Light fighters alternatives, 1935-1945 (6 Viewers)

[z42]

Could we make a V-12 air cooled light fighter powered by the de Havilland Gipsy Twelve?

I'm sure we could, but would it be any good? Probably not, the 425hp that engine produced (per wiki) is too little even for a lightweight fighter.

Is there any advantage of a air cooled inline engine over a radial?

Smaller frontal area and, well, that's about it.

Limiting ourselves to just British engines, instead of the Gypsy Twelve we could pick, say, the Bristol Mercury. Comparing the specs on Wikipedia, the Mercury is on the market 12 years earlier, weighs slightly less, and produces 200hp more.

Bristol Mercury - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[tomo pauk]

Limiting ourselves to just British engines, instead of the Gypsy Twelve we could pick, say, the Bristol Mercury. Comparing the specs on Wikipedia, the Mercury is on the market 12 years earlier, weighs slightly less, and produces 200hp more.

Mercury was outfitted with the proper supercharging, so it was very useful engine even at high altitudes of the day.
A supercharger of the Gipsy Twelve looks as it the people were looking at the HS 12X and Y superchargers and said: we can do worse. But, being a bit more than a warmed-up ww1 tech, the engine power section was perhaps a full decades behind ... everything, and meagre supercharging was all it could take.

Perhaps a niche for the Gipsy Twelve might've been in the tank engines' compartments? De-rate it a bit so it can use the pool petrol.