THE F-82 TWIN MUSTANG


     The Twin Mustang was designed to perform long range 
escort duties for bombers raiding Japan during WWII. It was 
not until 1943 that the P-38 Lightning and even the Mustang 
itself were assigned combat missions lasting anything up to 
seven hours. This turned out to be a severe strain on pilots 
and some were so exhausted they had to be lifted out of 
their cockpits. It was determined that there was an urgent 
need for an air superiority fighter with two pilots to 
alternate duties. North American responded with the XP-82 
which was to ultimately be two P-51H's joined by a common 
wing center. The landing gear was revamped into the 
fuselages which were lengthened 57" for yaw stability. The 
propellers were made contra rotating for stability. An 
autopilot was fitted and the resulting aircraft had a full 
set of controls in the left cockpit and enough controls in 
the right cockpit to basically fly and land the aircraft.
     An order for 500 was placed in late 1944 but in April 
1945 it became apparent that there would not be a need for 
the type and only 20 were manufactured. Twelve were used as 
trainers and the other eight were used as test beds for 
other projects primarily airborne intercept radar for night 
fighters. Ultimately 250 Twin Mustangs were manufactured 
with 100 as P82E Day Fighter-Bombers, 100 as P82F Night 
Fighters, and 50 as P82G Night Fighters. (In 1948 aircraft 
designations were changed from P for pursuit to F for 
fighter).   
     One of the first kills in Korea was credited to a F-82 
on 6/27/1950. On 27/28 February 1947 a P-82B "Betty Jo" flew  
non-stop from Hawaii to New York in 15 hours demonstrating 
impressive endurance and range, averaging 342 mph on the 
5,051 trip. It was the longest non stop flight by a piston 
engine fighter.
     The last F82G's serving with the 449th All Weather 
Fighter Squadron in Ladd AFB, Alaska were phased out in 
1953. 

Empty weight: 14,914#
TO Weight   : 24,864#
Power       : 2ea. -Allison 1,600 HP
Max Speed   : 460MPH
Radius      : 1,125miles              

The above is from CLASSIC WARPLANES - Gallery Books.

This "digital illusion" was made possible with the generous 
permission of Rod Conklin CIS 76525,3706  who allowed me to 
use his excellent P-51 Mustang's .AFX file which gave me a 
good base to build on. I had to trim off a lot of the 
excellent detail on the Mustang in order to get under the 
182 parts count limitation of AAF. Dual fuselages, canopies, 
dual everything eats up parts! The aircraft depicted is a 
F-82E in all over gloss black. The G model had a large drop 
tank shaped cylinder that projected out past the props. This 
cylinder held the large radar intercept package. If I had 
included it I'd have had to leave off the landing gear! 
Besides that the G was not a good looking aircraft at all. 
   
Again, many thanks to Rod Conklin.
                               
There are three files:
      F82.TXT (This one)
      F82.SIM (Install in the FS4 directory)
      F82.    (Install in the FS4 directory)

Comments and constructive criticism is welcomed .

Bill Barham
CIS 71201,2015