On the WEP vs. Military Power issue,in Francis Dean's "America's 100,000" it states that WEP was used quite a bit in excess of the 5 minute limit without damaging the engine though it goes onto say that the engine was almost always inspected after using it in excess of 5 minutes. In the P-51 the USAAF planes normally drew 61" on MP and 67" on WEP,however once better fuel was obtained they were modified in the field to draw 77" in WEP,RAF models drew 81". A stock P-51 hit 380 MPH at SL,however the modified ones hit 405 MPH(USAAF) and 410 MPH(RAF). THis info was gotten from P-51 pilots themselves over on the mustangmustang.com board. I understand the US radial engines held up well in excess of 10 minutes using WEP ,info from the same board. It seems those P & W's , Allison's, and merlin's/packard's were immensely tough.
Originally posted by SunTracker Read on another message board that not only were radial engine fighters (like the P-47) modified to run at increased MP, but inline engine fighters were too. It states that the P-51 could be modified to run at 77 inches manifold pressure, reaching 410mph at sealevel. http://www.tgplanes.com/Public/snitz/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=7&whichpage=24
