Newspaper Article

Obituary: Lee Atwood

Gunston, Bill

1999

Overview

Early in the Second World War, in March 1940, the British Purchasing Commission in the US visited North American Aviation (NAA), which was already supplying Harvards to the RAF, and asked whether they would make Curtiss P-40 fighters under licence for them. The classic reply was: \"We can build you a better airplane.\" Within a few months Atwood, with his assistants Ray Rice and Ed Schmued, had designed the Mustang. It was first flown on 26 October 1940, and its most unusual feature was that the Allison engine was cooled by fluid pumped through a large radiator inside the rear fuselage. The radiator was in a profiled duct according to a scheme proposed in 1935 by the Englishman F.W. Meredith; instead of creating drag, the radiator put out hot air which gave jet-propulsion thrust. The result was what most consider the best fighter of the war. With the same engine, the Spitfire IX reached 405mph and the Mustang 437mph. Not only that, but it was the only fighter with the range to accompany bombers throughout Germany. Hermann Goering said: \"When I saw Mustangs over Berlin I knew the war was lost.\" Mustang production totalled 15,586 during the Second World War. Immediately after the war, Atwood and his colleagues designed the Twin Mustang - essentially two Mustangs riding on a single wing - which performed excellently in Korea.

• Publisher: Independent Digital News & Media