[Tapper]

Near the end of WW2 the Russian's captured four downed US B29's that had strayed off course into Russian owned lands. Within a short period the Russian's after spotting how good an aircraft it was had copied it rivet for rivet and put it into service as the TU-4.

Why then in the 1940's when the Luftwaffe captured many many Merlin engines and they must have realised it had far more scope for development than the Luftwaffe liquid cooled engines, as the latter stages of the war showed.

Why did they not just do an exact copy of the Merlin, and why stop with this, they captured and admired the Mosquito, Mustang, Tempest, Lancaster etc.....?

Was it down to National pride only, the shortages of materials did not really affect the production of aircraft production, even late in the war during the RAF and US bombing campaigns?

I will be interested in your thoughts on this.