F6F Hellcat vs P-51 Mustang: Which WWII Fighter Was Better?

F6F Hellcat vs P-51 Mustang at a glance

The F6F Hellcat and the P-51 Mustang were both American World War II fighters, but they were built for different jobs. The Hellcat was a Navy carrier fighter. The Mustang was a long-range Army escort that grew out of a British order.

The Mustang is faster, climbs better and flies much farther. The Hellcat is the aircraft built to land on a ship, and it has the documented kill ratio. Both are sound answers to different questions.

Why the Hellcat and Mustang were built for different jobs

The Navy wanted the Hellcat to replace the F4F Wildcat and to counter the Japanese Mitsubishi A6M Zero. After Lt. Cdr. Butch O’Hare toured Grumman in April 1942 and went over the Wildcat’s fights with the Zero, the Navy directed a more powerful engine and a higher cockpit.

North American built the Mustang in a different way. The prototype was finished 102 days after the British order and first flew on 26 October 1940, and the first Mustangs went to the RAF.

Both airframes ended up with famous engines, and the engines explain a lot. The Hellcat used a 2,000 hp Pratt & Whitney R-2800 Double Wasp radial, the same engine as the Corsair and the P-47. The Mustang used a liquid-cooled Merlin.

Where the Mustang wins: range, speed and altitude

The early Mustang had an Allison engine whose power fell off above 15,000 ft (4,600 m). Fitting a two-stage supercharged Merlin fixed that, and the P-51B/C became the first long-range fighter able to compete with the Luftwaffe.

The definitive P-51D used a Packard-built Merlin, a bubble canopy and six .50 in machine guns. The spec panel puts its top speed at 441 mph (709 km/h), against 391 mph (630 km/h) for the Hellcat.

The gap in range is larger. The panel lists 1,650 mi (2,660 km) for the Mustang and 940 mi (1,520 km) for the Hellcat, and the Mustang also climbs faster and reaches a higher ceiling.

Eric Brown, a Royal Navy test pilot, rated it the best escort because of its range. He added that he would not want to fight near Berlin in a Spitfire, because he could never get home in one.

Fuel explains it. After July 1943 North American fitted an extra 85 gal fuselage tank behind the pilot, and Mustangs over Europe carried 110 US gal drop tanks.

Where the Hellcat wins: the carrier deck

A carrier fighter has to survive a landing on a moving ship. Grumman built the Hellcat to be rugged and easy to build and maintain, and the Navy asked for a higher cockpit so pilots could see over the nose.

It was also built to take damage. Each F6F carried 212 pounds (96 kg) of cockpit armor, armor around the oil tank and oil cooler, and a bullet-resistant windshield.

The Mustang’s liquid cooling worked against it in low-level strafing. A bullet through a radiator or coolant line could end a mission, and Mustang losses were higher on strafing runs than in air-to-air combat.

Which had the better combat record?

The Hellcat’s record is easy to state. U.S. Navy and Marine pilots flew 66,530 sorties and claimed 5,163 victories, 56% of all Navy and Marine air victories of the war, for 270 Hellcats lost in air combat.

That is a claimed kill-to-loss ratio of 19:1. Against the Zero the claimed ratio was 13:1, and trials with a captured A6M5 showed the Hellcat faster at all altitudes, though the Zero turned tighter at low speed.

The Mustang has no comparable single number in the sources we used. One of the top-scoring Mustang groups, the 354th Fighter Group, claimed 664 air-to-air victories, and the leading Mustang ace, George Preddy, scored 23 of his 26.83 victories in the type.

The ratios are claims, and the two fighters fought different enemies. The Hellcat met the Japanese navy’s best pilots early and inexperienced ones late. The Mustang met the Luftwaffe over Germany, so the two records do not settle a head-to-head.

Could the Mustang fly from a carrier?

Not as a standard aircraft. North American converted one P-51D into the ETF-51D for carrier use, and it drew up the NA-133, a P-51H for the U.S. Navy with folding wings, an arrestor hook and tip tanks.

The Navy kept buying Grumman fighters for its decks. For more carrier fighter matchups, compare the Hellcat with the F4U Corsair and the Zero.

After 1945: Korea, Iwo Jima and a long second career

The Mustang reached the Pacific late. P-51s began flying from Iwo Jima in March 1945, escorting B-29s, and later flew ground-attack missions over Japan.

In Korea the F-51D was valuable because its range let it reach targets short-legged F-80 jets could not. Mustangs stayed with USAF and South Korean units until 1953, and the last one retired from the Dominican Air Force in 1984.

The Hellcat’s career ended sooner. Radar-equipped F6F-5N night fighters served until 1954, and a Hellcat was among the first aircraft flown by the Navy’s Blue Angels in 1946.

Both types are still flying as warbirds. For more of the same era, see our guide to American fighter planes of World War II.

Which was better, the Hellcat or the Mustang?

As an aircraft, the Mustang was better: faster, farther and higher. As a carrier fighter, the Hellcat was the better choice, because it could land on a ship and survive damage.

If the question is which one you would rather fly over Berlin, it is the Mustang. Over the Philippine Sea, it is the Hellcat.