Mustang Designer

by Ray Wagner

1990 hardback on Crown.

Genres: Aviation, History, Biography

240 pages, Hardcover

First published August 2, 1990

Reviews

[Spad53]

I enjoyed this tremendously. It would have got top marks, but to be honest it wasn't very well written, and actually a bit short, I'd have been happy to read more details about the development of the P-51. Frankly most US planes of the time were, well not rubbish, mediocre would be a better word. Then out of the blue along comes the amazing P-51 Mustang, except it wasn't out of the blue as this book explains very well. I learnt several new things, for instance that Schmued wasn't originally German, he was Austrian. Another thing that Schmued thought was important was keeping a work force compact, something I banged on about all my working life. In particular it's about keeping people physically in the same place. And in the same organisation, that sounds obvious, but when matrix organisations were all the rage, you could find yourself in a group with lots of different managers involved. Ed Schmued wouldn't have liked that.

[Cade]

This book has some good parts, but you have to wade through a lot of laundry lists of models, dates, serial numbers, etc to get the good stuff. This book seems to be written primarily to put certain historical facts "on the record." As such, there is no serial number, production figure, model designation (or redesignation), engine rating, speed (with elevation cited), count and caliber of armament, weight, etc that is spared. While there are a few tables, generally these facts are included in-line with the text in paragraph format. This is clearly intended as a benefit to someone doing some particular historical study. However, if you just want to learn neat stuff about the Mustang, this is a lot of unnecessary specifics to wade through.

I was most interested to learn how the laminar flow wings were developed because I have always thought that was the key feature of the mustang that made it suitable for long range escort. Somewhat disappointingly, there are only a couple pages on this feature. Basically, it seems NACA had studied different wing profiles, and the P-51 designers just picked the laminar flow wing out of a catalog and stuck on. There is significantly more information in this book devoted to the much more mundane adoption of external drop tanks as a key enabler of long range escort.

This book is, as might be expected, a dual biography. Part is the biography of the man Ed Schmued who was the chief designer of the Mustang. As such, the book provides some brief early life history and describes several other planes developed by North American while Ed Schmued worked there and some other projects Schmued worked on after leaving North American. The book also is a biography of the Mustang airplane itself. That scope includes describing other competitor planes developed around the same time and the service the Mustang saw continuing on into the Korean War besides obviously describing its performance in WWII.

[Wayne Van Loon]

Best 2/3 of a book I have read in a long long time. I say best 2/3 of a book because the first 2/3 of the book leads up to the design and through the evolution of the P-51 Mustang - the airplane that won the air war in Europe. If you are a WWII aviation buff, this is a must read.

I would recommend having a smart phone, tablet or computer handy to get quick information on the myriad other aircraft that are discussed.

May 2020