On Sat, 20 Mar 2010 17:34:03 +0000, William Black wrote:

Alexander wrote:


And here you sit in America. the country that took the P51 from a mere
thought to design and production in less then 90 days.

Contract NA-73X was laid in March 1940.

First combat use, by the RAF, (the aircraft was designed for the
British not the USAAF) was in May 1942.

They used an extant engine design...

I wonder where they got that from...

Uhm, no, they didn't.
What North American did have were the wind tunnel data and
design calculations for the Curtiss XP-46, Curtiss's idea for a P-40 successor,
which didn't work so very well.

What North American did do was start the rough designs of the NA-73 before
the Brits came around looking for a second source of P-40s.
--
Pete Stickney
Failure is not an option
It comes bundled with the system