The North American F-82 Twin Mustang is a plane that I initially thought was a clever Photoshop of the better known P-51 Mustang. It turns out that it’s a real plane that saw a significant production run for the US military just after WWII, it was originally designed as a very long-range (VLR) escort fighter to accompany Boeing B-29 Superfortress bombers on missions exceeding 2,000 miles.
The F-82 Twin Mustang has a fascinating history, most notably the model was responsible for the first 3 North Korean aircraft to be shot down at the beginning of the Korean War. In February 1947, a P-82B called “Betty Jo” and piloted by Robert Thacker made aviation history when it flew nonstop from Hawaii to New York without refueling, a total distance of 5,051 miles (8,129 km) in 14 hours 32 minutes. Even by today’s standards that’s an amazing achievement.
Read more about the F-82 Twin Mustang here.
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Silodrome was founded by Ben back in 2010, in the years since the site has grown to become a world leader in the alternative and vintage motoring sector, with well over a million monthly readers from around the world and many hundreds of thousands of followers on social media.