Drake's Drum (redux)

[Nick Sumner]

A while ago, I posted a thread in the Aircraft Pictures forum of this site with the title 'Drake's Drum.' It was intended to introduce 'What if' aircraft from the world of Drake's Drum, a series of alternate history books that I am writing. Many aircraft that were designed during the 1930s and 40s but which never entered service in our time line, take to the skies in the story. I was, of course, posting them in the wrong place as this forum is the perfect showcase for them.

So, if I might be permitted to begin again...

The first, third and fourth images in this post are Photoshopped

First and second image: The Fiat G.57 was a strike aircraft planned but never flown in our timeline. Based on the Fiat G.55, it was to carry a 'Silurroto' lightweight torpedo and be powered by a Fiat A.83 radial engine. The second image is a Fiat factory drawing of the design.

The third and fourth images are of a 'Caproni Ca. 336.' This aircraft is a speculative design for an Italian carrier based torpedo bomber. The Ca. 336 designation was (to the best of my knowledge) never issued in our time-line, but this aircraft is based on the second variation of the Caproni Ca. 335 which was to be licence built in Belgium as the SABCA S.47. In our time line this multi role warplane flew in prototype form in 1939 and for its new role I have given it a revised undercarriage, an enlarged wing and an Isotta Fraschini Zeta engine, which was test flown in our time line and was some 25% more powerful than the design's original Hispano-Suiza 12 Ycrs. The fourth picture shows a Ca.336 landing on the Italian carrier Aquila.

The Squadriglia Forze Navali (The Regia Aeronautica's shipboard arm) appendix is now up at the Drake's Drum website. There are other appendices also posted there which feature many never were aircraft and more will be uploaded in the next few weeks.

Drake's Drum Website

The paperback edition of the second book in the trilogy, Drake's Drum: The Reckoning , is due to be released by Sea Lion Press in the next few days.

 

[tomo pauk]

Excellent, keep them coming

 

[Nick Sumner]

This is my interpretation of how the BMW 802 powered fighter designed in August 1941 by Dip Ing Ludwig Mittlehuber of Focke-Wulf might have evolved if it had been developed as a naval fighter. It is from my Drake's Drum alternative history timeline.

The first and fourth images in this post are Photoshopped.

The second image in this post is genuine.

The lower diagram in the third image in this post is speculative and has been modified from the upper image, which is genuine.

This aircraft never flew in our time-line and never had an RLM number allocated to it. This interpretation is from an alternate history called Drake's Drum: The Reckoning written by me and just released in paperback by Sea Lion Press.

This is an image of a Focke-Wulf FW 281 shipboard fighter. (This image has been photoshopped.)

This is an image of Focke-Wulf's August 1941 fighter design.

The upper drawing in this diagram shows the internal arrangement of Mittlehuber's 1941 fighter design. The engine is a BMW 802 which had a ducted air intake in the spinner and a contra rotating propeller. The lower drawing has the cockpit moved forward to improve the pilots view for deck landing. The fuel tank that had been forward of the pilot is now aft. The vertical fin has been increased in chord to enhance pilot authority for deck landing. The engine now has a conventional propeller and spinner because ducted cooling proved very difficult to make work. (As in the FW 190 V1.)

This image shows a captured FW 281 in US markings under test in the United States. (This image has been photoshopped)

 

[Nick Sumner]

Another German naval aircraft from Drake's Drum, this is a Junkers Ju 187

From the Juu 187 entry in the Seeluftstreitkraft appendix at the Drake's Drum website

"A design feature that the Seeluftstreitkraft insisted be eliminated was the incorporation of a rotating vertical tail. The idea was that when rotated downwards, the rear gunner would have an unobstructed field of fire. However, there were concerns about how the aircraft would have handled with the tail rotated as well as what would happen if it became jammed in the 'down' position and the aircraft had to land at sea. The undercarriage was also redesigned to retract inwards rather than backwards into pods."

