Recent content by Akuma

Perhaps someone might have a reliable diagram of the XP-50 engine system?

I think your point about maneuverability is a good one. During the years leading up to WWII most fighter tactic training revolved around horizontal combat, dog-fighting, while the concept and practice of vertical combat (boom and zoom) was looked down upon if not actually discouraged. However...

While this does not answer your question, it might help in better understanding the possibility of the XP-50 as a better than expected aircraft. Firstly, during WWII, pilots flying the P-38 and P-47 encountered the phenomenon of loss of control at high speed. The following is according to Eric...

Yes, I read that the xp38 was ordered in 1937 and that xf5, from which the xp50 was derived, was ordered around June 1938 with the USAAF ordering the xp50 in 1939. The main point I wanted to explore here was how apparently the engineers at Focke Wulf in 1935 and the engineers at Grumman in 1938...

Hundreds? 1940?

It has been a while, but I believe I read this in a book that dealt exclusively with the Grumman XF5 and XP50. It might have been one of the series publications that cover individual aircraft. To be fair, the USAAF had apparently settled on the P-38 and were looking at the XP-50 more as a backup...

When the USAAF had a fly-off between the the P-38 and the XP-50 (USAAF version of the XF5F) the XP-50 was the clear winner. I suspect that the main reason the P-38 was chosen was that, due to it's size, the P-38 could be configured to carry a bomb load similar to a light bomber of that period.

These aircraft were proposed to offer a simple solution to the problem of increasing fighter performance with the then existing and foreseeable technology. It's a given that not only in Germany and the U.S. at the time, but around the world, money was tight for military services. Assume for the...

Thanks for the reply. Now if I can find things like this in the run up to WWII.

It might be helpful to bear two points in mind when considering the experience of pilots facing the japanese in combat for the first time: 1) All air combat training was centered on horizontal combat (dog-fighting) and attacking the EA from the rear. Vertical (boom & zoom) and Deflection...

According to Hideyuki Shigete, the Shinden concept designs begin around early 1943 by Masayoshi Tsuruno, IJN Air Research Dept. who was studying the idea of Canard Pusher at or near the start of 1940.

Sounds like the Kyushu J7W Shinden that was a Canard design like the Curtiss Ascender.

Would anyone know of published military and other observers reports on military aviation of the Sino-Japanese conflicts during the 1931-1941 decade?

The Airacuda is a overly complex answer to a simple question.

Good point about the airflow's effect on pushers. I remember seeing a World War I photograph, apparently from a German airfield, where a captured Airco DH-2 had the fuselage substantially modified to improve airflow to the rotary engine and propeller. I mentioned in a previous post of a modern...