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The Hotspur had its radiator in that position and was faster. The production P-40 as opposed to the prototype moved the radiator and was faster. I disagreed with your suggestion that it would be a better Hurricane than the Hurricane.
"The aircraft would have been powered by the 1,260hp Rolls-Royce Merlin XX engine, which was expected to give it a top speed of 380mph at 23,500ft. "
Wow if that was even close to true it sounds like it might have been a useful addition to the fleet so to speak, instead of making all those Hurricanes. I guess they saw it as competitor to the Spit so they nixed it.
Perhaps if the radiator is under the nose you affect view for deflection shooting and buggar up the c.g.The nose position of the radiator does not necessarily mean better performance.
If it was that simple, why wouldn't they move the Hurricane's radiator to the nose?
And the Hotspur was faster than the Defiant? Maybe that was due to other factors than the radiator?
The prototype P-40's belly radiator was badly designed. That's why it was moved. Not sure they even did proper performance tests with the original radiator design before changing it.
My guess is that the tropical filter has been removed as top speed is stated as 365 mph and Rolls Royce has recommended or prevented the use of override boost.
"The aircraft would have been powered by the 1,260hp Rolls-Royce Merlin XX engine, which was expected to give it a top speed of 380mph at 23,500ft. "
Wow if that was even close to true it sounds like it might have been a useful addition to the fleet so to speak, instead of making all those Hurricanes. I guess they saw it as competitor to the Spit so they nixed it.
There's no way that a Spitfire Vc with a volkes filter was ever going to do 365 mph, it's more like the 345 mph of the Seafire IIc. A Vc Merlin 46 SU carb did 368 so take off 8 - 10 for the standard version without filter. Seafire IIc did 320 at 16000. So maybe it was an Aero vee filter.The test notes say it was tropicalised, the statement on the condition of the aircraft makes no mention of the filter being removed. They also say "during the tests the engine limitations as stated in the handbook were adopted". I suspect they were simply using an original handbook, rather than the updated version authorising higher boost limits.
That's a Vb Merlin 45 Volkes filter.I've got 354 @ 17,400 ft. from the book "Spitfire" by Tony Holmes
Merlin 45 not 46.
Spitfire is 33% bigger with 3 X weight of fire. Macchi probably loses 11 mph with trop filter.Is that accurate speed for the MC 202 (including Tropical filters etc.)? If so, really quite a performance advantage (+18 mph at a slightly higher altitude) for the Macchi especially considering the Spit had a 295 hp edge...
IIRC Early109G-2 did 384, with filter 373.From the book "Spitfire V vs. C.202 Folgore: Malta 1942
So long as you're a good shot. The Soviets had 15100 Yak-1/7's and 10 pilots had 8 or more victories. They had 2600 Hurricane IIb/c's, 3 pilots with 8 or more victories. So the Hurricane was twice as effective in combat even though it was universally recognised as obsolete in the ETO. It did have twice as much firepower as a Yak.If it was a choice between the cannon vs. 18 mph in speed and 6 minutes in climb rate to 20,000 feet instead of 8, I think I'd go with the lighter guns. At least for fighter vs. fighter combat.