The S-51D is a 70% scale version of the World War II P-51D Mustang fighter aircraft.
Designer Jim Stewart took a leave of absence from his employer, Pratt & Whitney, in 1989 to work on the S-51D's tooling and design. The prototype took flight on 30 March 1994 and by late June had completed its 40 hours of test flying.
The S-51D Mustang features a cantilever low-wing, a two-seats-in-tandem enclosed cockpit under a bubble canopy, retractable conventional landing gear, and a single engine in tractor configuration.
The aircraft is made from sheet aluminum. Its 261NaN1 span wing mounts flaps and has a wing area of 123square feet. The cabin width is 21inches. The acceptable power range is 300to. The specified propeller is a 912NaN2 diameter, constant speed four-bladed Hartzell Propeller unit, that is driven by a spur gear with a (2.13:1) reduction ratio.
The S-51D Mustang has a typical empty weight of 2200lb and a gross weight of 3000lb, giving a useful load of 800lb. With full fuel of the payload for the pilot, passenger, and baggage is 380lb.
The standard day, sea level, no wind, take off with a 4000NaN0 engine is 10800NaN0 and the landing roll is 18000NaN0.
The manufacturer estimated the construction time from the supplied standard kit as 2000 hours. A fast-build kit was also available.
By 1998 the company reported that 72 kits had been sold and two aircraft were completed and flying.
In March 2014, 12 examples were registered in the United States with the Federal Aviation Administration, although a total of 19 had been registered at one time.[3]
