Why was the famous USA fighter known as the Mustang designated the P51
when most other USA fighters were designated F and then a number like
the F86 Sabre.
Why a P designator and not an F

Hello renniebett and thank you for your question.

The P stands for "Pursuit"  and the more normal "F" stands for
"Fighter" The change in designation from "P" to "F" happened in 1946
after a decision was made to change the designation scheme throughout
the USAF.

"A North American P-51Mustang (the P meaning pursuit), redesignated as
an F-51 Mustang (with the F standing for fighter)"
http://www.dfrc.nasa.gov/Gallery/Photo/P-51/HTML/E55-2078.html

In 1946, the designation P-51D (P for pursuit) was changed to F-51D (F
for fighter) because of a new designation scheme throughout the USAF.
http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/P-51_Mustang

Thank you for your question, and if you need any clarification of my
answer, do not hesitate to ask.

Very best regards.

THX1138

Search strategy included:
Mustang fighter "the p" pursuit designation
://www.google.com/search?hl=pt&ie=ISO-8859-1&as_qdr=all&q=Mustang+fighter+%22the+p%22+pursuit+designation&lr=

---

Clarification of Answer by thx1138-ga on 29 Jul 2003 07:59 PDT

Hello again renniebett.

This article might also be of interest to you:

"The designation of the P-51 was changed to F-51. In addition, the old
category of F for photographic reconnaissance was eliminated, and F-6D
and F-6K photographic reconnaissance aircraft became RF-51D and RF-51K
respectively. Two seat F-6D conversions became TRF-51D"
http://home.att.net/~jbaugher1/p51_10.html

Very best regards

THX1138