This piece originally ran in the June 2024 issue of EAA Sport Aviation magazine.
This XP-51 ammo can is an original component from the EAA Aviation Museum’s North American XP-51 Mustang. The museum’s Mustang is the oldest surviving Mustang in the world, as well as the fourth XP-51 prototype. Paid for by the Royal Air Force, it has .50-caliber ammo cans in the wings and a .303-caliber (the British standard) ammo can in the nose. Despite its connection to the RAF, the U.S. Army Air Forces retained this XP-51 after Pearl Harbor for testing, and it never left the United States. After World War II, it was donated to the Smithsonian Institution and kept in storage until the Smithsonian donated it to EAA.
