Hi Timppa,
>The Finnish State Aircraft Factory wondered the same thing. It suspected that the Curtiss numbers were obtained with a plane that was polished and waxed, antenna, machine guns and all other protruding parts removed.
That's highly interesting background! Maybe Curtiss marketing was indeed a bit optimistic - I don't think the CW-21 had much chance of attaining the advertised 5000 fpm climb either.
>It was found that at 6000-7000m the Curtiss had to use full throttle to keep up with PR Bristol Blenheim using its cruise speed.
Hm, but for which engine version was that observation made? If we'd know the speed of the reconnaissance Blenheim, that might give us another checkpoint for Hawk speeds Which mark of the Blenheim was used for reconnaissance, and how was it equipped (rear turret, nose barbette etc.)?
Regards,
Henning (HoHun)
>The Finnish State Aircraft Factory wondered the same thing. It suspected that the Curtiss numbers were obtained with a plane that was polished and waxed, antenna, machine guns and all other protruding parts removed.
That's highly interesting background! Maybe Curtiss marketing was indeed a bit optimistic - I don't think the CW-21 had much chance of attaining the advertised 5000 fpm climb either.
>It was found that at 6000-7000m the Curtiss had to use full throttle to keep up with PR Bristol Blenheim using its cruise speed.
Hm, but for which engine version was that observation made? If we'd know the speed of the reconnaissance Blenheim, that might give us another checkpoint for Hawk speeds Which mark of the Blenheim was used for reconnaissance, and how was it equipped (rear turret, nose barbette etc.)?
Regards,
Henning (HoHun)