Comments by "John Burns" (@johnburns4017) on "Curious Droid"
channel.
-
2
-
2
-
2
-
2
-
2
-
2
-
2
-
2
-
2
-
2
-
2
-
2
-
2
-
2
-
2
-
2
-
2
-
2
-
The Mustang was basically a British plane made by an American manufacturer for them. The British Air Ministry directed a six year old inexperienced company, North American Aviation, to the design points they wanted for their plane. They assisted North American who drew it up, as a university lecturer would do in directing students to research various points in a project. The students run off do the research with the lecturer assessing what they did and how it fits into the project as a whole. The Mustang was a British plane made by an American company for them. There was no US forces involvement in the concept, specifications or design. Many Americans lose sight of these fundamental points.
The Rolls Royce Merlin engine made the Mustang perform superbly. The plane initially used an Allison engine, which was only good at low level, as RR could not meet the supply of Merlins at the time, so the Alison it had to be. The US were behind the British in engine supercharging with the Tizard Mission giving the USA details of advanced super charging. Also the cylinder head design of the Alison was not good enough for full supercharging. Stanley Hooker of RR developed the auto controlled twin-speed twin-charger supercharging technology which was given free to the USA. The first use of the Mustang by the US military was for ground attack because of the poor high level performance of the Allison engine.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=by4lH2whhjk
In the early stages of WW2, the U.S. government allowed the British & French to by-pass them allowing direct approaches to U.S. aircraft makers, as would the British government approach say Hawker. The British needed all types of planes urgently, even the P-40 which was inferior to their own front line planes. But warplanes they were being useful in certain theatres and for training.
In early February 1940 the British asked North American Aviation's President Dutch Kindelberger to supply P-40s made under licence from Curtiss, as Curtiss could not supply demand. Unlike Curtiss North American were far from near full capacity. Kindelberger told the British, without any detailed drawings or plans, "I can build you a better airplane, and I can get it built fast". Contrary to popular belief in the USA, North American did not have a prototype ready design which the Brits just happened to have snapped up under the noses of the US military.
North American were first approached in Feb 1940, who had no "detailed drawings or plans". The British gave this young inexperienced company a chance but they would have to hold their hands. In May 1940 as France was falling, North American still never presented any detailed plans, mailing a "design concept" to the British delegation in New York. This never had the famed laminar flow wings. The British Air Ministry accepted the inferior Allison engine as Rolls Royce were working flat out 24/7 unable to meet demand for Merlins. New Merlin factories were being set up but not yet fully on-line.
In the interim from Feb to May, three months, the British Air Ministry were forming the fundamentals of the design concepts directing North American to Curtiss and NACA the developer of the laminar flow wings, to ensure a fighter with some leading edge design points, not produce another P-40 fly-alike wasting valuable time. The Air Ministry directed NAA to the Curtiss XP-46 experimental plane with all the leading edge design points of top European designs, with a few of their own, rolled into one. It never worked as the individual points never complimented each other when merged into one complete whole.
NAA were ordered by the British Air Ministry to buy the plans and test results of the XP-46 plane from Curtiss if they wanted the job, at a whopping $52,000, a lot of money at the time. Curtiss engineers always said the Mustang was their design. Not quite as the British Air Ministry had a lot to say in the leading design points - they were paying and calling the shots as it was their plane. There was a danger the Mustang may end up the same way as the XP-46 - a plane with leading edge points that never performed as expected. The British Air Ministry took a major gamble with NAA so were active in approving the emerging design points.
The Ministry wanted something better than the poor P-40, being prepared to wait, but realistically never expected Spitfire performance. Initially that was the case with the first deliveries using the Allison engine - better than a P-40 but no Spitfire. The initial Allison engined Mustangs filled an RAF niche, so no problems for the British at that point. A niche the plane filled was that the RAF needed a long range reconnaissance plane that could also perform ground attack being able as a low level fighter if the need was there. The Spitfire was a short range fast interceptor. With the fall of France the RAF needed a plane with range to penetrate over the German border from English air bases.
Reading many US books on the Mustang you would think the concept of the plane was to escort US bombers. That is way off from the truth. The last thing the British Air Ministry were thinking of when laying down the points of the plane was US bomber doctrine. The US were not even in the war. Initially the US military overall didn't want to know the plane. The Mustang was not even in U.S. service when it was shooting down FW-190s by the RAF over France. The Air Ministry gave the U.S. military two planes which were left in the corner of a hangar for a long period. They initially never assessed it. Quite amazing, as the USA never had a decent front line fighter at the time.
The excuse not to take up the plane by U.S. forces was that it was liquid cooled and vulnerable in frontal attack. This was a poor excuse to reject the plane because it wasn't theirs. What went over their heads was that the world's two best fighters locked horns in the Battle of Britain, both with liquid cooled engines. With British support, the Mustang finally was noticed by the U.S. Army Air Force. The US military had to go to England to fully assess the plane as it was finished off in Liverpool being flow by the RAF. They did eventually adopt the plane calling it the Apache and P-51 when in U.S. service.
UK and U.S. Mustangs for the European war theatre were finished off in Liverpool. They were test flown then delivered to the units by young English girls, many of them teenagers. The Mustang was built to British specification and design guidance without a doubt. They specified and paid for it. It never performed at all like the short range interceptor the Spitfire, not having the manoeuvrability of the Spitfire. It was 'fine' and reasonably fast at low altitude with the Allison engine. It could operate over France and even Germany at a push escorting bombers because of the longer range that the British Air Ministry specified. The Mustang filled a niche role for the British. continued......
2
-
2
-
2
-
2
-
2
-
2
-
2
-
2
-
2
-
2
-
2
-
2
-
2
-
2
-
2
-
2
-
2
-
@charleswesley9907 Ther USA asset stripped Britain. They made a profit on WW2. British and French orders pre and during WW2 got rid of American soup lines. The British owned a substantial parts of US industry - about 1/5 to 1/4. This had to be sold to US interests before material, finished or raw, would flow. Churchill said "Give us the tools and we will finish the job". He never asked for men. In December 1940 Roosevelt stated that Britain was the USAs first line of defence. Since Britain needed supplies to help protect American security, America wouldn't give anything without payment. In the first two years of war, Roosevelt had drained Britain dry, stripping her of all her assets in the USA, including real estate and industry. An example is, the British owned Viscose Company, worth £125 million and was liquidated with Britain receiving only £87 million.
Britain's £1,924 million investments in Canada were sold off to pay for raw materials bought in the United States. Roosevelt to ensure he got his money dispatched USS Louisville to British South African naval base at Simonstown to collect £42 million worth of British gold. This was Britain's last negotiable asset. This paid for American guns and ammunition. Not content with stripping Britain of her gold and assets, in return for 50 old World War I rusting destroyers (they were a political move), Roosevelt demanded that Britain transfer all her scientific and technological secrets to the USA - FREE. What price were these? He also demanded territory before supplying raw materials, but settled for 99 year leases on the islands of Newfoundland, Jamaica, Trinidad and Bermuda for establishing American military and naval bases in case Britain should fall.
Of the 50 old, leaking, rusting and hardly operational WW1 destroyers supplied to Britain, most were never used and those serviceable were given to the USSR, France and Poland and Norway.
Lend-Lease was designed to serve the USAs interests in fighting Germany without entering the war. In December 1940 Roosevelt asserted that England was America's first line of defense. Since Britain needed supplies to help protect American security.
2
-
2
-
2
-
2
-
2
-
2
-
2
-
2
-
2
-
2
-
2
-
2
-
2
-
2
-
2