The daily monitor leader. [volume] (Mount Clemens, Mich.) 1942-19??, 1942-09-09
By ROBERT RUARK

England, much TO the test pilots
surprise the British anti-aircraft
batteries opened UP on the new
and unfamiliar planes, sending
them scurrying for cover.
1t was from that experience
that the r. A. F. figured out why
their first Mustang flight over
occupied France has been I'M
able to stir up any air opposi-
ton.
The trouble was simply that
the Mustang, known in the Unit
ed States as the PSI, looks so
much like the German ME-109
that it takes an expert to tell EN-
apart when the planes are in the
air, observed in silhouette or in
such light conditions that identi-
flying markings can't be distin-
guished easily. The Mustang in
profile appears have the same
ME-l09 squared wing tips, the
same tail surface, it is powered
by a single milne engine, and is
about the same size.
1t is from this similarity that
a story has been spread in Eng
land and passed back to the
United States that the Mustang
was designed by two German re-
fugees who formerly were de-
signers for Willy Messerschmitt,
builder of the ME-109 and other
Nazi planes. North American
Aviation Company officials flat
ly deny this legend of German
imitation in the design of their
prize combat plane and they get
kind of excited about it when
ever the story is repeated.
PURELY CONFIDENTIAL
While most people might be
inclined to feel that it was a
smart trick to make use of Ger
man refugees to design better
planes than the Germans them
selves could build, the North
American people don't feel that
way. Any similarity between
the Psi and the ME. they
insist, is purely coincidental.
The fact that the two planes
do happen to look alike at dis
lance is not an accident, how
ever, but the result of scientific
experiments apparently conduct
ed independently in Germany
and the United States, but yield
ing similar results. Design Of
the Mustang goes back to the
spring of 1910. At that time the
standard United States Army
Air Force pursuit ship was the
original Pas.
The British came to the Unit
ed States and asked North
American designers to build a
ship that would better the per-
Torrance of existing planes.
North American designed and
built a plane which they called
the NA-73.
When the British o purchasing
commission in the United States
determined that facilities were
available to put the ship in pro-
duction they quickly accepted it.
The British at that time did not
require high altitude pursuit
ship, but they did have other
specifications to which the MA
70 could be easily adapted.
In working out the final de-
sign to meet British specifica-
tons, it developed naturally that
with the particular laminar flow
air-foil wing called for in the
basic design, it would give most
efficient performance and meet
British specifications best with
the characteristic squared wing
tips and tail surfaces which
make it resemble the ME-109. So
the design was approved that
way.
u. S. ARMY LIKES THEM
North American insists there
were never any ex-Messer-
schmitt designers working on the
Mustang designs. There are
some ex-Germans working for
North American, but all Of them
60 back to the pre- Messerschmitt
era of aviation.
Some of them are men who
came to the United States with
Tony Fokker after the last war
and stayed with the Fokker or
ganization as it was successfully
merged into General Aviation
Company and finally North Am
erican. Also Ed Schmued, chief
of North Americas designers, is
an Austrian who served as a
captain i'm the Austrian Air
Force in the last war. He's an
American citizen now, and il is
he, along with Project Engineer
Ken Bowen, now assistant fac
tory manager Of North America s
Texas plant, who are largely re-
sponsible for the Mustangs de-
sign. Bowen, a former British
citizen, once served in the r. A.
f.
When the first 10 Mustangs
came off the assembly line two
of them were given TO United
States Armed Air Forces for