153 daylight raids by Bomber Command in 241 days between 27 Aug 1944 & 24 April 1945 through a Northern European winter with its bad weather.
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153 daylight raids by Bomber Command in 241 days between 27 Aug 1944 & 24 April 1945 through a Northern European winter with its bad weather.Even when it had long range fighters, there was no milage in reverting to daylight once they had the technical means to blind bomb with high precision, and night still kept the single engined fighters out of it.
Care to share some details?The single-seat Mosquito might have been interesting. Which I believe was initially not "quite" a Hornet.
No they weren't, all they could do was put up resistance stopping total air superiority by the enemy, nothing more.Hurricanes were perfectly suited to 2nd line duties as fighter bombers in the Far East from very austere forward locations.
They fought on out there til VJ Day. Cheap and easy to build, even cheaper and easier to operate.
How did the British make so many Merlins considering each one had hand fitted non interchangeable parts?, same for the Spitfire, how could 20,000+ thousand be produced when each panel had to be individually rolled?, thank god for the 'mericans I say.The Spitfire had zero consideration to mass production with its nearly every panel a hand made compound curve.
Thank god for thousands of skilled elves in Sherwood forest beating the panels out on stumps.How did the British make so many Merlins considering each one had hand fitted non interchangeable parts?, same for the Spitfire, how could 20,000+ thousand be produced when each panel had to be individually rolled?, thank god for the 'mericans I say.
I believe that overstates the Rolls Royce built Merlin manufacturing issues. And they were coming off 3 production lines located in Derby, Crewe and Glasgow. While Derby & Crewe relied on many external subcontractors to produce components, Glasgow manufactured virtually everything on site. That would have made quality control much easier to achieve.How did the British make so many Merlins considering each one had hand fitted non interchangeable parts?, same for the Spitfire, how could 20,000+ thousand be produced when each panel had to be individually rolled?, thank god for the 'mericans I say.
I dont have a great deal at present..Care to share some details?
the Single seat Mosquito with Merlin 61 engines at 15,000lbs sure sounds like a Hornet.
Even when it had long range fighters, there was no milage in reverting to daylight once they had the technical means to blind bomb with high precision, and night still kept the single engined fighters out of it.
Mate I'm taking the pissI believe that overstates the Rolls Royce built Merlin manufacturing issues
As I stated earlierthe Single seat Mosquito with Merlin 61 engines at 15,000lbs sure sounds like a Hornet.
Ford USA were also involved in plans for a Rolls Royce factory in France. Initially this was to be for service and repair of engines from UK and then for a complete factory producing Merlins in France. As far as I could see the go ahead for Merlins from the Manchester Trafford Park factory was tied in with the Vulture. The plan was originally to make Vulture engines for Avro Manchesters which was on the same industrial area. The engine drawings were re drawn because of their involvement in Ford France initially and a copy of all engine drawings and an actual engine were in USA for this.I believe that overstates the Rolls Royce built Merlin manufacturing issues. And they were coming off 3 production lines located in Derby, Crewe and Glasgow. While Derby & Crewe relied on many external subcontractors to produce components, Glasgow manufactured virtually everything on site. That would have made quality control much easier to achieve.
Then consider that when Ford of Britain was brought into the Merlin programme in May 1940 (first Ford engine appeared in June 1941), they redrew the Merlin blueprints to much finer tolerances to allow their mass production techniques to be applied. They concentrated on bomber versions and produced over 30,000 engines before production ceased in March 1946.
Henry Ford turned down the opportunity to manufacture Merlins in the USA. But Ford of Britain was a separate listed company, despite Ford USA being the major shareholder, that had a very large degree of independence from Ford USA.
Production at the various factories was:-
Derby - 32,377 from
Crewe - 26,065 from 1939
Glasgow - 23,675 from Nov 1940
These factories also went on to build Griffons alongside the Merlins later in the war.
About 12,000 of the Spitfires came from the Castle Bromwich Aircraft Factory, located in the heart of the industrial Midlands and the pre-war British motor industry. There were plenty of skilled metal workers in that region able to feed that factory. And production methods were refined to incorporate unskilled labour.
The Castle Bromwich Aircraft Factory | WIAS
This paper briefly describes the history of the Castle Bromwich Aircraft Factory and its significant contribution to aviation, particularly during the Second World War.www.warwickshireias.org
Why would the RAF develop a long range air superiority fighter for which it had no need or doctrine?
Even when it had Mustangs in quantity, the RAF had no real interest in carrying out long range daylight bomber raids as it had developed its bomber force into a highly effective night time force.
The RAF rapidly gave up long range daylight bombing into defended airspace very early in the war.
Later on in the war when elf labor was in short supply the Hudson car company made many of the panels on old hydraulic presses that had been used for making fenders.
These were sent over in crates marked "metal desk parts" to avoid a labor strike by the elves.
How did the British make so many Merlins considering each one had hand fitted non interchangeable parts?, same for the Spitfire, how could 20,000+ thousand be produced when each panel had to be individually rolled?, thank god for the 'mericans I say.
Pretty clueless until some Brit told them what to build eh?'The British built 20,000 spitfires…'
that was over a 10 year period
Meanwhile, NA built 17,000 P-51's in 4 years
Ditto the Merlin - 'The British made 150,000 hand fitted Merlins'
That was over a 14 year period
Meanwhile, Packard built 55,000 production engineered Merlins with gaskets in 4 years
An interesting aside, you could always tell which plane was fitted with a RR vs a Packard Merlin - there were always drip trays under the RR Merlins
Murica! Masters of production engineering.