North American P-51 Mustang

The Mustang began life as a British requirement, when NAA suggested to the British Purchasing Commission that instead of supplying Curtiss fighters, they might design a new machine from scratch.

​

They did so remarkably quickly, and the Mustang joined the RAF before the US' entry into WWII. By 1944 the USAAF would be operating the type too, in probably its most definitive version - the P-51D - famous for escorting the B-17s of the 8th AF all the way to Berlin and back.