Shortround6
Major General
Unless you have absolute dictatorial powers a lot of this is not going to happen. Yes, Bristol made a mistake in trying to offer different 4 engines from 24.9 to 28.7 liters. But in hindsight it was the Taurus that was the Mistake. Since a Mercury is pretty much a Pegasus with 1 inch less stroke and a good part of the tooling existed before 1936 you don't save much by knocking of the Mercury. Perseus used Hercules cylinders, sleeves, pistons, at least to start. Only other program they were really fooling with was the Centaurus and telling Bristol before the war broke out that they would be kept in 2nd or 3rd place (no 2000 hp engine) among British engine makers wasn't going to happen.
The A-S Tiger didn't need just new bearings, it needed a new crankshaft and new crankcase to hold the bearings. From some stories J. Siddeley could be a pretty hard headed fellow.
The trouble with trying to get a "BIG" Canadian company to build any sort of aircraft engines in 1936-40 period is there weren't any BIG Canadian companies with large production line experience that aren't closely tied to American companies or that weren't already spoken for ( Canadian auto/truck plants built large quantities of vehicles for the Allies).
In 1938 in Canada the Aviation engine "industry" consisted of a repair and overhaul facility owned and run by Armstrong-Siddeley located inside the works of the Ottawa Car manufacturing company (makers of street cars). Perhaps some small production of small A-S engines did take-place there, There was considerable expansion during WWII.
But Please remember that ANY large scale production of most types of war material is highly dependent on the US, at least for the first few years. The Majority of machine tools will have to come from the US as will the majority of fittings/specialty parts and major sub assemblies ( carburetors, generators.starter motors, magnetos, etc). Allison had over 3000 sub-contractors supply parts/materiel for the Allison engine. It is going to take time ( a number of years) to build up even a part of the support system that a major aircraft engine factory would need in Canada.
I am not trying to put down or belittle the Canadians in anyway. They performed near miracles in producing certain types of war material but there were limits to how many new factories that could be built/equipped and managed in Both Canada and the US.
You might be able to get an aircraft engine factory built an into operation by 1940 but what do you have to give up for it?
What American engine factory gets shorted machine tools?
What other Canadian war factory gets shorted tooling, or management personnel or engineers or ?????
Canada built about 200 aircraft total in 1938 including DH Tiger Moths and was subcontracting parts for a number of other aircraft (Blackburn Shark?)
The Fairchild (Bristol) Bolingbroke (Blenheim) may help shed light on this. The "plan" started in 1937 with the Canadian government accepting the need to modernize and expand the RCAF. A modified Blenheim is selected as the aircraft needed and a suitably modified prototype flies in England on Sept 24 1937. Of 9 British produced Blenheim IVs (same thing as a Bolingbroke)earmarked as pattern and evaluation aircraft to be sent to Canada from 1938 production only 4 make it. There was an initial order for 18 aircraft from the Canadian production line, even with a large amount British supplied components the first Canadian built aircraft is not delivered until Nov 15 1939 and the 18th aircraft is delivered Aug 28th 1940. In the meantime the Bolingbroke has been adapted to American structural and equipment standards and called the Bolingbroke IV. First Bolingbroke IV was delivered Jan 30 1941.
Now maybe that could have been speeded up somewhat but there would have been no waving of a magic wand and the creation of a large factory capable of producing thousands of aircraft engines in the late 30s.
And lets think about this. IF the Canadians had been capable of build a large Merlin Factory in 1939/40 WHY did the British approach the US and try to get Ford at first and then Packard to build the Merlin?
WHY did the British (in 1939) pay Pratt Whitney enough money to double the floor space of their factory to meet British orders ( after the French had already paid to double the size of the original factory).
Why were they paying the US and US companies rather than keeping the money inside the commonwealth?
The A-S Tiger didn't need just new bearings, it needed a new crankshaft and new crankcase to hold the bearings. From some stories J. Siddeley could be a pretty hard headed fellow.
The trouble with trying to get a "BIG" Canadian company to build any sort of aircraft engines in 1936-40 period is there weren't any BIG Canadian companies with large production line experience that aren't closely tied to American companies or that weren't already spoken for ( Canadian auto/truck plants built large quantities of vehicles for the Allies).
In 1938 in Canada the Aviation engine "industry" consisted of a repair and overhaul facility owned and run by Armstrong-Siddeley located inside the works of the Ottawa Car manufacturing company (makers of street cars). Perhaps some small production of small A-S engines did take-place there, There was considerable expansion during WWII.
But Please remember that ANY large scale production of most types of war material is highly dependent on the US, at least for the first few years. The Majority of machine tools will have to come from the US as will the majority of fittings/specialty parts and major sub assemblies ( carburetors, generators.starter motors, magnetos, etc). Allison had over 3000 sub-contractors supply parts/materiel for the Allison engine. It is going to take time ( a number of years) to build up even a part of the support system that a major aircraft engine factory would need in Canada.
I am not trying to put down or belittle the Canadians in anyway. They performed near miracles in producing certain types of war material but there were limits to how many new factories that could be built/equipped and managed in Both Canada and the US.
You might be able to get an aircraft engine factory built an into operation by 1940 but what do you have to give up for it?
What American engine factory gets shorted machine tools?
What other Canadian war factory gets shorted tooling, or management personnel or engineers or ?????
Canada built about 200 aircraft total in 1938 including DH Tiger Moths and was subcontracting parts for a number of other aircraft (Blackburn Shark?)
The Fairchild (Bristol) Bolingbroke (Blenheim) may help shed light on this. The "plan" started in 1937 with the Canadian government accepting the need to modernize and expand the RCAF. A modified Blenheim is selected as the aircraft needed and a suitably modified prototype flies in England on Sept 24 1937. Of 9 British produced Blenheim IVs (same thing as a Bolingbroke)earmarked as pattern and evaluation aircraft to be sent to Canada from 1938 production only 4 make it. There was an initial order for 18 aircraft from the Canadian production line, even with a large amount British supplied components the first Canadian built aircraft is not delivered until Nov 15 1939 and the 18th aircraft is delivered Aug 28th 1940. In the meantime the Bolingbroke has been adapted to American structural and equipment standards and called the Bolingbroke IV. First Bolingbroke IV was delivered Jan 30 1941.
Now maybe that could have been speeded up somewhat but there would have been no waving of a magic wand and the creation of a large factory capable of producing thousands of aircraft engines in the late 30s.
And lets think about this. IF the Canadians had been capable of build a large Merlin Factory in 1939/40 WHY did the British approach the US and try to get Ford at first and then Packard to build the Merlin?
WHY did the British (in 1939) pay Pratt Whitney enough money to double the floor space of their factory to meet British orders ( after the French had already paid to double the size of the original factory).
Why were they paying the US and US companies rather than keeping the money inside the commonwealth?