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Wasn't the Zero doing this on 950 hp? Didn't the Zero handle all Allied fighters in a 1v1 fight including the Spitfire and Hurricane up until the Hellcat, Corsair and P38 arrived?
T
The escort fighter doesn't have to have all the performance of the interceptors because the latter's primary mission is to take out the bombers.
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I use the Spit as an example for this period because I cannot see any other alternatives at all in the west at that time (40/41). A P-40, with even a Merlin XX (which wasn't really available then anyway), simply would have inferior performance to a similar engined Spit that carried extra fuel. Before you even put a drop of fuel into the thing it is already much heavier. So I fail to see the logic of saying a fueled up Spit cannot do the job (at least for MR stuff), while an already heavier (and aerodynamically inferior) P-40, which also has to carry the same amount of fuel as well, will somehow be better?...
* I mention the racks, because when you look at the P-51s you see the bomb/fuel racks on the wings, these were semi-permanent fittings. These cost it 10mph, which it could afford though other planes couldn't of course, but the alternative was to have droppable racks (as per the Malta Spits for bombs) therefore returning full performance (allowing for the extra fuel weight).
Hi, Old. Agree with pretty much you're said, but these two:
There were P-40s and then there were P-40s. The P-40, P-40A and P-40B were pretty light weight; later models got overweight. The P-40B was featuring the armament weight of the Spitfire I II/Hurricane Is (give or take), the fuel tanks were self-sealing, armor was installed, all while weighting 6835 lbs when 120 US gals was carried (100 imp gals). On that weight, it was capable for 352 mph at 15000 ft. Spit II was good for 345 mph at 15000 ft, on 6172 lbs.
Sick a Merlin III/XII on it and it will be around 360 mph between 15-20000 ft*. And it can be fueled up to 160 US gals (133 imp gals) internally.
BTW, aerodynamic superiority/inferiority involves not just a basic wing shape (Spit was perhaps the world champion in that), but also the layout of cooling system, how good/bad the wheels were covered when retracted etc. - in those things Spit have had space for improvement..
Hmm... the P-40B + Merlin III/X/XII/XX = our best candidate?
Historical P-40B, with 100 imp gals aboard, was performing as the SpitI/II/Bf-109E. The BoB fighters received the uprated engines and more weight, the P-40 received mostly more weight. The P-40D grossed at 7740 lbs clean, ie. 900 lbs more than P-40B, since it was now carrying 148 US gals of fuel (123 imp gals, 3 more than Spit VIII). The P-40E received 2 more HMGs ammo, with other models following suit. Clean it went to 8290 lbs.
The Spit V with 4 cannons was at 6917 lbs, the ones with 2 cannons were a tad lighter. Comparing it with P-40F (= 364.5 mph at 19,270) , it was some 7-10 mph faster, but RoC was way better for the lighter Spitfire.
The Bf-109 was both more powerful,lighter and smaller, while featuring improved aerodynamics vs. the 109E. No wonder it was able to outperform the P-40 easily.
In case the Merlin XX or 45 is mounted at the P-40B as-is, the weight difference will remain much closer, so the performance will be better. And the plane has much more internal fuel than SPit or 109, making it better for long range work.
Waste of a good engine. A compatible Spit V against a P40F was 10-30mph faster at all altitudes, 500-1000fpm+ better climb rates at all altitudes, higher ceiling ... and was only a single speed engine.. and at 12lb boost, the numbers look even worse with 16lb. The P-40 was a generation behind in aerodynamics.
And the P-40B had crap for armament. A P-40B had two .50 cal in the cowl (with waaaaay too much ammo) and four .30 cal in the wings.
It could carry 160 US gallons total inside but the protection of the fuel tanks is doubtful, better than the earlier P-40s but not as good as the "C" Which had tanks that weighed 165lbs more while holding 25 gallons less. Perhaps only the wing tanks were protected?
A. can you fit synchronizers on the Merlin engine? or how much trouble is it?
B. can you keep the cowl mounted .50s with the higher thrust line of the Merlin engine? (prop raised about 6in over the needle nose P-40s)
C. Merlin is about 150-160lb heavier. Prop may be 50lbs heavier.
Of course if you ditch the fuselage .50 cals you can save 370lbs
BTW, "AHT" gives 7352lbs for a clean P-40B and that is with 114lbs of fuel in the rear tank and not the full 342lbs.
Unfortunately it doesn't really appear that the early planes were ALL that much lighter than the later ones considering the "stuff" added to the later ones. Even a "plain" P-40 (no letter) went 6807 lbs with 120 US gallons of fuel (100 imp gal) NO armor, No protected tanks, one .30 cal in each wing and 100lbs worth of .50 cal ammo (?) 166rpg (?) and minimal radio gear (60lbs less than E and up models). Filling the rear tank brought you to 7173lbs.
We're trying to envision a long range fighter, and that fighter will not need to kill bombers - that job is for interceptors mostly.
It's armament was far better than what most of pre-1944 Japanes fighter were carrying, it's not that much worse than what RAF used during the BoB, and it is certainly better than what Italian pre-5-series fighters had. For fighter-type targets of 1940-41, it was at least as good as what Bf-109E and 109F1/2 carried.
A, B - don't know; the HMGs might go into wings
C - Merlin XX - 125 lbs heavier than V-1710-C15. Merlin 45 (actually, 50M) - 60 lbs heavier (pg. 322, Vee's for victory; all numbers are dry weights).
Not an option
Comparisons are hard because the American .50 cal had a truly dismal rate of fire when synchronized. Somewhere between 400-500rpm. A big reason why the US wanted to stick them out in the wing.
The Japanese Ho-103 12.7mm fired at 900rpm until late in the war ( late war guns had a number of problems) and while that is the unsynchronized rate of fire their gun didn't suffer the big drop the American gun did, more like a 10-15% loss in rate of fire. While the Ki 43 carried crap for armament the KI 44 and Ki 61 with two Ho-103s and two 7.7mm mgs weren't that far behind the early P-40s. The Italian 12.7mm guns were supposed to cycle at 700rpms, actual synchronized rate??? Both Italians and Japanese used exploding bullets which ups the effectiveness of their ammo a bit. Perhaps the P-40s needed the extra wing guns a bit more? And are the two sllooww firing .50s really worth the 4 extra .303s the British planes carried?
I have no idea why the Packard Merlin V-1650-1 weighs 60lbs more than than a British Merlin XX but it is there. Not a deal breaker. But 1510lbs vs 1350lbs (about ) for the V-1710-33. And the later P-40s used heavier propellers.
Loosing 360-400 rounds of ammo should be (120lbs?) Fitting synchronizers to the Merlin is NOT impossible but not something you want to do in the field without factory support. A lot of times synchronizers were driven by the camshafts which means drilling a hole in the cam cover, fitting a mounting pad for the sychronizer and fitting the drive system to the end of the camshaft. A factory would design a different cam cover and just block off the the port/s for installations that didn't use synchronizers. And we still have the question of if the raised prop will clear the guns.
Fitting one .50 and one .30 in each wing might be a better option.
But you are designing with the benefit of hind sight. YOU KNOW both the Japanese and Italians dropped the ball when it came to better armament. You KNOW the Germans had problems with early 109F armament.
There is no reason (except production capacity) that the Ki 44 couldn't have had four 12.7mm mgs almost from the start. Same for the Ki 61.
Germans had been fooling with engine mounted cannon since about 1936. Getting one that worked took until the 109F-4.
Yep, will save a bit of weight, while relocation of the HMGs will cancel out the firepower lost when a pair of LMGs is deleted.