P-44 Rocket

[gjs238]

Was the P-44 Rocket a missed opportunity?
Long term, development of the R-2800 powered P-47 was a great goal.
But short term, might the R-2180-A Twin Hornet powered P-44 have provided better performance than many of its contempories?

 

[tomo pauk]

On paper it would've been a good conteder (1440 HP?, up to 25-27kft), but R-2180 was undeveloped IIRC.
A better bet seem turboed R-2000 Twin Wasp (10% more HP vs R-1830 TW), or turboed V-1710 (1325 HP up to 25kft, from march 1942).

Or bolt the R-2800 sans turbo

 

[Shortround6]

There were only about 30 R-2180s made in the pre-war series. So there is no real production line. Any mass production of R-2180s would be at the expense of either the R-1830 or both delaying and cutting into production of the R-2800.
There were only 9 R-2000s made in 1941 and 8 of them were in Dec. At that time over 1700 R-2800s had been built. The R-2000 is not a stepping stone to the R-2800. It is a step backward.