I work on airplanes, and I love aviation so I'm starting a thread dedicated to it. Also to make everyone scared to ever fly again.
Start off with a classic video. What they fail to mention in the video is that this test did not go completely as planned. NASA was attempting to develop an anti-misting additive for jet fuel, called FM-9. When blended with jet fuel, it forms antimisting kerosene (AMK). However, AMK cannot be directly introduced into the engines due to issues like fuel filters clogging. So they had to build 'degraders' into the engines to convert AMK back to almost regular Jet-A fuel. They intended to land this fucker straight in down the center line, but instead it came down askew thanks to the left wing digging it. The 'rhinos' they built to rip the wings open instead ripped through the engines.... right where all that 'degraded' mistable jet fuel was. It also ripped through the fuselage. The FAA estimated only about 25% of the passengers could have survived. While the test of the antimisting kerosene failed, it did give us some great footage... oh and the FAA instituted new flammability standards for seat cushions requiring the use of fire-blocking layers, which performed better than conventional seat cushions in the resulting blaze. They also implemented a standard requiring floor proximity lighting to be mechanically fastened, due to the apparent detachment of two types of adhesive-fastened emergency lights during the impact. But who cares about that shit.
North American Aviation built 15,575 of these single engine fighters during the 1940s. The P-51 Mustang had aerodynamics that gave it an advantage in combat. The Tuskegee Airmen, the famed World War II squadron composed entirely of African-American pilots, flew Mustangs. It was the only Army Air Force fighter group never to lose a bomber to enemy planes.