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Well, you may need longer carriersWill the USN be better off, or worse off with the alternative fighters vs. the historical set-up?
Okay.Well, you may need longer carriers
Take-off run 550ft for a 5650lb airplane.
Please note that AHT says 620ft for a 6906lbs Brewster F2A-3.
Note that the 5650lb P-36A has got.
one .50 cal gun with 200 rounds
one .30 cal gun with 500 rounds
105 US gallons of fuel.
no protection of any sort.
A rather suspect reputation for weakness in the wing/landing gear area (wing skins wrinkling, landing gear to wing structure failures) in land planes.
French were trying to buy 30 additional wing sets over the winter of 1939/40 to repair existing French Hawk 75s.
Please note the Allison powered planes got worse, a lot quicker.
P-40 (no letter) needed 721 ft at 6655lbs. or just about what an F4F-4 needed at 7973lbs.
I may not have explained it well.Okay.
Seems like the P-36 will need to be upgraded, before we are certain that a P-40 can do the job.
Defection shooting. A valuable tool to curtail defectors from decamping to the enemy.I may not have explained it well.
The P-36/P-40 wing does not provide enough lift (wing area/airfoil/flap design=coefficient of lift) to make a good carrier plane.
By the time you stuff in enough guns/ammo (even four .50s or even six-eight .30s) and fuel for carrier operations (another 35-50 US gallons?)
both the take off distance and landing speed go up. A lot of P-40s wound up with landing speeds in the low 80s.
And lets remember there are three speeds.
Stalling speed.
Landing speed.
Approach speed.
A P-40E had a higher landing speed than an F4U.
Whatever gains you can get in speed and roll with the P-36/P-40 you pay for in increased deck requirement's and other things.
The US Navy did an evaluation of a P-40F starting June 6th 1942 at Anacostia Naval Air Station against an F4F-4 and while the P-40F was better at somethings it was worse in others.
One reason the F4F and F6F had those high cockpits was to give a better pilot view for landing (and defection shooting).
The evaluation even covered things like cockpit ventilation, heating and noise (P-40F was better in all 3) but the P-40 cockpit was more cramped.
You could fix the things that were wrong with the P-36/P-40 for carrier use, but it probably won't be a P-36/P-40 any more (new wing and landing gear ?)
The V-1710 originally was developed for the USN. I suspect that it was intended for airships, where the speed might be too low for air-cooled engines but I don't know.But has the USN ever operated a liquid cooled ICE-powered carrier aircraft
Does the P-36 offer better performance after being equipped with hooks, folding wings and catapult hooks? I am looking at Profile Publications here, and it appears that the carrier capable F4F-3 had the same top speed and rate of climb.Basically - a scenario where USN adopts the navalized Curtiss fighters instead of the F2A/F4F/FM. The number of the respective A/C delivered is in the ballpark. The newly fanged naval fighters can receive suitable engine upgrades as they are available, ie. the 2-stage R-1830 on these fighters is also good to go (talk by late 1941). Same with later R-1820s (some time mid-1943?). Yes, V-1710 is still very much in play.
Folding wings also get introduced, perhaps by early 1942, ie. similar as with the F4F-4.
Protection for pilot and fuel, as well as drop tank installation are introduced by some time 1941, ie. more or less as it was the case historically.
Will the USN be better off, or worse off with the alternative fighters vs. the historical set-up?
They tested the Bell XFL Airabonita.I does look good aboard ship, even if just in a ferry role. But has the USN ever operated a liquid cooled ICE-powered carrier aircraft?
The P-36 would perhaps be a better candidate for the time period.
Keep in mind that folding wings didn't appear until the TBD was accepted.
The F2A, early F4F and SBD did not have folding wings.
Does the P-36 offer better performance after being equipped with hooks, folding wings and catapult hooks? I am looking at Profile Publications here, and it appears that the carrier capable F4F-3 had the same top speed and rate of climb.
How would a non-carrier version of the F4F have performed for the USAAF?
If it won't take-off and land from a carrier what is the point?Does the P-36 offer better performance after being equipped with hooks, folding wings and catapult hooks?
Was the F4U able to take off from the carriers, needing 710 ft (lightest configuration; almost 1400 ft with drop tanks and no bombs) to take off with zero wind over the wings?If it won't take-off and land from a carrier what is the point?
Earlier, in the biplane era, they did, e.g., the Boeing FB. They even operated a carrier-capable twin, the Douglas T2D.I does look good aboard ship, even if just in a ferry role. But has the USN ever operated a liquid cooled ICE-powered carrier aircraft?
View attachment 763721
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qavJ5cCP5S4
Too bad they didn't keep the tricycle gear, it would have been among the very first carrier aircraft thus equipped.They tested the Bell XFL Airabonita.
Ahh yes, you're right!Not true, even in the USN. A number of its USN biplane torpedo bomber predecessors dating back to 1922 and culminating in the the Martin T4M, had folding wings.
Probably not without a catapult.Was the F4U able to take off from the carriers, needing 710 ft (lightest configuration; almost 1400 ft with drop tanks and no bombs) to take off with zero wind over the wings?
With a 25kt wind (Not 25mph) the F4U needed
10,000lbs..........................200ft
11,500lbs..........................300ft
12,700lbs..........................400ft
13,750lbs..........................500ft
14,250lbs..........................600ft
These are with 30 degrees of flap. These are from a chart in the manual and the weights are not broken down as to what the loads are comprised of.
USN in 1938/39 was still very much aware of the fact that a moving CV helps with taking off (and landing), and that was double so if/when the CV was sailing against a wind. So our P-36N (copyright) that will require perhaps 700 ft when taking off from ground will require close to 350 ft when taking off from a carrier in actual service.However with wind things get a lot better, but we may be comparing different standards. What the USN was willing to accept in 1938/39 and what they were willing to accept in 1943/43 may be different things.