pee51

[bloom25]

The "German designed" is because the head engineer at North American was a German immigrant.

[Hangtime]

Jeeze... this wives tale still lives??

Edgar Schmued designed some of the internal systems of the P51 prototypes.. landing gear; hydrlics, control cable routings, etc. He did NOT design the plane, and most importantly, did not desgin the airfoils or any other external skin component of the aircraft... or any of those parts that in fact made the Mustang such an effective airframe in it's role as an Air Superiority Fighter.

 

Following the outbreak of war in Europe, the British Purchasing Commission, headed by Sir Henry Self, was posted to New York to determine if American combat aircraft could be of any use to the Royal Air Force. The Bell P-39 Airacobra and the Curtiss P-40 Warhawk were ordered in substantial numbers, even though they were not up to the performance standards of the latest British and German fighters.

One of the corporations that Self had contacted had been the North American Aviation corporation. North American had already been building NA-16 trainers, and the British ordered a number of them for the RAF as the Harvard. In April of 1940, the manager of NAA James H. "Dutch" Kindelberger was summoned by the British Air Purchasing Commision and asked to manufacture the Curtiss Hawk 87 (P-40D) under license for the RAF.

Kindelberger, who was an excellent businessman as well as aeronautical engineer, responded that NAA could do that if it were really required, but countered that he and his company could build a better fighter than the P-40 and that they could design a real fighter in the same time that it would take to put the P-40 into production. Although Kindelberger had no experience with fighters, he collaborated with his friend and colleague J. Leland Atwood to formulate an outline for a fighter project as early as summer 1939. A project team was formed at North American, made up of such people as Raymond H. Rice, Edgar Schmued, Larry Waite and E. H. Horkey. A sort of urban legend has grown up about Edgar Schmued, which claims that he had once worked for Willy Messerschmitt and that the Mustang was heavily influenced by the Bf 109. [/i]

The British commission felt that they could take Kindelberger at his word, and on April 10, 1940 they accepted his proposal on the condition that the first prototype be ready in 120 days. The design was assigned the company project name of Model NA-73.

At that time, the USAAC reserved for itself the right to block any foreign aircraft sales that it regarded as not in the Army's interest, for whatever reason. On May 4, 1940, the US Army reluctantly agreed not to block the British sale, but they added a condition. Two examples of the initial NA-73 lot for Britain were to be transferred to the USAAC for testing free of charge.  

Full Story Here.

You'll discover that the "British Designed" myth is just that..  a myth... NAA did the design work. The Brits just wanted a fighter.

FYI.  

[Betown]

With all due respect to the Americans here (and this is not a bash at you guys) but the Alison engine was a pile of steaming doggy poop. It actually killed a lot of inexperienced pilots for the simple reason that you can't push the throttle right forward. If you totally opened the throttle with the Alison the engine blew up. The Merlin and sabre engines (that are in the spits, tiffys, temps, furies and some warhawks had little wire restrainers to stop the pilot from fully opening up the throttle. The Merlin and sabre engines both had the ability to fully open up the throttle or "punch through" the little wire restrainers in emergency situations.

You do it with an Alison and the pots with will go up and fly straight through the top of the cowling and after being launched about 200ft into the air eventually drop to the ground.

[Spatula]

Also as a footnote, the 'Merlin' engine in the mustang B/C and D was a Rolls Royce licensed copy made by Packard in the USA.

So techinically it isnt a brit engine, but a brit designed one - and a damned good one too.

[ 08-22-2001: Message edited by: Spatula ]

[Vermillion]

I also read somewhere that the Packard built version of the Merlin engine, on average, produced more horsepower than the Rolls built engines.

   No kidding

[hblair]

I read an article somewhere that said, on average, the American engineers had far better teeth than their British counterparts.

[skernsk]

Not that you'd know a good set o teeth though hblair

[juzz]

Never heard of British planes having wires on the throttle - only US ones with water injection.