The Bizarre F-82 Twin Mustang fighter,One of the most unusual airplanes in aviation history, the F-8

The Bizarre F-82 Twin Mustang fighter,One of the most unusual airplanes in aviation history, the F-82 Twin Mustang was a specialty escort fighter designed for very long range patrols.  First developed in 1943, the F-82 was simply an airplane built from two.  Two regular P-51 Mustangs were fused together wing to wing with a rear stabilizer added on the back.   Designed for extra long mission escorting bombers over Europe and Asia, the purpose of this was to have two cockpits with two pilots so that one pilot could fly the plane while the other rested.  Each pilot could work in shifts, switching control of the plane from one cockpit to the other.  Later models were produced with only one functional cockpit, the other carrying a radar operator/navigator.  The central wing housed six .50 caliber machine guns while the outer wings could hold fuel tanks, bombs, rockets, or other ordnance.The technical difficulties of producing one airplane out of two were challenging at first.  On its first take-off, the F-82 couldn’t even leave the ground due to design flaws.  Unfortunately the F-82 project was unable to be designed and tested in time for use in World War II.  However the F-82 was used to escort bomber patrols during the Cold War.  In Korea the version with a radar operator/navigator was often used as a night fighter.  It was the first American fighter deployed in Korea and the first to score kills.The F-82 was retired in 1953.  270 were built. -- source link

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