A World War 2 double set this time: A German Focke Wulf 190 A-8 and a North American P-51D Mustang.

Two of those archenemies who fought many times against each other during that horrible conflict.

The FW-190 was a nasty surprise for the allies when it showed up for the first time in combat in 1942. It could outperform any airplane they had in their inventory, so they really started sweating…

During 1943 the Americans were performing daylight bombing raids on Germany, but because of lack of an escort fighter who could go with the bombers deep in Germany, the bomber losses were too great to continue on a regular basis.

In 1941 however, the nemesis to the FW 190 was being born: With the background of the lend lease agreements between the US and Great Britain, the British government asked for a new fighter. North American Aviation, a company out of Los Angeles, California took care of that order and the P-51 A was born using an Allison (American made) engine. This airplane with that engine was ok but not great. So during 1942 a British pilot had the great idea of putting a British engine (a Rolls Royce Merlin) inside the P-51. With this modification the P-51 B was born: A great fighter who could beat the FW190 (and its partner the Me 109, along with the rest of the German arsenal) and could get anywhere in Germany escorting the bombers. The German fighters losses start to become staggering.

A bit later the P-51 D (the one shown here) came along. It was essentially the same as the B version but with a few upgrades and two more machine guns (6 versus the 4 of the B).

It’s interesting to note here that the lead engineer in the P-51 project was a German guy. His name was Edgar Schmued. He had moved to the States little after World War 1 had ended. The irony is that it was a German who helped big time to win the war to the Germans.