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We need 2000++HP engines to make performers in mid-WWII.If we need a 2000++ HP engines to make performers, perhaps it is the airframe division that needs to update?
We need 2000++HP engines to make performers in mid-WWII.
We could pull a Mitsubishi and get 300mph plus out of the Blenheim, but the resulting aircraft would be delicate. There is no free lunch. Could the Blenheim's airframe handle a bigger engines and 350+mph performance?
You could make a Blenheim do 300 without too much trouble. Assuming you had a decent engine and by decent even a P & W R-1830 should do it.Bristol's resources are far better spend on making brand new aircraft than trying to make Blenheim go 300 mph.
You could make a Blenheim do 300 without too much trouble. Assuming you had a decent engine and by decent even a P & W R-1830 should do it.
Martin Marylander did 304mph at 13,000ft using 1050hp take-off engines.
The Blenheim was a small aircraft, yes it had a 469sq ft wing but the MK I was supposed to weigh about 8,100 empty and 12,500lbs loaded.
Problems came in when the MK IV went to around 14,400-14,500lbs with no real increase in power. The MK IV also tended to grow some rather large add ons.
The MK V porked up to 17,000lbs or more. The use of 100 octane improved speed down low but did nothing for speed in the mid teens.
A Beaufort I went 21,000lbs and the Beaufighter went over 25,000lbs.
A rather less ambitious aircraft would use the Beaufort wing (and landing gear) on a skinny fuselage closer in size to the Blenheim and using R-1830 engines since the British have nothing that would work. You can't power everything with Merlins
Blenheim was not a small aircraft IMO. Yes, initially it was a light A/C.
Past Mk.I, both weight and drag went up by a very large margin indeed.
Probably but then you were going to need a bigger plane. Or something taken out (less range?) or something????Beaufort really required Hercules engines from day one.
As superlative as the Beaufighter was, engine development and expediting introduction of the Hercules and Centaurus is where Bristol should have been focused after the launch of the Blenheim, rather than aircraft design and production. Daimler-Benz, Rolls Royce, Pratt & Whitney, Mikulin, Shvetsov, etc. knew that their greatest contribution to the war effort was engine development and prosecution, rather than aircraft. Some firms try to do both, such as Junkers, Curtiss, Mitsubishi, Armstrong-Siddeley and Bristol, but I suggest pursuing either engines or aircraft may be better. Hispano-Suiza understood this, and moved from aircraft and engine design to solely engines by the mid 1930s.If Bristol could not get Centaurus engines into service, could they be persuaded to use somebody else's engine, like the Double Wasp?
As superlative as the Beaufighter was, engine development and expediting introduction of the Hercules and Centaurus is where Bristol should have been focused after the launched of the Blenheim, rather than aircraft design and production. Daimler-Benz, Rolls Royce, Pratt & Whitney, Mikulin, Shvetsov, etc. knew that their greatest contribution to the war effort was engine development and prosecution, rather than aircraft. Some firms try to do both, such as Junkers, Curtiss, Mitsubishi, Armstrong-Siddeley and Bristol, but I suggest pursuing either engines or aircraft may be better. Hispano-Suiza understood this, and moved from aircraft and engine design to solely engines by the mid 1930s.
So, Air Ministry instructions to Bristol after Blenheim first flies in 1935: stop aircraft design. No Beaufort or Beaufighter, for example. Get us more and more powerful engines, pronto.
Get the RAAF Packard Merlin powered Mosquitos and all will be forgiven.On an intellectual level, you're right, but man, no Beaufighter just hurts my heart. And they'd be sorely missed at Bismarck Sea where they did such a great job.
Get the RAAF Packard Merlin powered Mosquitos and all will be forgiven.
Probably but then you were going to need a bigger plane. Or something taken out (less range?) or something????
The Beaufighter only became a torpedo bomber with the almost 1600hp Hercules. Would the RAF have accepted a 2 man aircraft prewar for the torpedo bomber role or would they have insisted on 3-4 men? And with the big fuselage what happens to the speed even with Hercules engines?
Maybe not quite to the OP, but how about a detail improved HP Hampden made by Bristol?
The Hampden airframe already had the ability to carry upto 4000 lbs of ordnance internally, and the original design allowed for the option of the Merlin being fitted.
Too bad for the RAF. Both Canada and Australia produced the Mosquito - so they'll take what they need from their domestic production. The first Canadian Mosquitos were completed in Sept 1941.Like the RAF will go for that!
The best improvement Bristol can make to the Hampden is more horsepower. That's got to be their focus. Stop making planes, get the damn engines reliable and delivered faster. First Bristol Hercules runs in Jan 1936, but doesn't enter service until mid-1939, and not in wide service until 1940. The first Centaurus is run in July 1938, but doesn't enter wide service until the damn war's over. What the hell Bristol?Maybe not quite to the OP, but how about a detail improved HP Hampden made by Bristol?
Too bad for the RAF. Both Canada and Australia produced the Mosquito - so they'll take what they need from their domestic production. The first Canadian Mosquitos were completed in Sept 1941.
The first Australian Mosquito was produced in July 1943, totally 212 aircraft built at Bankstown. I see no reason the Australians can't follow the Canadian example and start earlier in time to replace their lost Beaufighters. Getting Packard engines may be logistically tricky, but any transports from the US West Coast bringing engines to Australia can sail freely until Dec 1941, and then stay well south afterward.
I don't know, but Packard had enough to power all but the earliest units of Canada's CC&F Hurricanes and all of its production of DHC Mosquitos and Victory Lancasters.Did America have the output numbers for the Merlin to provide them?