Honestly, I don't know this one. You ought to rename the file name for the image, because that gives it away. Just to be sure there's an honest guess, rename the file to something ambiguous. I know now this is a Piper Pa-48. Pretty cool plane.
I just noticed that when I went to properties, it revealed the answer.
The development of the PA-48 Enforcer is interesting.
When I was between the ages of 6 -8 years of age, (1956-1958) it was still common to see V formations of P-51's flying above over the Los Angeles basin. These were P-51's the California Air National Guard were flying before switching over the jets. Eventually by the late 50's hundreds of these P-51's ended up in the bone yard out in Arizona. So we had a huge inventory of these planes.
The PA-48 was intended to be the tank destroyer designed to destroy Soviet tanks in Europe. The U.S. Air Force almost went along but in the end they decided to go with something new. That ended up being the A-10 Warthog.
<" The Piper PA-48 Enforcer is a turboprop-powered light close air support/ ground attack aircraft. It was an ultimate development of the original World War II North American P-51 Mustang. The Enforcer concept was originally created by Cavalier Aircraft in response to the US Air Force PAVE COIN program, but Cavalier did not have the political clout or manufacturing abilities to mass-produce the Enforcer, so the program was sold to Piper in 1970.
In 1971 Piper built two Enforcers by heavily modifying two existing P-51 Mustang aircraft and fitting them with Lycoming T55-L9A turboprop engines (along with numerous other significant modifications). One airframe was single seat (called the PE-1 and FAA registered N201PE) and the other was a dual-control aircraft (called the PE-2, registered N202PE). Prior to the PAVE COIN evaluation, N202PE was lost in a crash off the Florida Coast. Although the Enforcer performed well in PAVE COIN, Piper failed to secure a United States Air Force contract.
For another 8 years Piper lobbied Congress to force the USAF to officially re-evaluate the Enforcer. Eventually in the 1979 defense bill $11.9 million was allocated for Piper to build two new prototypes and for the USAF to perform another flight evaluation. Since the Enforcer was never in the Air Force inventory, it was not given an official military designation and did not receive an Air Force serial number. Instead, it carries the Piper designation PA-48 and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) registration numbers N481PE and N482PE.
By the time the PA-48s were completed, they shared less than ten percent of their structure with the P-51. The two PA-48s were tested during 1983 and 1984 at Eglin AFB, Florida, and Edwards AFB, California. As in the PAVE COIN tests of 1971, the PA-48s were found to perform well in their intended role, but the USAF again decided not to purchase any. ">
>" David L. Lawrence, lawrence.obiwan=gmail.com, 11.04.2012
I was the chief test pilot on the 2 Enforcers that were built in the early 1980's. At the time this program was very controversial. A small team of folks at Piper Aircraft did an amazing job in building and testing these aircraft. The aircraft itself was in my opinion particularly suited for the Air to Ground roll because after 110 mils of depression of the gunsight you were looking at the cowling - typical depression for a dumb bomb was around 280 mils making consistent bombing scores a real challenge. Rockets were a different matter and the CRV-7's that were used were quite accurate and if I remember sight depressions were around 40 mils. Both of these aircraft survived (N481PE is in the Wright Patterson AFB Museum and N482PE is currently being restored at Edwards AFB where it will be displayed). The entire Enforcer Team at Piper Aircraft in Lakeland, Florida stands to be proud of their efforts during this program. A guy named Tom Cook did an outstanding Job to make the program happen. "<
Piper PA-48 Enforcer - close support aircraft
