Nov 22, 2025
The famous american fighter plane P-51, aka The Mustang, actually had a car engine instead of a plane engine.
And, it was entirely by chance! You see, although the project promised a lot, it could not go high enough to fight the german planes; the test pilot, Ronnie Hawker (Harker? Conflicting sources), who worked for Rolls Royce noticed their new powerful v-12 engine, Merlin, would fit just right.
They decided to try and the result: an american fighter plane that could fligh at about 39.000 ft, and 700km/h