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I admit that I only have the figures on the N Williams site but they seem to give the Tomahawk I 1020hp at 11,600ft and performance is poor.
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The P-40C/Tomahawk IIB's performance degraded due to the protection on the P-40B being felt to be inadequate (at least by american planners). More advanced (and limited capacity) self-sealing tanks were introduced along with increased armor (including armor glass for the windshield) along with the belly shackle.
So climb/turn performance dropped significantly, speed dropped more modestly.
The V-1710's good specific fuel consumption at cruise was part of the key to the longer range on US aircraft (on top of aerodynamics and -mostly- fuel capacity) So some of the range advantage would be lost by using a merlin ...
The higher fuel capacity is still going to be a major advantage, though.
For 1941 I'd still have to agree that ... inadequate or not, of existing aircraft available to the British, the Tomahawk IIA and IIB were the closest things to esxort fighters they had on hand.
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Hmm ... that's a more interestion suggestion, but do remember the Hispano was a larger/heavier weapon than the MG-151. (the underwing pods on the P-39Q would probably be more comparable than hispano gun pods)
Did the recon spits even use self sealing tanks for the extended range? (that'd be a major issue to consider)
With similar technology, you're going to pretty consistently have superior 1 to 1 performance for short range interceptors over long range escort fighters.
So you NEED a technological edge to manage competent escort fighters (or long range roaming intruders/penetration fighters) that are relatively close to even terms with enemy interceptors.
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I'm referring to the US daylight campaign and interceptions by the Luftwaffe.
I meant that the Battle of Britan (and prior action in France) forced the RAF and Rolls Royce to put more aggressive engine testing/experimentation in place, developing emergency ratings on engines years before the US did. Same engines ... all a matter of testing in the factory and in the field.I have never heard of the RAF pushing the Merlin beyond its normal operating limits with the exception of 12lb boost being used for longer than five minutes. That did happen a number of times.
As for the P40 in the BOB it was never going to happen being nine months too late for the battle. Even then it lacked climb, performance, protection, agility and altitude performance. The engine only produced 1040hp the 12lb boost Merlin was looking at 1,300hp a significant difference. A P40B could hold its own up to approx. 15,000ft but above that forget it and I think that only made service in mid 41..
Unless you count intial climb on some loadouts for later P-40s in WER power ... definitely the fastest climber on mil power.The 1st production P-40 was delivered at June 1940, the 1st Tomahawk I was delivered (still it is in the USA) at Sept 1940. Production-wise, they might qualify for the BoB, but obviously not when we count in the training and logistic needs.
The early P-40 will climb better than any subsequent P-40, being far lighter. With 120 US gals, the P-40 was at 6800 lbs and doing 357-360 mph tests.
I think the P-40B was fairly close to late model Spitfire Mk.Is maybe closer to Mk.IIs. P-40Cs got the totally redesigned fuel system using self-sealing cells rather than conventional tanks with sealing material applied to the exterior. (Cs also added armor glass to the windshields as standard)Protection of 1940 BoB fighters was not equal with what fighters carried in 1941, let alone, say, in 1943.
Roll rate, overall control weights at high speeds, stall characteristics, and dive acceleration would be useful characteristics too. (plus lack of negative G problems) Then there's the higher fuel capacity and good fuel economy allowing a more flexible mission profile than the spit/hurri/109. (longer endurance, longer loiter time ... roaming patrols might be logistically difficult though -that range/endurance would have made it more interesting for the Germans as an escort or fighter-bomber compared to the 109)The Spitfire is not the only aircraft that fought during the BoB. Early P-40 does have it's shortcomings, but it's performance was closer to the Spit and 109E, than to the Hurricanes and Bf 110.
The .50 browning or (if they'd taken an interest) .50 vickers (might have had better synronized RoF too and lighter and more compact -2 wing root guns plus 2 cowl guns would have been decent even with the lower powered vickers rounds).Nevertheless its interesting to note that many of the engineering decisions made by RJ Mitchel and J Smith over ruled the possibility of using the full wing for fuel storage. For instance Mitchell did not like the idea of synchronised cowling machine guns or a motor gun because it inevitably 'thickened' the fuselage. Had weaponry been mounted on the cowling, between the V block or in the wing roots (as in the Fw 190, He 112 and several Soviet aircraft) the wings might have been left clear. There were no doubt other issues such as lack of a suitable guns, the inability of Merlin engine propeller combination to take this without re-engineering. The US 0.5" Browning with hydraulic hydrostatic interrupter gear in the wing roots seems the easiest to me. Likewise the rejection of 'gondola' hispano weapons on the Spitfire by J Smith.
It seems neither man was motivated by the Air Ministry to increase the range of their aircraft.
The Typhoon's range hardly fit the requirements for that role either, even without teething troubles.Somewhat more puzzling is the lack of a long range escort specification by the RAF unless once considers the Typhoon and its teething problems.
