The P-51 had an interesting problem shared with other high torque single engine fighters of its day. If you're coming in for a landing, with the engine idling, decided to abort and firewalled the throttle, the airplane would rotate about the crankshaft.
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This is called the "coffin corner". It varies for different aircrafts, but they all have it, including commercial liners.
The P-51 had an interesting problem shared with other high torque single engine fighters of its day. If you're coming in for a landing, with the engine idling, decided to abort and firewalled the throttle, the airplane would rotate about the crankshaft.
This killed a lot of pilots.
"The aircraft's stall speed at that altitude is only 10 knots (12 mph; 19 km/h) below its maximum speed"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_U-2