North American P-51D Mustang – Nooky Booky III, 362nd FS, 357th FG, USAAF Kit Carson

Corgi Aviation Archive 1/72 scale Legends AA32207: North American P-51D Mustang “Nooky Booky III” of 362nd FS, 357th FG, USAAF Kit Carson. Legends models come with fixed lowered undercarriage on a display stand within a plastic blister and cardboard diorama base.

Length 5.25 inches Wingspan 6.25 inches

Top scorer of the 357th Fighter Group with 18.5 aerial victories (plus 3.5 more by strafing) was Leonard ‘Kit’ Carson. Scoring all of his kills in a single tour with the 362nd Fighter Squadron and using five Mustang’s all called ‘Nooky Booky’, he in fact achieved most of his tally in the last six months of the war in his fourth Mustang, a P-51 K (Nooky Booky IV), including five in one sortie on 27th November 1944.

Designed to meet an RAF requirement for fighter-bomber and reconnaissance aircraft, the P-51 Mustang was first flown on October 26th, 1940. This versatile aircraft was capable of escorting bombers on long-range missions, engaging in dogfights, and dropping down to destroy German targets on the ground. At least eight versions of the P-51 were produced, but it was the definitive P-51D that gave the Mustang its classic warbird appearance. Britain and the US both tested the airframe with the Rolls-Royce Merlin engine, which gave the aircraft tremendous performance gains. The Truman Senate War Investigating Committee called the Mustang “the most aerodynamically perfect pursuit plane in existence.”