I didn't watch this programme. Anything like this is bound to be affected by national pride & personal preference, no matter how unbiased you try to be. The P-51D Mustang would have to be a strong contender on my list of top fighting machines. The Spitfire might be a national icon but it was designed as a short-range interceptor (a job it did very well) & never intended as an all-round fighter. The Spitfire's main advantage was in being adaptable to modifcation to suit operational requirements & the later versions bore little relationship to the original design. They could almost be regarded as a different aircraft.*
although it was built in the US the Mustang was a british design built under contract by north american. With the merlin in it the mustang was just as much a british plane as an american one.
Just to set the record straight, the P-51 Mustang was loosely based on a RAF requirement but is as American as apple pie. The British Purchasing Commission was touring all US aircraft manufacturers in early 1940 buying up as many military aircraft as they could. Their prime requirement was fighters. They approached the comparatively new North American Aviation to build the Curtiss P-40 under licence. Although the company had never built a fighter, James H. "Dutch" Kindelberger & his small management team decided it would be more lucrative to build their own design from scratch. The vice-president J. Leland Attwood persuaded the Commission with the famous remark: "We can build you a better airplane than the P-40". An order for a prototype was placed on April 10th, 1940. Austrian-born Edgar Shmued was put in charge of the project with instructions to "Keep it simple". The result was the NA-73X, first flown on October 26th, 1940,
"In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. But, in practice, there is."
