If the Hughes H-1 would have been made into a fighter...

[SaparotRob]

You can get away with sneaking blast tubes between the cylinders on 9 cylinder single row radials.
Doesn't work with 14cylinder two row engines.

Not with that attitude.

 

[Shortround6]

Well that is me, Mister Contrarian.
I tend to frown on drilling holes the cylinder heads to run the blast tubes for the machineguns. Others may be more inventive.

 

[fannum]

Remember the successful Caudron C.460 racer begat the badly timed and slow to develop C.714 light fighter. Wooden construction, small engine and minimal firepower put them at a disadvantage by 1940, and the French and Finns hardly used them, while the desperate Poles pretty much held their own, matching kills and losses against greatly superior Luftwaffe invaders.

There are indications that Hughes considered the H-1 as a basis for the military, but flew Lockheed and Seversky prototypes (note his friendship with Kelly Johnson whom I'd suspect he'd discuss things, plus his around the world record in a Lockheed 14 Super Electra) and there are no indications that the lightweight aluminum/wood design was considered by him.

Most of all, he was always eager to sell his dreams to the nation and look at the energy he doggedly put into his complex D-2/XF-11 and HK-1/H-4 projects. If he suspected there was any potential in the H-1, I for one believe he would have pursued it relentlessly, and not given up so quickly when he got the first USAAC rebuff. Consider by then he was obsessed with setting the "hat trick" of aviation records with the absolute speed, transcontinental, and global speed records. He initially bought his Sikorsky S-43 seaplane for the latter, but had bureaucratic delays, and decided the Super Electra would be faster.

Consider the energy put into the Glomar Explorer. He had all the passion in the world for exotic and "impossible" projects, but also weighed all the possibilities, and didn't make many engineering mistakes.

 

[special ed]

Remember, Hughes later accused Lockheed of stealing his D-2 design for the P-38.

 

[fannum]

Remember, Hughes later accused Lockheed of stealing his D-2 design for the P-38.

IMHO, that rather supports my point that he was involved closely with the tech and so many varied developers of the day with a special link with Lockheed. Remember that with his TWA control, he stimulated, influenced and bankrolled the development of the Boeing 307 and the Constellation.
He also had close ties with Sikorsky, and virtually lived in the Lockheed design bureau, if you read accounts of engineer Irv Culver and sailplane pioneer Hawley Bowlus who figured in the history of Ryan and Douglas in the early days.
Hughes obsession with the Duramold process had to have links to the molded wood Lockheed Vega series, sneered at by the USAAC, but of course, look at the Mosquito's impact.
Wouldn't you have loved to be a fly on the wall as Howard met with the likes of Kelly Johnson, Jack Northrop, Igor Sikorsky, etc. It would have to have been a melding of optimistic concepts being thrashed out against physics and fiscal realities, but stimulating fresh, innovative approaches.
If you have genius, egos, optimism and disagreements are bedfellows.

 

[special ed]

When astronomers first began showing the rock structure "face on Mars", I joked that when the first men land at that site they will find a bronze plaque, dated and saying "Placed by The Glomar Space Explorer".

 

[fannum]

Not trying to hijack this thread, but Elon Musk is keeping that spirit alive, of stubbornly accomplishing the impossible by pursuing new directions, and he started without Hughes fortune!

 

[MarkS]

You can't look at the H-1 and not see the F4U Corsair in the future. Inverted gull wings aside, of course.

 

[_PabloSniper_]

You can't look at the H-1 and not see the F4U Corsair in the future. Inverted gull wings aside, of course.

In fact, the same designer of the H-1 made the P-66, which in turn is the father of the Corsair.

Racing Planes and Air Races. A Complete History, vol. III 1932-1939 (Aero Publishers 1967)