In article ,
Bill Silvey wrote:
"Dudley Henriques" wrote in message
I don't have it in front of me but IIRC Yeager said in "Wings" that
a P-51 could do it.

Don't think so. Yeager knows better than this believe me. But I'm
sure what he did say could easily have been mistaken , as he has
discussed high mach dives in prop fighters on many occasions.

I double-checked; Yeager said he'd gotten his P51 to Mach .7 in a dive.

A Spitfire was taken up into - IIRC - the 0.8-0.9 Mach range during
trials just before the end of WW2 - destroyed the prop and engine in the
process, but somehow the pilot got it all down in one piece. That's
still the Mach record for a piston-engined a/c, I believe.

--
Andy Breen ~ Interplanetary Scintillation Research Group
http://users.aber.ac.uk/azb/
"Who dies with the most toys wins" (Gary Barnes)