In 1931, he was sponsored to move to the United States through his excellent work for General Motors in Brazil (immigration rules were extremely strict at that time - he was one of 794 people admitted in the quota) and went straight to work for Fokker Aircraft Corporation of America, which was an aircraft company that was a subsidiary of General Motors, which had a 40% holding, and based in New Jersey.

The talented and inventive Schmued, by now a citizen of the United States, was employed by North American Aviation (NAA) in Dundalk, Maryland.

The legend began with a British procurement commission asking NAA to build Curtiss P-40 Kittyhawks under license for the Royal Air Force.

"[3] His adaptation of the then new laminar flow wing and other innovations made the P-51 performance outstanding in all respects and its flying qualities superb.

This aircraft was still winning races and setting speed records for piston engine-powered airplanes decades after its production had ended.

Although he was renowned as a workaholic at North American, Schmued undertook the design of the Morrow 1-L Victory Trainer in 1941 on an independent contract; it was dubbed the "Mini-Mustang" because of its close resemblance to the P-51.

[7] At Northrop he recruited a top engineering team he used to develop the successful F-5 supersonic light fighter and the closely related T-38 trainer.

He consulted for the U.S. Department of Defense, allied nations, for private companies, and for the film industry making aviation related movies.

Any damned fool can criticize, but it takes a genius to design it in the first place.Edgar Schmued was inducted into the International Aerospace Hall of Fame on 14 September 1991.