Imperial Valley press., 1942-09-13
BY ROBERT kuARK

during which time MS coiumh
is being written By Robert Ruark.)
By ROBERT kuARK
When the first North American
Mustang combat plane crossed the
channel from England and APP
peared over Europe, the Nazis
didn't fire at it. The plane, so the
story goes. flew around over the
German positions unmolested and
daring some of the German planes
to come up and give it a battle. But
nothing happened.
Finally the pilot diVed down and
cut loose with a few bursts from
his machine guns on an exposed
German ground position. That
brought action. Nazi anti-aircraft
opened up and give this lone pilot
everything they had. But he got
away all right and returned to his
English base, considerably shot up,
but safe nevertheless.
A short time later, when other
Mustangs were being put thru
their trial flights over England,
much to the test pilots surprise
the British anti-aircraft batteries
opened up on the new and un-
familiar planes, sending them
scurrying for cover.
II was from that experience
that the X. A. F. figured out why
their first Mustang flight over
occupied France had been unable
TO stir up any air opposition.
The trouble was simply that the
Mustang, known in the United
States as the Psi, looks so much
like the German ME-l09 that 1t
takes an expert to tell 'em apart
when the planes are in the air,
observed in Silhouette or in such
light conditions that identifying
markings can't be distinguished
easily. The Mustang in profile ap-
pears to have the same ME-lO9
squared wing tips, the same tail
surface. it is powered by a single
in-line engine, and is about the
same size.
It is from this similarity that
story has been spread in England
and passed back to the United
States that the Mustang was de-
signed by two German refugees
who formerly were designers tor
willy 1r,sss,s~. ..-... #
the ME-109 and other Nazl planes.
North American Aviation Company
officials fatty denv this legend %
German imitation III 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 in
clined to feel that it was a smart
trick to make use of German
refugees to design better planes
than the Germans themselves
could build, the North American
people don't feel that way. Any
similarity between the Psi and
the ME-1O9, they insist, is purely
coincidental.
The fact that the two planes do
happen to look alike at a distance
S not an accident, however, but
the result of scientific experiments
apparently conducted independently
in Germany and the United States,
out Welding similar results. De-
sign of the Mustang goes back to
the spring of 1910. AT that time
he standard United States Army
Air Force pursuit ship was the or
ginal P-40
The British came to the United
States and asked North American
designers to build ship that
would better the performance OF
existing planes. North American
designed and built plane which
they called the Nab.
When the British purchasing
commission in the United States
| determined that facilities were
available to put the ship in pro-
duction they quickly accepted 1t.
The British at that time did not
require a high altitude pursuit ship,
put they did have other specitlca-
lions to which the NA-73 could
De easily adapted.
In. working out the final design
meet British specifications, 1t
Ieveloned naturally that with the
particular laminar flow alr-foll
wing called for in the basic design,
would give most efficient per-
ormance and meet British specltl-
,ations best with the characters
.ic squared wing tips and tail sur
faces which make it resemble Che
ME-109. So the design was ap-
proved that way.
North America insists there were
never any ex-Messerschmitt design
srs working on the Mustang de-
signs. There are some ex-Germans
working for North American, but
all of them go back to the pre-
Messerschmitt era of aviation.
Some of them are men who
came TO the United States wlth
Tony Fokker after the last war
and stayed with the Fokker or
ganization as il was successfully
merged into General Aviation
Company and finally North
American. Also, Ed Schmued,