraft to civilians.
     The USAAC looked to the U.S. Congress for money to acquire the necessary planes. It met resistance from congressmen who, wanting to save money, pressed the military to use aircraft commonly used by the Civil Pilot Training Program. As one congressman asked, "Can you use any of these smaller airplanes like the Cub or the Luscombe or any of those little two-seaters, to do primary training?" Such aircraft were powered by 65- and 100-hp engines and cost only $1,500. The USAAC knew that it needed aircraft with at least  . . .

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     "I have always been fascinated by the wonders of flight – the flying machines as well as the daring aviators who flew them. The flying machine I came to know best was the helicopter."

 Stewart Ross Graham,
Naval/Coast Guard helicopter pilot number two.

     The airplane in American aviation history has many famous fathers. Hundreds of names are etched in the fabric of fixed-wing aircraft history. The helicopter, conversely, has few, and these pioneers’ stories, with few exceptions, are vague.

"It was "¦ on October 20, 1943, when I recall the words, "˜Stew, you’re safe for solo,’ from Frank Erickson, my instructor with only a few hours of solo time himself, as he stepped out of the YR-4 helicopter and waited a safe distance away – behind a tree – near the Sikorsky factory in Bridgeport, Connecticut.
"I pulled into a shaky hover, and then watched Frank give me a thumbs up. I smiled nervously and pushed forward making a few circles around the meadow and landed.
"That made me Coast Guard [and Navy(1)] helicopter pilot number two. At that time I had a total of three and a half flight hours in helicopters. It was an extraordinary way to graduate: no written tests, no diploma, no certificate and no curriculum to follow thereafter. I was set free to penetrate the unknown with an unleashed, unreliable, under-powered, vibrating, revolutionary type of flying machine."(2)

     In another account, truer perhaps – more for private confessions – Graham admitted, to his "astonishment" the machine suddenly became airborne, "unexpectedly going backwards and gaining altitude. Instinctively pushing the control stick forward had little response until full forward thrust on the control was applied to overcome the rearward flight. A quick look at the altimeter showed 400 feet gained during this state of total confusion"¦Regaining flight control I’m now flying over the area where I became airborne noticing the commander gazing pathetically at me with his hands clasped together on his chest as if saying his prayers. I continued flying for several minutes to steel my jagged nerves and to give time to calm my instructor down. I finally landed safely with the commander running up to the helicopter, his face now inside the open window shouting, "˜Graham’–he calls me Graham now – "˜what the hell kind of a takeoff was that?’ He normally spoke loud but his voice this time was several dBs above loud." Igor Sikorsky and his chief engineer quickly analyzed the situation. This became a weight and balance problem when the 250 pound Erickson departed the cockpit for Graham to fly solo for the first time.(3)
     Cmdr. Stewart Graham, USCG (Ret.), would be anyone’s favorite neighbor. He is an excellent listener, shy, and with a face framed around a permanent smile; a smile accented with an elfin twinkle in his eyes. He has the uncanny ability to make people in his company feel comfortable and important. His modest demeanor belies an adventurous life, so it was a surprise and a pleasure for me to sit with Stew and listen to him tell his story.(4)

A Boy at the Airport
     Graham, born in 1917, grew up in Rosedale, Long Island, N.Y., about a mile from the Curtiss-Wright Airport. The eightyear-
old, in 1925, rode his bicycle to the airport, spending most of his spare time with the pilots and their airplanes. Pilots grew familiar with this inquisitive lad and soon permitted him to helpd . . .

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