This virtual Mustang gives the impression of awesome power and agility in the air. A classic warbird to hone aerobatic skills, or wallow in nostalgia.

 

Said to be the fastest and most agile of fighters during WW2, this is one flight Sim model that will need to prove it’s self against the limitations FS2004. We see how this virtual P-51D Mustang compares to it’s real life counterpart in visuals, power and manoeuvrability.

P51duch.zip is hosted at Flightsim.com and is only a 3.7mb download. A manual install is required once the archive has been decompressed – WinZip or WinRAR does that. Users will then need to copy the whole archive structure over to FS2004’s aircraft section.

 

Visually, this model is not the best example, and some artwork had to be rendered at a low resolution, keeping the download size relatively small. Animated control surfaces, rolling wheels and moving suspension are featured, but no reflective textures or dynamic shine helping to keep frame-rates reasonable for slower computers. The cockpit resembles a modern aircraft than that of a classic warbird, but with all the essential instruments in place. A virtual cockpit hasn’t been included.

 

Despite the lack of attention to visual detail, this aircraft has an authentic Merlin engine sound-set, with a start and shut down sequence. Advancing the throttle changes the engine note accordingly until that unique Merlin sound at full power is reached – an impression of awesome power. Control inputs are responsive, but smooth. The aircraft will fly it’s self off the runway, with pilots needing to adjust the trims only slightly, to prevent a yaw. Pilots can have plenty of fun flying this aircraft. Rolling whilst in a vertical climb, knife edge turns and snap rolls certainly make this virtual Mustang as manoeuvrable as a real one. According to local P-51 owner, this computer model responds almost identically, even at the stalling point.

 

The realism engine sounds provide along with handling characteristics, makes this a great model to fly, and using a little imagination pilots can practise those airshow moves, ready for next season.

 

 

 

First time users of Flightsim.com will need to register to access the file libraries. It’s free and there are around 30,000 Flight Sim files to choose from. Winzip or WinRaR is used to decompress archived files.