North American F-82 Twin Mustang: Books - History

Twin Mustang: North American's P-82, F-82, and XP-82 Fighters

Developed during the Second World War, but too late to see combat, the Twin Mustang was created by the engineering team at North American Aviation to provide long-range escort for larger, slow bombers.
With the outbreak of the Korean Conflict, the Twin Mustangs were fortuitously positioned to provide immediate impact to the advantage of United Nations forces in the opening stages of the action.

Later, a record-breaking long-distance flight was accomplished by a single aircraft, and the type was found useful for testing numerous experimental designs, from ramjet bodies to the first air-to-air missile concepts. The plane was effective as a radar-toting night fighter, and it could also carry large bombs, rockets, extended-range fuel tanks, and an eight-gun nacelle, providing a substantial increase in machine gun firepower.

This book also details the amazing story of XP-82 44-83887, from test bed use, to a landing accident and disposal, to its discovery and restoration to flying status.

Twin Mustang: the North America F-82 at War - Rare photographs from Wartime Archives

One of the most unusual and remarkable American fighter aircraft, the F-82 Twin Mustang was the last mass production propeller-driven fighter acquired by the U.S. Air Force. Originally intended as a very long-range fighter escort for the Boeing B-29 Superfortress during World War II, it arrived too late to see combat and evolved into a night and all-weather fighter during the post-war years. Combat operations in the Korean War followed, along with a host of other dynamic episodes of deployment.
This work traces the developmental, operational, and combat history of this unique American fighter and features 120 photographs and illustrations, many of which have never been published before.

Seven chapters, all extensively illustrated, cover the aircraft's development, descriptions of the variants and sub-types, details of initial entry into service, three chapters covering the F-82's service in the Korean War, and a final chapter detailing the type's removal from the Korean War Theatre in February 1952, to see out its operational days in the Alaskan Air Defence Command.
An appendix section follows, featuring tables of the different variants, an illustrated list of known nose art applied to F-82s, and an entry of losses suffered in the Korean War.