Recent content by Howard Gibson

I assume the American bombers had turbochargers to let them fly at high altitude where they would be harder to intercept and to hit with flak. In the real war, the bombers were not fast enough to avoid German fighters. Also in the real war, the Germans failed to develop two-stage...

3. Long range escort fighters The turbo-chargers allowed the American bombers to fly at the P-47 Thunderbolt's favorite altitudes -- 25,000ft+

The small American radials coped with the enemy. Everybody had the same sized engine up into 1943. By 1943, the 2000HP American aircraft were faster, they had armour protection, and they could carry significant bomb loads. Getting late war Zeroes up to 350mph was a remarkable accomplishment...

Was the Ki43's record exemplary? The Japanese wanted manoeuverability, so they built aircraft that were lightweight. Manoeuverability was important in WWI. Over the next twenty five years, aircraft became something like three times faster. There were no comparable improvements to the guns...

The Thunderbolts were fast at high altitudes because of their turbochargers. They were replaced with Mustangs partially because their wings suffered more from compressibility. The Spitfires had very high critical Mach numbers because they had thin wings.

If Arboria cannot get at metals, they cannot get at other exotic materials, like balsa wood. The British had problems with adhesives in tropical climates like in India. Assume Arboria is not tropical. The problem technology is aluminium monocoque structure. Don't rule out tubular steel...

The Seafang was powered by a Griffon was it not? The six blade contra rotating prop usually means a Griffon 85 with 2350hp.

It sucked to be French in WWII.

Biplanes are a very clever solution to adequate structural strength and rigidity in a low-speed aircraft. As your cruising and do-not-exceed speeds go up, you ruggedize the airframe, making it no longer light-weight. You might as well stick with cantilever wings. I think more light general...

They tested the Bell XFL Airabonita.

Does the P-36 offer better performance after being equipped with hooks, folding wings and catapult hooks? I am looking at Profile Publications here, and it appears that the carrier capable F4F-3 had the same top speed and rate of climb. How would a non-carrier version of the F4F have...

We missed an interesting aircraft, the Leo 45 from France. This did around 300mph with 900hp Gnome Rhone 14N engine with 920HP. They were planning on 1300HP engines later, and eventually, they installled Pratt & Whitney R-1803s with 1200HP. The original aircraft did 227mph at sea level, and...

From late 1943 on, there was nothing wrong with the Napier Sabre other than availability. They did investigate Griffon engined mosquitos, but Hornets and Vampires were more important.

The Manchester had a good airframe and a pair of crap engines. Did those other aircraft have crap engines or crap airframes?

The aircraft must be successful. The Fairey Battle is what they should have anticipated.