BarnOwlLover
Staff Sergeant
I saw a PDF for the M.20 last night, couldn't find where I found it (maybe somewhere at Secret Projects), but I found scans of it on here. The things that stuck out to me is that Miles seemed to have planned on making it a heavy cannon armed fighter, a ground attack aircraft and even a long range bomber escort.
Mind you, I do find some of the stuff mentioned to be a bit ambitious. Namely, the cannon armed version was supposed to have two cannons and 4 .303 machine guns with 800 rpg per machine gun and 180 rpg per cannon. Also, when set up as a long range fighter with drop tanks, it was supposed to have a max endurance of at least 5 hours.
I do find these figures a bit far fetched, but if they were doable (IMO, kind of a big if based on what's been talked about in my light fighter threads), it does pose an interesting point of speculation about maybe making a better (non-emergency stop gap) fighter to do similar jobs.
For perspective, the M20's max take off weight in cannon armed configuration was similar to that of the RAF Spec Mustang I, max all up weight was similar to a clean but otherwise fully loaded P-51B/C/D/K, and the basic standard M20 was nearly half a ton heavier than a similarly equipped Spitfire I or II.
Mind you, I do find some of the stuff mentioned to be a bit ambitious. Namely, the cannon armed version was supposed to have two cannons and 4 .303 machine guns with 800 rpg per machine gun and 180 rpg per cannon. Also, when set up as a long range fighter with drop tanks, it was supposed to have a max endurance of at least 5 hours.
I do find these figures a bit far fetched, but if they were doable (IMO, kind of a big if based on what's been talked about in my light fighter threads), it does pose an interesting point of speculation about maybe making a better (non-emergency stop gap) fighter to do similar jobs.
For perspective, the M20's max take off weight in cannon armed configuration was similar to that of the RAF Spec Mustang I, max all up weight was similar to a clean but otherwise fully loaded P-51B/C/D/K, and the basic standard M20 was nearly half a ton heavier than a similarly equipped Spitfire I or II.
