The P-51 Mustang was used for a lot of tests like this, due to it's ability to handle high speeds. These were one-off test beds, not production aircraft to be put into service.

There was, in the early '70's, an attempt to put into production a turbine powered aircraft based on the P-51. Meant for a ground attack/observer role, it was never accepted by the US military, nor anyone else. Four prototypes were built, and 2 still exist. See the link below about those:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piper_PA-48_Enforcer

John,

Didn't know about this effort, but I noticed that the link that you provided had the work jato (stands for jet assisted take off). Doing a quick search on google with the words: "P51 Mustang jato" gave me a display of a book that was talking about the testing of "liquid rocket auxiliary engines for the P51". These were used to give an extra burst of power when needed - like for getting to altitude in a hurry or flying temporarily at a faster speed. Regular JATO rockets were used for takeoffs only i believe in order to use a shorter runway or takeoff with heavier loads. Very cool and unexpected.

Another unusual development during world war II was the use of television to remote control 'suicide bombers' and remote control bombs. Remote control drones are common today, but back then it was almost science fiction, especially anything involving television. The bomber project was an attempt to destroy well protected submarine pens - the project was called Aphrodite. It required two brave pilots to initially fly the heavily loaded bombers up in the sky and then parachute out after arming the plane. President Kennedy's older brother Joe was one such pilot killed during an attempt. Despite a good deal of effort and pilots killed, the remote control bombers were not able to destroy the Nazi submarine pens. Better results were had with remote control flyable bombs against the Japanese in the closing months of the war.

Project Aphrodite on google:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Aphrodite

The link on the liquid rocket auxiliary engines for the P51:

https://books.google.com/books?id=s1C9Oo2I4VYC&pg=PA369&lpg=PA369&dq=p51+mustang+jato&source=bl&ots=eO76U9apEW&sig=LdFu3CLbSn629FmUwHkU1TCo8u0&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiy-IDHi9XOAhXGWh4KHaeND6gQ6AEIUTAM#v=onepage&q=p51%20mustang%20jato&f=false


burfman.............