One of the most effective and famous fighter aircraft of WWII, the P-51 Mustang, was initially designed to fulfill a British requirement dated April 1940. The most significant variant, the P-51D, featured a Packard Merlin V-1650-7 engine, a 360-degree-view bubble canopy, a modified rear fuselage, and six 12.77-mm machine guns. There were approximately 15,018 P-51s built, 7,956 of which were the P-51D variant.

This model represents the N.A P-51D, 39th FS, 35th FG, 5th AF, Clark Field Lucon, Philippines, May 1945, nicknamed "Viscious Virgin". The Mustang arrived very late in the Pacific theatre; the 35th FG, based after the war in Japan, did not receive its P-51s until March 1945. No theatre of operations markings having been planned for the Pacific, the 5th AF used large black bands painted on the fuselage and the wings.