North American designed and built the P-51 in an unbelievable 117 days. An exceptional long range bomber escort and a fast and furious dog fighter, the P-51 qualified 281 allied pilots as Aces, second only to the Hellcat with 307 Aces. Most P-51s were manufactured in Inglewood, CA and tested over Mines Field, now LAX. [...]
The FJ-1 was the US Navy's first operational jet fighter and performed the first jet take off and landing from a carrier at sea. The engine, fuel tank and air intake are within the fuselage, allowing for a super thin, high speed, laminar flow wing. Another innovative feature of the Fury was a small wheel [...]
In 1944, the debut of the ME-262 leads to the development of new jet aircraft. North American Aviation was working on the FJ-1 Fury for the Navy and F-86E Sabre jet design for the USAAF. The Sabre was a sleek aircraft, using a low swept wing and tail surface design inspired by German WWII wind [...]
The P-51 was created for the RAF to replace the P-40 Warhawk. It took 117 days for North American to design, build and fly the P-51, this was so quick, in fact, that the engine wasn’t ready. The latest Laminar-flow wing reduced drag. The wheels from the AT-6 and an existing Allison engine were used [...]
In 1937 North American won the Air Corp design competition to produce the new combat trainer that developed into the AT-6. The most universally used trainer in the allied air forces. Known as the AT-6 by the USAAF, the T-6 after 1948, was produced well into the 1950's. Cadet training consisted of 26 weeks of [...]
The North American B-25J Mitchell test results were impressive, after only two weeks of evaluation, it was ordered into production. The first production model flew at Inglewood, CA. On August 19, 1940. The B-25 was named after William "Billy" Mitchell, an advocate of air power and aircraft bombardment. The twin engine, twin tailed, tricycle landing gear, [...]
In 1953, a sleek new thoroughbred, the F-100 “Hun” for short, burst into the skies to set a new world speed record of 755 MPH in level flight. By 1955, the F-100 held the world’s first supersonic speed record of 855 MPH and marked the beginning of the Century Series generation of supersonic or faster [...]
