P-82 Twin Mustang

As the war with Japan approached its final months, the US Army Air Corp decided that it needed a very long-range fighter to escort B-29s from remote island bases in their attacks upon the Japanese mainland. The P-51s and P-47s did not have enough range, so the concept of the Twin Mustang was born. Not only was the plane larger, with longer range, but also carried an "auxiliary" pilot to allow the primary pilot to rest during the long escort runs. During dogfights, however, the main pilot was responsible for flying the craft and firing the weapons.

Design on the craft began in 1944, but the concept for which the plane was created soon became moot as the US rapidly advanced through the Pacific theater, and the war ended before the plane finished production in 1946. Nevertheless, the newly formed U.S. Air Force commissioned 250 of the planes, which were used in the Korean War as an escort fighter and nightfighter. The plane was also redesignated the F-82, when the US military changed the "Pursuit" class to "F" for Fighter in 1948. The plane was employed heavily until 1951, but it was phased out by mid-1953 in favor of jet aircraft.

The P-82s other claim to fame is setting a long distance record for single flight by a fighter aircraft, flying from Hawaii to New York in a single leg in 1948.

A full load of fuel and ammo (not including bombs) costs $235.

North American F-82G Twin Mustang

Subassemblies: Two Medium Fighter chassis with good streamlining +3; Medium Fighter-Bomber wings +3; 4 retractable wheels +0.

Powertrain: Two 1,193-kW aerial HP gas engines with two 1,193-kW props and 576-gallon self-sealing tanks [Body and Wings]; 8,000-kW batteries.

Occ.: 2 CS

Cargo: 0 Body, 0 Wings

Armor F RL B T U

Body: 3/6 3/6 3/6 3/6 3/6

Wings: 3/6 3/6 3/6 3/6 3/6

Wheels: 2/3 2/3 2/3 2/3 2/3

Cockpits: 0/+10 0/+20 0/+30 0/+20 0/+20

Weaponry:

6xLong Aircraft HMGs [Wings:F] (400 rounds each).*

*Each pair linked, additional link fire four or six at once.

4x1,000-lb bombs or 25 5" rockets

Equipment:

Body: Medium radio and transmitter and receiver, IFF, radar. Wings: 2 1,000-lb. hardpoints each.

Statistics:

Size: 51'3"x42'5"x13'10" Payload: 2.37 tons Lwt.: 12.2 tons

Volume: 368 Maint.: 32 hours Cost: $30,105

HT: 7 HPs: 120 each Body, 330 each Wing, 9 each Wheel

aSpeed: 461 aAccel: 6 aDecel: 10 aMR: 3 aSR: 2

Stall Speed 105. -8 aSpeed per loaded hardpoint.

gSpeed: 223 gAccel: 11 gDecel: 10 gMR: 0.75 gSR: 4

Ground Pressure Extremely High. No Off-Road Speed.

Design Notes:

The historical wing area was 408 sf. I had to make guesses as to the MG load-outs as no hard figures are available.

Variants:

The P-82B was the first production model; of the 500 ordered, only 20 were built by the end of the war. The P-82C and P-82D were P-82Bs converted as night-fighters, with SCR-720 and APS-4 radar, respectively.

The P-82E was ordered by the USAAF in 1946 as an escort fighter, and lacked radar. 100 were built.

The P-82F (100 built, with APS-4 radar) and P-82G (50 built, with SCR-720 radar) were also ordered by the USAAF in 1946.

All variants were redesignated F-82 in 1948, and the F-82H was the last variant to be produced. It was a winterized version of the F-82G, for use in Alaska. 14 craft were converted.

From the Aerodrome for GURPS