De-Suckifying the YFM-1: Building an American Heavy-Fighter

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The gyroscopic sighting system that was proposed for the aircraft: Why did it require two people? Could it have been reworked to be used by one person?
This was early in the process of adapting gyros, formerly mostly a sea-going device, to use in aircraft, so these were likely pretty primitive, bulky and heavy. Early aircraft gyros didn't have very effective precession correction systems, so had to be manually corrected frequently. That might require a gyro manager in addition to a gunner. If the Airacuda had had a reasonable service life, I suspect the natural development of gyro technology would have eliminated the "gyro manager" as the benefits of Dolittle's instrument flight achievements filtered through the industry.
Cheers,
Wes
 
And, I assume the idea of a 3-axis gimbal hadn't been whipped up yet?
That makes sense, but I don't know of any two-seat fighter become a one seat-fighter. I've seen one-seat fighters become two-seaters (F7F).
 
And, I assume the idea of a 3-axis gimbal hadn't been whipped up yet?
Take a look at a DE trying to make time in heavy seas and imagine a single axis gyro trying to cope with all that bobbing and weaving. Of course they had 3 axis gimbals, they just had to be miniaturized for aircraft use.
Cheers,
Wes
 
Although probably not having the oomph to actually pull a tail chase airborne interception, airborne radar was available and in use before the aircraft were actually sent to Chanute. Perhaps as as a night fighter and as a night time interdiction anti-shipping (Think Tokyo Express) aircraft the YFM might have some potential. It certainly was large enough and had the crew stations available for conversion.
Let's add the radar to the nose, go to solid nose fixed gun for the nacelles, ditch the gunners and get the crew down to two or three.
(Never mind the CG problems.)
 


How about this one with revamped nacelles, a trimmed down fuselage, and rearranged armament of 8 x .50cal and 2 x M9 37mm?
 

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