I realize that the P-51 CoG was moved but,

[Pursuivant]

Originally Posted by horseback

CDR David McCampbell reported that during his epic 9 kill sortie over Leyte Gulf, he took "a few" cigarette breaks while waiting for an enemy aircraft to make a break from their defensive circle. Since he was the Commander of the ESSEX Air Group, I would guess that at least his personal Hellcat had an ashtray installed. I doubt that he was the only one.

Greg Boyington tells a story in his memoirs about how he rigged up a sort of jury-rigged autopilot in his Corsair which allowed the plane to fly straight and level while he dozed and took smoke breaks. He relied on sharper-eyed members of his squadron to call out bogies, and his squad mates always knew that action was imminent when he cracked back the canopy to toss his butt out the window.

It might be a tall tale, but I can believe the cigarette smoking part. Anyhow, it can't be that hard to rig up an improvised ash tray using a beer can and some duct tape. Or, just knock the ash on the floor.