Perhaps a bit too much blame on the
.
How much of the blame can be put on Curtiss or how much goes to the USAAC for the eight .50 cal armament I don't know.
There was quite a craze for laminar flow wings in 1940-43, it is a wonder that the USAAC didn't ask for a modified Stearman with laminar flow wings
It took a while before people realized that the laminar flow wings didn't work in the real world as well as they worked in wind tunnels.
Even if you are a money cruncher, if your main customer is putting out requirements for
"NEW" aircraft (like the XP-55) you can either go along and give then new designs, try to argue with them that the old design with a few tweaks will do just as as good a job, or just go out of business anyway as your competitors give the customer what the customer says it wants.
to a 1939/40 request Bell offered;
Speed
est: 425mph at 19,500ft.
Vultee got a contract covering engineering data and wind tunnel models on June 22, 1940 that lead to
Curtiss submitted the XP-55 Ascender and later built a full sized low powered test rig
at company expense to keep the project alive.
Northrop came up with the
These were ALL in response to the Circular Proposal R-40C, issued November 27, 1939 which called for "a fighter that would be much more effective than any extant--with a top speed, rate of climb, maneuverability, armament, and pilot visibility, all of which would be far superior to those of any existing fighter. In addition, the fighter was required to have a low initial cost and had to be easy and inexpensive to maintain. The Army specifically mentioned in R-40C that they would consider aircraft with unconventional configurations." *
Submitting a slightly modified P-40, even in 1941 when the original engine some of these planes were designed around was canceled and they were scrambling for substitutes was unlikely to find favor with the purchasing agency. They were looking for a major change in performance/capability and not a small increment. Unfortunately the major change was running into some problems with trans-sonic drag and most if not all of the performance estimates were way off.
In this field of prototypes the XP-53/60 was actually somewhat low risk. Take P-40 fuselage and stick on a new wing and engine.
Please note that the
original PAPER proposals for all these aircraft were made in 1940 when Curtiss was making long nose P-40s and was just starting work on the P-40D/E.
*From Joe Baughers website.