A fighter is born

Necessity

The remarkable story of the Mustang is one of absolute necessity and incredible ingenuity. In Autumn 1940, The Royal Air Force and the Fleet Air Arm of the Royal Navy were in the guts of their battle against the Luftwaffe for air supremacy of Southern England in the military campaign known as the Battle of Britain. The Luftwaffe had sent wave after wave of fighters, such as the Messerschmitt Bf 109, and bombers, such as the Junkers Ju 87, in devastating attacks with the aim of defeating RAF Fighter Command. From the 12 August 1940 to the 7 September, the Luftwaffe repeatedly targeted airfields, infrastructure and factories involved in aircraft production. The idea was to obliterate RAF Fighter Command to allow for an eventual invasion of Britain.

The blitz

Then on the 7 September 1940, with what it perceived as time running out, the Luftwaffe resorted to a massive attack on the capital, London, in the hope of engaging the RAF in a final and decisive air battle. The sheer size of the attack meant many of the German aircraft were successful in hitting their targets and large parts of London including the London Docks, Woolwich Arsenal, Beckton gasworks and the heavily populated streets of the East End were decimated. The ensuing fires provided perfect illumination for the massive night attacks that followed for the next nine months in a devastating period called the Blitz. 

North american aviation

It was against this backdrop that the Mustang came into being. The British Purchasing Commission approached North American Aviation in April 1940 to build Curtiss P40 fighters under license for the RAF. Rather than build another company’s aircraft under licence, North American, led at the time by James Howard “Dutch” Kindelberger proposed the design of a more modern fighter, deploying the latest in aviation technology. 

102 days

The first Mustang prototype “NA73X” was rolled out on the 9 September 1940, only 102 days after the contract was first signed and first flew on the 26 October 1940. Never did the need seem greater for an aircraft that could defeat the Germans; The Battle for Britain raged, and the Blitz pounded London.