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It wouldn't even take any novel thinking. Just look around in 1937-39, Germany has one modern single seat fighter, the Bf 109. Britain, with a much larger industrial strength than France has two, the Spitfire and Hurricane. Japan has one, the Ki-27 Nate, to be followed by the Ki-43 Oscar. Even the massive USAAC focused on the Curtiss P-36/40. Why would France produce six different types?Yes but it would have made too much sense.
Certainly postwar the French got their procurement decisions in order. One firm awarded all fighter contracts, Marcel Dassault's (nee Bloch) firm, with pretty much every fixed wing combat aircraft being Mirage based. One firm for rotary wing, Aérospatiale. One firm for tanks and AFV, AMX/GIAT. Obviously WW2 scared them straight, and socialist nationalization of the defence industries got the job done.It doesn't make sense that the French, with their track record to uphold, would make choices that made sense militarily. Have they ever, at any time since Napoleon?
It wouldn't even take any novel thinking. Just look around in 1937-39, Germany has one modern single seat fighter, the Bf 109. Britain, with a much larger industrial strength than France has two, the Spitfire and Hurricane. Japan has one, the Ki-27 Nate, to be followed by the Ki-43 Oscar. Even the massive USAAC focused on the Curtiss P-36/40. Why would France produce six different types?
Potez's pet senator didn't have the clout to get it produced.It's amazing that with the D.520 and VG.33 in production that Potez thought this POS was going to be useful. Just look at that tail.
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Edit, my bad, that's SNCAO, not Potez. Their submission, the Potez 230 was a little better, but with bizarre wing shape. Either way, both should have been told to make D.520 and VG.33.Potez's pet senator didn't have the clout to get it produced.
That sort of fin arrangement is likely a symptom of not enough vertical fin being discovered during testing.
Correct. I would suggest the two fighters would be the MB.150 series and only one of the D.520 or VG.33. So, no MS.406, C.714, FK.58 and no hail mary rubbish from Potez or SNCAO.The premise is would France have done better with just 2 fighter types instead of a menagerie of "Worlds Worst ...."
The reality of incompetency, corruption or ineptitude was not the question.
The MS 405 first flies in 1935, the production version is the MS 406 of 1938.Correct. I would suggest the two fighters would be the MB.150 series and only one of the D.520 or VG.33. So, no MS.406, C.714, FK.58 and no hail mary rubbish from Potez of SNCAO.
The MB.150 precludes the D.520 and VG.33 by years, so there's no way to keep the MB.150 out as one of the two French fighters.
Good point. With the MB.150 not providing much advantage over the MS 406, perhaps then it's MS.406 and D.520 (or VG.33).The MS 405 first flies in 1935, the production version is the MS 406 of 1938.
Edit, my bad, that's SNCAO, not Potez. Their submission, the Potez 230 was a little better, but with bizarre wing shape. Either way, both should have been told to make D.520 and VG.33.
The premise is would France have done better with just 2 fighter types instead of a menagerie of "Worlds Worst ...."
The reality of incompetency, corruption or ineptitude was not the question.