The P-40C carried tanks of 134 US gal (111.7 Imp), but the P-40E expanded that to 157 gallons (130.7 Imp). The P-40N reduced that to 122 US gallons. (on a side note, if the same proportions are applied for the 160 gal vs 134, the P-40E's configuration might have allowed some 187 US -156 imp- gallons with P-40B style tanks)My understanding is that the Tomahawk IIA (P-40B) carried 131 Imp Gallons (160 US Gallons) but that later versions dropped down to 120 Imp gallons) This is still well above the Spitfire III/V's 85 gallons and similar for P-39.
The .50 browning or (if they'd taken an interest) .50 vickers (might have had better synronized RoF too and lighter and more compact -2 wing root guns plus 2 cowl guns would have been decent even with the lower powered vickers rounds).
Mounting hispanos in underwing pods was suggested too. Use fuel tanks in the wings and a pair of 20 mm underwing and it might have been useful. (depends just how much drag the installation added)
Outside of what you were referring to - but I thought these images were pretty striking:
Bf 109 on a Spitfire on a Ju 88
Mustang on a Fw 190 on a Lancaster
View attachment 286512
Performance for pretty much any actual service-test aircraft tended to be significantly below the factor/aproval tests. The P-40D/E/F/L/M/N usually failed to meet their specified level speed if not climb performnace as well. Same is true for the Hurricane and Spitfire (some models more than others). Propellers used could make a big difference too, even aside from early examples of fixed-pitch ones.The main trouble with all (or most) of the P-40s "advantages" is that they only apply to altitudes that are too low to be useful in the BoB or for an escort fighter over Europe in 1941-42.
And it seems a lot of the "book" figures for the P-40B were done at a rather unrealistic weight for the proposed duties.
http://www.wwiiaircraftperformance.org/P-40/P-40B_Official_Summary_of_Characteristics.jpg
Performance figures are for 6835lbs. The "normal" gross weight of 7326lbs has the plane holding 120 US gallons of gas, not the 160gal over load condition.
Ditching the wing guns entirely might be better in that case ... depending on how much weight you put in nose mountings and concentrated fire being superior. (even with the low RoF of the .50s when synched)Getting rid of 490lbs of useful load means ripping out guns and armor and/or fuel/oil ( the pilot has to stay). You only had 720lbs of fuel to make 120 gallons. Performance with 38.33 gals of fuel on board is rather useless.
We can do the easy thing first and ditch ammo.
Cut wing guns from 500rpg to 350rpg will save 36lbs =6 gallons
Cut fuselage guns from 380rpg to 200rpg will save 108lbs (.50 cal ammo is heavy)= 18 gallons.
If we aren't going to use full fuel tanks we don't need a full oil tank. If we pull 42lbs of oil (roughly 1/3rd) we can get another 7 gallons of gas.
I'm not sure the .50 vickers gun had those same problems, the tests I've seen show it to be fairly reliable ... but it never entered RAF service, so there's no field experience to go by for aircraft use..50 cal Browning is a lot of weight for not a lot of result in synchronized mountings. The Vickers .303 gun was subject to an amazing variety of jams and was NEVER placed were the pilot or crewman could not get to it to working the charging handle/lever and/or beat on it with a gloved hand.
If we were talking Spitfires with nose armanets on the level of the 109, then yes, that'd be worth exploring, but I was suggesting a REDUCED armament compared to the Spit V/IX though more potent than the 8-gun early marks. (a single pair of underwing cannons or even faired close and half-burried in the wings -with the feed mechanism totally internal still, occuping the rear of the wing but freeing up the leading edge boxes for fuel.)And once again, weight is more important at times than drag. the 109 gunboats were still fast but climb, turn and roll all suffered to the point where they needed non-boats to handle the opposing fighters.
The thread is about RAF daylight raids, a photo of an Fw 190 being shot at while attacking an RAF Lancaster is completely on topic, I dont know how the discussion was turned around to exclude lightly armed German and British bombers and made to exclusively consider USAF deep penetration raids. The Lanc was the RAFs frontline strategic bomber, it applies to this thread.
Performance for pretty much any actual service-test aircraft tended to be significantly below the factor/aproval tests. The P-40D/E/F/L/M/N usually failed to meet their specified level speed if not climb performnace as well. Same is true for the Hurricane and Spitfire (some models more than others). Propellers used could make a big difference too, even aside from early examples of fixed-pitch ones.
Ditching the wing guns entirely might be better in that case ... depending on how much weight you put in nose mountings and concentrated fire being superior. (even with the low RoF of the .50s when synched)
Plus it's 50 vs 30 cal performance here. If you're dealing mostly with light/fragile structured opponents, the 4x .30s might be preferable to using the .50s at all. (with decent armor and strong structures, the .30s would be much less useful anyway)
I'm not sure the .50 vickers gun had those same problems, the tests I've seen show it to be fairly reliable ... but it never entered RAF service, so there's no field experience to go by for aircraft use.
The guns and ammo were both significantly ligher than the Browning though.