 

[Nick Sumner]

The first and third images in this post are Photoshopped

This is a picture of a Boulton Paul Cormorant naval dive bomber from Drake's Drum. Although this aircraft never flew in our time line it is based on the Boulton Paul P.96A, a real design for a Centaurus powered multi-role warplane. The second image shows a Boulton Paul model of the P.96C, a variant of the P.96 with four cannon in the wings and a Boulton Paul Type A turret. A kind of Defiant on steroids.

Speaking of the Defiant, it becomes a naval fighter named 'Cutlass' in the Drake's Drum TL. This is a Cutlass Mk IIIB with Volkes filter, two Hispano cannon and four Browning .303 MGs. It is of course based on the turretless Defiant, built as a potential emergency fighter in OTL.

 

[Nick Sumner]

This image is photoshopped

The USN air arm appendix is now up at the Drake's Drum website as well as that for minor Axis Navies and updated versions of the Royal Netherlands Navy and the Imperial Japanese Navy appendices.

 

[Nick Sumner]

This image is photoshopped

Mitsubishi A7M Reppu in flight.

 

[Nick Sumner]

These images are photoshopped

These aircraft are both speculative designs from the world of Drake's Drum. The first is a P58C, a single seat interceptor powered by two Allison V-3420s and a J33 Derwent. In OTL the XP58 was extensively tested but never entered service. In TTL, the need for interceptors to defend the continental United States will be deemed very urgent, propelling the P58 into service. The P58C would dispense with the second crew member and rearward firing armament for the extra speed and climb performance offered by a jet engine.

The second aircraft is a P72D. In OTL the R-4360 powered XP72 never went into production, in part because the engine took so long to mature. In TTL a British X-2470 'Grampian' engine, a more highly supercharged and slightly faster turning version of the Pennine, is used instead. This permits the designers at Republic to dispense with the enormous second supercharger stage that gave the OTL XP72 its distinctive 'belly.' The wing developed for the P47N would also be utilised.

The USAAF Appendix is now up at the Drake's Drum website along with the Appendix on Japan's oil supply.

Merry Christmas all!

 

[Nick Sumner]

I'm very happy to announce that the manuscript of the third part of Drake's Drum has been submitted to the publisher for editing and proof reading.

In other news, while I originally planned this project as a trilogy, it turns out that I have just too much material to fit into one final book, so it will be a tetralogy instead.

 

[Nick Sumner]

The Aero Engines 1940 - 48 Appendix is now up on the Drake's Drum website. It has taken an extremely long time to finish it and it will probably be the largest of all the Appendices. Phew!

Also, I'm pleased to announce that Drake's Drum: Currents of Fate, will be available as both a paperback book and as a Kindle e-book from early October. The concluding part. Drake's Drum: The Horizon of Our Hopes will be released next year.

There are other updates to the website, including a new short story, The Irascible Engineer and two additional Appendices; Civil Aviation and Helicopter Development 1938-45 and the US Marine Corps 1942-48.

 

[Nick Sumner]

I'm very pleased to announce that the third part of Drake's Drum is now available.

Amazon UK

Amazon US

Amazon Canada

 

[Nick Sumner]

These are Photoshopped images of the FW/Tank 'Fernkampfflugzeug' also known as the Tank Ta 400. The aircraft features in Drake's Drum: Currents of Fate.

 

[SaparotRob]

Cool.

 

[Nick Sumner]

The 'Beta' version of the Luftwaffe appendix has been added to the Drakes Drum website. It is unfinished, but the sections for the issues and aircraft that are most integral to the Drake's Drum timeline are complete. This includes the most important German strategic bombers, the Messerschmitt Me 364, Heinkel He 274 and the Tank Ta 400. The sections for the Junkers 338 transport aircraft and the DFS 346 supersonic research aircraft are also complete. Updated versions of the Heer, Kriegsmarine and Seeluftsteitkraft appendices have also been uploaded.

These images are Photoshopped

The DFS 346 mounted on its He 274 carrier aircraft. "It is now universally acknowledged that although Commander Eric Brown of the Royal Navy was the first man to break the sound barrier, he was not the first human being to exceed the speed of sound in controlled flight."

