page_title: Aircraft in fiction
section_title: P-51 Mustang
hierarchical_section_title: Aircraft in fiction / P-51 Mustang
caption_attribution_description: P-51D Mustang "Miss Kandy" "Planes of Fame" Chino California USA Honeymoon
context_page_description: Aircraft in fiction covers various real-world aircraft that have made significant appearances in fiction over the decades, including in books, films, toys, TV programs, video games, and other media. These appearances spotlight the popularity of different models of aircraft, and showcase the different types for the general public.
context_section_description: P-51 Mustangs featured in the 1948 Warner Bros. film Fighter Squadron which was directed by Raoul Walsh and starred Edmond O'Brien & Robert Stack. In this film, P-51Ds belonging to the California Air National Guard actually played the role of German Me-109 fighters to which the P-51 bore some resemblance from certain angles. For the production, P-51s were coated with acrylic Luftwaffe paint-schemes and the aerial sequences were filmed near Van Nuys in LA, California.
  P-51s (postwar designation F-51) appear in the 1957 Universal Studios film Battle Hymn.
  P-51s feature in the 1982 novel Goodbye, Mickey Mouse by Len Deighton which portrays US Mustang pilots operating out of England during WW2.
  The Steven Spielberg film Empire of the Sun (1987), based on the J.G. Ballard novel of the same name, featured models and restored Mustangs in an attack on a Japanese airstrip next to the internment camp where the story's protagonist is imprisoned. This was the most complex and elaborately staged sequence of the film, requiring over 10 days of filming and 60 hours of aerial footage of Mustangs. Film historians and reviewers regard the scene as a significant cinematic achievement: "Spielberg's most emotionally reverberant moment, and one of the rare movie scenes that can truly be called epiphanies."
  The North American P-51 Mustang was featured in the 1995 HBO telemovie The Tuskegee Airmen.
  Two P-51Ds appear briefly at the end of Steven Spielberg's 1998 film Saving Private Ryan as "tank-busters" (although P-47 Thunderbolts would have been the more likely type in this role). "Big Beautiful Doll" of the Old Flying Machine Company, Cambridge, England, and "Old Crow" of the Scandinavian Historic Flight were used.
  The P-51 Mustang is prominently featured in the 2012 George Lucas film about the 332d Fighter Group, the Tuskegee Airmen, Red Tails.
  P-51Cs feature in the graphic novel mini-series Dreaming Eagles, published in 2016 by Aftershock comics, written by Garth Ennis and illustrated by Simon Coleby. The story portrayed the Tuskegee Airmen of the 99th Fighter Squadron as viewed through the memories of veteran pilot Reggie who describes his experiences to his son in the 1960s.
caption: North American P-51 Mustang
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