Clay_Allison
Staff Sergeant
- 1,154
- Dec 24, 2008
What if, to compete with General Motors, Ford had decided to get into the aircraft engine business and acquired a license for the H.S. 12Y engine and developing it themselves in much the same way the Russians did, perhaps pushing an improved version with 100 octane gas to 1200 RPM (100 HP more than the soviets managed, but we had better gas and manufacturing tolerances). Eventually they would try to market it to the U.S. govt in competition with the V-1710 (as the V-2200).
Much like the DB-601, the V-2200 would be able to operate at greater altitudes with a single-stage supercharger because of its greater displacement and with the vast manufacturing power of Ford, and the mass production genius of Henry Ford himself behind it, could it have beaten the V-1710 out of some contracts, maybe just to be placed in the best V-Fighter airframe on paper in the U.S. (the P-51A)?
P-51As with higher altitude performance in North Africa could have saved a lot of British and American lives.
Much like the DB-601, the V-2200 would be able to operate at greater altitudes with a single-stage supercharger because of its greater displacement and with the vast manufacturing power of Ford, and the mass production genius of Henry Ford himself behind it, could it have beaten the V-1710 out of some contracts, maybe just to be placed in the best V-Fighter airframe on paper in the U.S. (the P-51A)?
P-51As with higher altitude performance in North Africa could have saved a lot of British and American lives.