Top: A Junkers Ju 338B transport aircraft. Above: The Ju 338B was modified from the unsuccessful Ju 338A operated by Lufthansa. "The aircraft was an astonishing technical achievement and was hailed by the Nazi leadership as a triumph of German engineering, but in scarcely more than a year it was withdrawn from service after a string of fatal accidents. There was perhaps an inevitability to the tragedy. The realm above the altitude of 10 kilometres was a region about which very little was known. It is almost certain, that whichever passenger aircraft from whichever nation ventured into the extreme conditions encountered there would meet unforeseen difficulties."

 

[Nick Sumner]

Also, I'd just like to bring in a couple of images from the other Drake's Drum thread which I posted in the wrong forum (Sorry!) and will now try and figure out how to delete.

Immediately below we have the Royal Navy's Fairey Firefly Mk II. In OTL, a 1939 Royal Navy specification, NAD925/39A, for an interceptor was cancelled in favour of the parallel project for a two seat fighter with a much thicker wing to specification N.8/39. This became the Fairey Firefly of OTL.

At bottom we have the well known six engined development of the Me 264, the Messerschmitt Me 364 bomber.

These images are Photoshopped

 

[Nick Sumner]

Two fighters that were only planned or flew in prototype form, dogfight in the Drake's Drum universe. A Ta 152J powered by a Jumo 222 engine of the Luftwaffe and an MB5 fighter of the RCAF. The 'Beta' (i.e. incomplete) version of the RAF appendix has been added to the Drakes Drum website. This image is photoshopped.

 

[Nick Sumner]

Two other British aircraft from the Drake's Drum timeline. Top a Vickers Vindex bomber and below a Spitfire Mk. XVII fighter. The Vindex is developed from the long series of large, high altitude bomber designs Vickers completed in 1942 and 43 in OTL and is based on a variant of Scheme 'B' of 14/1/43 a drawing of which can be found in Tony Buttler's BSP 4. The engines are tractor rather than pusher, so the nacelle mounted rear armament has clear firing arcs. The Spitfire XVII is a version of the aircraft with a Merlin engine developed from the RM.17SM development stage and sufficient fuel tankage to reach Berlin from the UK. In OTL the 'XVII' Mark number was allocated to a Seafire. These images are Photoshopped.

 

[tomo pauk]

Nice Enviable 'shopping skills.

 

[Nick Sumner]

The first, third and fourth images in this post are Photoshopped

Here are two more aircraft that never flew in our timeline but do in the world of Drake's Drum.

First the Kawanishi A8K 'Jinpu' naval fighter. Originally designed as the J3K/J6K, a development of the N1K2-J 'Shiden' the design went through many phases but never entered production. The lower picture shows the mock up. In Drake's Drum the aircraft enters service in late 1947.

Second, is the Nakajima G10N 'Fugaku' long range bomber. In OTL, the Fugaku went through many different design phases, the assumption here is that the design of the 'Final 'Z' plane' version of the project is frozen in July 1943 and proceeds with modifications (such as the pressurised crew compartment) suggested by the specifications and mission profile. In OTL, no final version of the project has been found but we know that it was cancelled in August 1944.

The basic shape of the aircraft used here is that of the 'Final Z Plane' while the nose shape is from a sketch done from memory by Nohara Shigeru, the designer of the pressure cabin of a later version and published in 'The memory of Fugaku design' by Susumu Watanabe printed in Aireview Magazine, No.848, May 2014. The designation 'G10N' was never officially attached to the Nakajima 'Z' project.

In Drake's Drum the Fugaku is used in a raid on Portland, Oregon that has enormous historical impact. The final picture is gun camera footage from an American interceptor.

The Beta version of the IJN Air Arm Appendix is now up at the Drake's Drum website. A page of photographs from book 3 Drake's Drum: Currents of Fate has also been added.

 

[Nick Sumner]

This image is Photoshopped

RNAA Cutlass IA fighters during the interbellum #drakesdrum.

A request. If anyone's read one of the Drake's Drum books, enjoyed it, and feels like giving it a positive review I'd greatly appreciate a review on Amazon, Goodreads or anywhere you feel like putting it for that matter. Don't feel you have to give a fifty-page critique, even just 'I liked it, recommended' would be highly appreciated.