It’s no secret that the North American P-51 Mustang is one of the most popular aircraft found in aviation-related tattoos today. We have featured more than a fair share of the famous fighter here at Tattoos In Flight and have actually created a sub-category just for the P-51 Mustang. Despite the fact that P-51 tattoos seem to be as “common as chips”, we are still proud to feature spectacular tattoos that take the P-51 “above and beyond” the norm. Such is the case of our feature today: a fantastic montage of P-51 Mustangs in a colorful leg sleeve (or sock?) created by British tattoo artist Oliver Jerrold of Hope and Glory Tattoo.
It’s quite fitting that this P-51 tattoo comes to us from England. Though the P-51 was made famous while in use by the U.S. Army Air Forces during World War II and was built by North American Aircraft in the United States, it actually was designed and built to meet specifications requested by the Royal Air Force (RAF) for a single engine fighter aircraft in 1940. North American confirmed the initial order of 320 aircraft on 24 April 1940 by Sir Wilfred Freeman, the Executive Head of the Ministry of Aircraft Production for the RAF and first flew the Model NA-73X prototype only 178 days later on 26 October 1940 — one of the shortest design and development periods found at the time. As a result, the first North American Mustang Mk. I aircraft entered service in 1941 by RAF 2 Squadron… two years before the USAAF development of the NA-73, the P-51 Mustang, was introduced for use by the Eighth Air Force and Ninth Air Force for fighter escort duties from bases in England.
Unfortunately the early Mustangs ordered by the RAF were far from perfect and differed significantly in design from the legendary P-51D. The original NA-73 was powered by the Allison V-1710 inline V-12 engine rather than the Rolls-Royce Packard Merlin engine it became famous for and as a result, the original Mustang performed poorly in high-altitude operations. Eventually the design was improved and replaced by later versions for RAF use, notably the Mark IV and Mark IVA… the RAF variants of the P-51D and P-51K respectively. The RAF used the Mustang through the end of WWII and eventually retired the type in 1947.
Our well-executed leg tattoo montage of USAAF P-51 Mustangs was created by Oliver Jerrold, a tattoo artist at Hope and Glory Tattoo in Swaffham, Norfolk, England.
Please click on the image below for a larger image.
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