James Ward
Posts: 990
Joined: 5/9/2000
From: Baltimore, Maryland, USA
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"Expert opinions Chief Naval Test Pilot and C.O. Captured Enemy Aircraft Flight Capt. Eric Brown, CBE, DSC, AFC, RN, tested the Mustang in RAE Farnborough, and noted: "The Mustang was a good fighter and the best escort due to its incredible range, make no mistake about it. It was also the best American dogfighter. But the laminar flow wing fitted to the Mustang could be a little tricky. It could not by any means out-turn a Spitfire. No way. It had a good rate-of-roll, better than the Spitfire, so I would say the plusses to the Spitfire and the Mustang just about equate. If I were in a dogfight, I’d prefer to be flying the Spitfire. The problem was I wouldn’t like to be in a dogfight near Berlin, because I could never get home to Britain in a Spitfire!"[29]
Luftwaffe Experten were confident that they could out-maneuver the P-51 in a dogfight. Kurt Bühligen, the third-highest scoring German fighter pilot of the Second World War on the Western Front, with 112 victories, later recalled that "We would out-turn the P-51 and the other American fighters, with the (Bf) "109" or the (Fw) "190". Their turn rate was about the same. The P-51 was faster than us but our munitions and cannon were better."[30] Robert S. Johnson, the second-highest scoring U.S. fighter pilot in European theatre flew the P-47 against German fighters. Johnson pointed out: "Generally speaking, I’d say the best (Focke-Wulf) 190s and the P-51 were very close in performance; the difference was probably in the pilot in these combats."[31]"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_P-51_Mustang
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P51 unit value question - 
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