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I was looking at a book on the 309th Fighter Squadron last week. They flew Spit IX and converted to the P51B. When this started the CO was away and the pilots checked out on the P51 and all of them wanted to kjeep the Spit IX, they appreciated the range but for a fight there was only one choice. When the CO returned he took up a P51 wrung it out and made a point of saying how much better the P51 was. The pilots thought that he must have banged his head, until it was pointed out that he was the CO and what did they expect him to say.I agree about P-38.
Competition is good thing. Expecting that US public and GM would've seat idly is unlikely to happen, aside the thing that we need Allisons for 3 major fighters now. P-51A (with Allison engine in production by early 1943) has performance comparable with Spit IX and contemporary German opposition; the single stage Merlin on P-51 (the one available in quantity by early '43) won't beat that.
I agree about P-38.
What quantity of fighers is assigned to combat units till Bell converts to P-40 production? If we want Bell to produce something else, P-51 is better choice anyway.
Agree about Merlin production; installing them (single-stage V-1610s) into P-40 is bad thing if you can install them in P-51.
Competition is good thing. Expecting that US public and GM would've seat idly is unlikely to happen, aside the thing that we need Allisons for 3 major fighters now. P-51A (with Allison engine in production by early 1943) has performance comparable with Spit IX and contemporary German opposition; the single stage Merlin on P-51 (the one available in quantity by early '43) won't beat that.
P-47 (historically, almost to 1945) has it's drawbacks, I agree. Combat range, performance under 25K. In the availabilty of engines it has an edge vs. Merlin Mustang, and we need plenty of fighters.
F4U is good choice, I agree.
Ditto for 20mm program.
People have to get over the idea that the US aircraft manufacturing was a "free" market in 1940-41. They also have to realize that production of large numbers of planes and engines took a long time to implement and production schedules could not be changed on a whim.
Allocation of machine tools and raw materials was already in place in 1940. Maybe if your companies bid is enough cheaper you can get the controlling authorities to change allocations. Trying to go out and buy the raw materials or machine tools in a "side deal" is going to get you arrested for black marketeering and your supplier charged with war profiteering.
you can't " build it and they will come".
First P-40 With a Merlin engine flew on June 30 1941. While the first production plane doesn't roll out the door until Feb 1942 all the production tooling was ordered and most built before Dec 8th 1941.
Allocations of aluminium and steel had been made to Allison and Packard during those months. If there were different radiators or oil coolers needed ( and the two engines did get rid of different amounts of heat through both oil and coolant from each other) then radiator and oil cooler odres had to have been place weeks or months before production starts.
Just getting steel beams for a factory addition required Govt. approval.
If you change Bell from P-39 production to P-51 production how many hundreds of P-39s don't get built?
In the first 3 months of 1942 there were 343 P-38s built, 433 P-39s, 960 P-40s, 5 P-47s 220 P-51s and 234 F4Fs.
Now consider it could take one to three months to get a plane from the factory door to a combat theater.
also consider that there seems to be a 5 month gap Oct 42 to Feb 1943 when NO P-51s were delivered. first production P-51B comes out the door in May of 1943. There is a major shortage of two stage Merlins and airframes pile up at the factory waiting on engines.
Despite Packard building over 800 single stage engines a month since July of 1942 production of Merlins falls to 608 in April 1943 and while production skyrockets in may it is not until July that two stage production exceeds 100 engines a month and not until Jan 1944 does production of two stage engines exceeds single stage engines.
also consider that there seems to be a 5 month gap Oct 42 to Feb 1943 when NO P-51s were delivered. first production P-51B comes out the door in May of 1943. There is a major shortage of two stage Merlins and airframes pile up at the factory waiting on engines.
The five month "gap" was do to A-36 production.