Did you know that the Spitfire was Inspired by....

[Naso]

 

Hangtime shout:

(the P.51)= "it's DESIGN and concept was American as apple pie; baseball and Superman. "

Baseball was copied from a british sport (dont remember the name).

Muhahahahaha  

(Naso dive for cover of the ack, escaping from Hang's bullets).

 

[RAM]

Cricket  

And Superman uses red underwear over his supertrousers...I wont be so proud about him  

<RAM follows Naso in his run>

[J_A_B]

The only thing the P-51 was "copied" from sure wasn't British

Curtiss was so busy producing P-40's that they had no ability to build other aircraft.  That is somewhat unfortunate for Curtiss, as they HAD a mostly completed design ready.  I think it was the XP-46 or something like that (not sure about actual designation)  The XP-46 (or whatever it was) featured much reduced drag than other fighters.

Either way, when North American decided to produce an entirely new fighter, they bought the design that Curtiss had been working on.  The resulting XP-51 was NOT a direct copy of the Curtiss design, but the similarities in appearance are unmistakable.

Basically North American took the Curtiss design and improved it in every way, creating a completely new airplane in the process.

J_A_B

[Mighty1]

Yeah Ram he does but would you want to kid him about it?

I'd say anyone who was a strong as Superman could wear anything he wanted.

Besides he had to wear something to hide that Superwoody.

[GrinBird]

ApplePie is just a poor replica of the good old "aeblekage" from Denmark

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GrinBird

[Biggles]

 

Originally posted by Citabria:
mooney?

Good guess. You got the name of the designer right.

The plane is a 1941 Culver Cadet LCA. There was also an LCF model. The letters designated which engine was used, Continental or Franklin. The plane was actually quite popular in military circles (training mostly). A variant of the Cadet was used as a remote control target drone by the military.

[Hangtime]

LOL.. Schmued was responsible for the basic engineering and inter-relationships of the various systems that went into the Pony; and had not much to do with the outward apperance. The form of the pony was truly a team effort.

Which brings us to the next myth:

 

Curtiss was so busy producing P-40's that they had no ability to build other aircraft. That is somewhat unfortunate for Curtiss, as they HAD a mostly completed design ready. I think it was the XP-46 or something like that (not sure about actual designation) The XP-46 (or whatever it was) featured much reduced drag than other fighters.

Either way, when North American decided to produce an entirely new fighter, they bought the design that Curtiss had been working on. The resulting XP-51 was NOT a direct copy of the Curtiss design, but the similarities in appearance are unmistakable.

Basically North American took the Curtiss design and improved it in every way, creating a completely new airplane in the process.

Nope. Read, and be educated.  

"Another urban legend surrounding the Mustang is that it owed a great deal to the Curtiss XP-46 and, in fact, stole numerous design features from that fighter. It is true that the British had insisted that since NAA had no fighter experience they should secure all current data from Curtiss about both the P-40 and the XP-46. Although NAA did pay $56,000 to Curtiss for technical aerodynamic data on the XP-46, there was only a very broad resemblance between the XP-46 and the NA-73X. The Curtiss aircraft shared only a similar radiator/ oil-cooler configuration with the NA-73X, and did not have laminar flow wings. In point of fact, the development of the XP-46 lagged behind that of the NA-73X, and prototypes were not ready for flight until February of 1941. In addition, preliminary design of the NA-73X was completed before NAA gained access to the Curtiss material. It could even be argued that the XP-46 data was most useful to NAA in guiding them in what NOT to do. The NA-73X appears to owe virtually nothing to any previous fighter design."

Hehehhehe.. yah can't steal the pony's thunder.  

Hang

[J_A_B]

So basically your source says the same thing I said.

North American looked over the Curtiss design and made it better in every way, resulting in a completely new airplane.  

And, the XP-51 and XP-46 do have a certain similarity in appearance, because both tried to minimize drag.

J_A_B

[Dune]

Well, then I'll add this (borrowed from Sniper on the AGw thread)

 

His (Mitchell's) thinking was influenced by Germany's sleek Heinkel 70 monoplane of 1932, with its flowing curves, immaculately countersunk rivets and contoured monocoque fuselage, an aircraft that also borrowed much from Lockheed's modernistic Orion transport. Chief among the streamlined Heinkel 70's appealing hallmarks was a broad elliptical wing, which later found its way into the Spitfire's design." (source Airpower May 99)

As Sniper said, looks like everyone was stealing from everyone  

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Lt Col Dune
X.O. 352nd Fighter Group
"The Blue Nosed Bastards of Bodney"

"Credo quia absurdum est." (I believe it because it is unreasonable)
- The motto of the Republic of Baja Arizona

[Sundog]

The Brits did design the P-51..after the fact...and it was called the M.B.5  
They also rejected the M.B.5 (On mostly industrial/political grounds, as the Martin-Baker design had one of the most advanced `structural designs' from an ease of maintenance standpoint and reportedly one of the best `cockpit' designs from an ergonomics point of view. Too bad we can't have one of those puppies in AH!).

Oh, and you have to give Dutch extra-credit for his A-36 move! What a way to keep a line open.

SD