P-51D with tricycle landing gear

[Steve Pace]

The major gripe from P-51D combat pilots was that it was a tail dragger and it afforded poor visibility during taxiing, takeoff and landing. I'm curious as to why it was never fitted with tricycle landing gear to remedy that situation... Has anyone seen artwork of such a venture? -SP

 

[AeroFranz]

It would probably need a substantial rework, as tricycle L/G and taildraggers have pretty different requirements in terms of the geometric location of the cg and the point of contact of the wheels. It has been done on a few planes, notably light general aviation, but those were probably fixed installations. In the case of the P-51, you'd have to find suitable structure for the nose gear to attach to - that's usually the firewall, plus you have to have room to stow it when retracted.
Then you need to get the mains behind the cg. if you take a bottom planform view of a P-51, you will see it's kinda hard to do without reworking it a whole lot. What you need is something more like a T-28. Same manufacturer, but you will see that the arrangement of elements is very different.

 

[Stargazer]

What you need is something more like a T-28. Same manufacturer, but you will see that the arrangement of elements is very different.

And in fact, this is exactly what North American did when they developed the taildragging XSN2J-1 into the XBT-28...

 

[Stargazer]

Just realized I'd accidentally posted an ill-labeled picture of the competing Fairchild XNQ-1 instead of the North American XSN2J-1 Texan II. I've replaced the picture above with an appropriate one. Here is a set of two more pics, the first being the XSN2J-1, and the second the Nomad, ultimate development of the T-28 by North American.

 

[frank]

Most everything else from that era were taildraggers & had the same characteristics as the Mustang. Just the accepted practice of the time & pilots just dealt with it. It's really not that big of a deal.

The major grip from P-51D combat pilots was that it was a tail dragger and it afforded poor visibility during taxiing, takeoff and landing. I'm curious as to why it was never fitted with tricycle landing gear to remedy that situation... Has anyone seen artwork of such a venture? -SP

 

[Steve Pace]

My point was somewhere at sometime, someone must have drawn-up the idea. -SP

 

[frank]

In that case, somewhere, some time, close enough. http://www.secretprojects.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,2397.0/highlight,jet+mustang.html

My point was somewhere at sometime, someone must have drawn-up the idea. -SP