Manufacturer: Heinkel

Model: He 112BA

Name: none

Type: Fighter

Date: 1939

Status: Evaluation

Country: United States (Germany)

Service: U.S. Army Air Corps

Designation: XP-957

A little after the start of World War Two, the US Army Air Corps, on the grounds of US neutrality, decided to evaluate a German Heinkel He 112 fighter. A high-ranking officer with ties in the Luftwaffe arranged for the aircraft to be shipped to the US via Italy, and when reassembled, the aircraft started a phase of extensive evaluation at Wright Field as the XP-957.

It is said that when Franklin D. Roosevelt himself heard that a German fighter was being tested in American colors he was infuriated and demanded that the evaluation program be halted right away and the aircraft destroyed, considering that if news of that evaluation hit Europe, this might put the US in an uneasy situation. The officer responsible for this blunder of epic proportion was reportedly dismissed.