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By WWII standards, the Merlin was a small engine. It worked well in small single engined fighters like Spitfires and Mustangs. Hawker developed the Typhoons and Tornados as sucessors to the Spitfires and Hurricanes. It made sense to develop them to use the new 2000HP engines. With 2000HP, the new aircraft could be well protected and heavily armed, and they were. The continued success of Spitfires was due to the installation of the 37litre Griffon engines.I'm wondering what a fighter along the lines of the Tempest I or Fury I would've been like, but smaller and designed to use the Rolls-Royce Merlin instead of the Napier Sabre. I know that it'd be a good deal smaller to get similar performance specs, and all.
I'm bringing this up because of some of the performance specs I've read of various projects (XP-51F/G, A P-51B used by Rolls-Royce as a Merlin engine test bed, the proposed Merlin powered Mustang FTB, etc), as well as when I inquired about the Miles M23A interceptor, and that it was supposed to have wing mounted radiators similar to the Mosquito/Hornet, I instantly thought about a scaled down Tempest I or Fury I type fighter.
Anyone have any feelings or thoughts about this?
The 2000HP Merlins were running on 150 octane fuel. 150 octane makes Napier Sabres, Bristol Centauruses and P&W R2800s more powerful too. 2600HP Merlins were using water injection as well.It should be noted that there were 2000 hp Merlins (though mostly R&D test engines) almost as soon as the two stage versions were becoming operational. Though the two stage superchargers required a fair amount of power to run properly (as did most mechanical superchargers), the move from single stage to two stage opened up more life for the Merlin and made more development possible. Same of course applied to the Griffon, though that was originally designed as a single stage engine that was originally rated for 1600 hp in early development, which the two stage Merlin was easily capable of making that from an engine that was almost 10 liters smaller in displacement, and weighed about the same as a single stage Griffon/350 lbs less than a two stage Griffon.
However, production 2000 hp Merlins (be it Rolls-Royce or Packard produced) didn't really appear until 1945, and even then both it and engines like the Griffon and Napier Sabre and Bristol Centaurus (and the US Pratt & Whitney R-2800, R-4360 and Wright R-3350) were on the verge of obsolescence due to the development potential of jet engines.
I'm also curious how a lightweight Mustang would look with leading edge wing radiators like the Mosquito/Hornet or the Tempest I/Fury I. It would take away from the work done on the ventral radiators, but I think it would be interesting to consider, as well as if Hawker made a follow on to the Hurricane that was Merlin powered alongside the Typhoon and Tempest/Fury, as well as a Merlin powered Spiteful (which Supermarine investigated in case the two stage Griffon ran into issues).
I should also note that the Miles M23A I mentioned was (though not dimensionally) not a small aircraft, with a 50 ft wing span and was longer than a Spitfire IX. However, it weighed less than 7500 lbs, which is comparable to the XP-51F/G Mustangs.
I suspect a LE radiator Mustang would have substantially higher drag than the historical one. E.g. comparing the various Tempest radiator installations in https://ww2aircraft.net/forum/attachments/napier-annular-pdf.674007/ the LE radiators were only barely less draggy than the Tempest V chin radiator.I'm also curious how a lightweight Mustang would look with leading edge wing radiators like the Mosquito/Hornet or the Tempest I/Fury I.
I have never seen a Sabre power rating document on 150 grade not even a Sabre VII (yes I know it was "cleared" for it, but you`ll note that the permittedThe 2000HP Merlins were running on 150 octane fuel. 150 octane makes Napier Sabres, Bristol Centauruses and P&W R2800s more powerful too. 2600HP Merlins were using water injection as well.
To be honest, I thinking that the Hawker LE solution wasn't optimal. The Firefly and Mosquito/Hornet LE radiators probably better exploited the Meredith effect, though the radiator trunking was longer fore and aft (and probably did a better job of managing the airflow), which is an advantage of the ventral layout. Granted, on the Mosquito and Hornet, unless you wanted inward retracing landing gear (which would probably compromise wing fuel tank capacity), there wasn't a much better place to put the radiators. And on the Firefly, you have the rear cockpit, not to mention that the main fuel tank was between the front and rear cockpits.I suspect a LE radiator Mustang would have substantially higher drag than the historical one. E.g. comparing the various Tempest radiator installations in https://ww2aircraft.net/forum/attachments/napier-annular-pdf.674007/ the LE radiators were only barely less draggy than the Tempest V chin radiator.
To be honest, I thinking that the Hawker LE solution wasn't optimal.
The Firefly and Mosquito/Hornet LE radiators probably better exploited the Meredith effect, though the radiator trunking was longer fore and aft (and probably did a better job of managing the airflow), which is an advantage of the ventral layout. Granted, on the Mosquito and Hornet, unless you wanted inward retracing landing gear (which would probably compromise wing fuel tank capacity), there wasn't a much better place to put the radiators. And on the Firefly, you have the rear cockpit, not to mention that the main fuel tank was between the front and rear cockpits.
One, the already mentioned ducting has to be a certain length to make the Meredith effect work right/have significant benefit, and two, if you're going for a LE radiator, the wing's front spar has to be fairly close to the LE.
And Sydney Camm was looking at running a Mustang-inspired radiator on the Hawker P.1027, a Rolls-Royce Eagle development of the Typhoon/Tempest line. That was until the P.1030 was developed from it, which used LE radiators. Camm and his aero guys really liked LE radiators, though the Hurricane did experiment with/incorporate a lot of Meredith's recommendations (though not all of them, due to redesign requirements), and the Rolls-Royce Vulture Henley test bed did use a radiator reminiscent of the Mustang and the P.1027.