The pre-war .50 browning was showing higher rates of stopages than the vicker's too, from what I recall ... but the vicker's gun wasn't developed further, and the browning was. With that it's broad speculation to suppose the vicker's gun would have improved substantially. We know the browning did and we know it converted well to the .50 vickers round (lighter and faster firing than the existing vickers guns or italian guns using that ammunition).The .303 Vicker's gun was pretty near unbreakable, which is a different form of reliability ( British Paratroopers were using a few in Aden in 1960, years after it was "officially" retired.) That didn't mean the gunners manual didn't list 27 different possible jams. Usually diagnosed by the position the crank handle stopped at. Most jams (at least in ground guns) could be cleared fairly easily. Since the .5in gun was pretty much just a scaled up .303 gun it is hard to believe it wouldn't have pretty much the same characteristics.
A Browning sized to take the British .5in cartridge would certainly be interesting however. A British version of the Japanese Ho-103.
the 109 gunboats were still fast but climb, turn and roll all suffered to the point where they needed non-boats to handle the opposing fighters.
Hmm, more degraded than the Hurricane IIC? Though with the hurricane already being a heavier and higher drag airframe, the percentage of performance loss might have been less dramatic. (similar might have been true comparing a 6 gun P-40E/F/L/M with a re-armmed 4 hispanos)As an example I just read elsewhere that one of Australia's greatest fighter pilots, Clive Caldwell, experimented with a Spitfire VIII armed with four cannon (Morotai, 1945). It was an effort to up the hitting power of the Spitfire in a close support role. He concluded that the handling of the aircraft was so degraded by the addition of the two cannon that it would be dangerous for the average pilot to fly such an aircraft at low level. The idea was subsequently abandoned.
In this line of thinking, what would be the combat range or radius requirements for a useful escort fighter? Drop tank equipped spitfires could range decently far into France. Let alone with modifications for more modest internal tankage expansion. (and more emphasis on 100+ gallon drop tanks earlier)The thread is about RAF daylight raids, a photo of an Fw 190 being shot at while attacking an RAF Lancaster is completely on topic, I dont know how the discussion was turned around to exclude lightly armed German and British bombers and made to exclusively consider USAF deep penetration raids. The Lanc was the RAFs frontline strategic bomber, it applies to this thread.
Hmm, more degraded than the Hurricane IIC? Though with the hurricane already being a heavier and higher drag airframe, the percentage of performance loss might have been less dramatic. (similar might have been true comparing a 6 gun P-40E/F/L/M with a re-armmed 4 hispanos)
Hmm, more degraded than the Hurricane IIC? Though with the hurricane already being a heavier and higher drag airframe, the percentage of performance loss might have been less dramatic. (similar might have been true comparing a 6 gun P-40E/F/L/M with a re-armmed 4 hispanos)
The Hurricane IIC had just the four 20mm cannon; the Spitfire VIII was designed to carry four cannon AND four .303" Brownings. The R.A.A.F. were expected to intercept nimble Zeros at above 20,000', and Caldwell knew perfectly well the VIII, with 8 guns, would never do it.Hmm, more degraded than the Hurricane IIC?
This is new to me \I admit, can you supply something to support this ideaThe Hurricane IIC had just the four 20mm cannon; the Spitfire VIII was designed to carry four cannon AND four .303" Brownings. The R.A.A.F. were expected to intercept nimble Zeros at above 20,000', and Caldwell knew perfectly well the VIII, with 8 guns, would never do it.
Yes, this is also why I was focusing more on the potential leading edge wing tanks on the spitfire than the rear tank. That placement seems like a less problematic location for degrading CoG positioning. (plus issues with being nose-heavy usually caused fewer problems with stability -and especially stall/spin characteristics than being tail heavy)The problem wasn't so much performance loss as it was the detrimental effect on handling. Many of the 'solutions' and fixes so lightly proposed (fuselage tanks being a good example) had serious effects on the Spitfire's stability. It's all very well saying that once the tank was emptied the handling and stability would return to more normal parameters, but by then a less able pilot might have killed himself and destroyed the aircraft.
During a war some measures unthinkable in peace time might be and were allowed, but service aircraft, with very few exceptions, had to be flyable by the least able pilots, not just the best. Caldwell was well aware of this.
Training and actual knowledge of the aircraft's characteristics. Some handling problems were less officially known than others. The CoG specific stability issues on the P-39 were noted in the field before officially documented at Bell. (and specific to being nose-light/tailheavy)Training, training and more training was required and many WW2 pilots didn't get it. The idea that most of them could handle any aircraft in which modifications had caused some instability or malicious handling characteristics is silly.
I mostly try to think in terms of reasonable hypothetical thinking/foresight (not hindsight) of engineers and planners from the period. (ie choices that made sense to them ... even if they didn't make them historically)Indeed they were.
There is a generally cavalier attitude expressed on forums like this today towards alterations to aircraft (I am most definitely not aiming this at SR, though I've quoted him above). People seek to add fuel and/or tanks, auxiliary tanks and make alterations to armament etc as if these were simple things to do. If the were places like the A&AEE would not have been needed.
The Hurricane IIC had just the four 20mm cannon; the Spitfire VIII was designed to carry four cannon AND four .303" Brownings. The R.A.A.F. were expected to intercept nimble Zeros at above 20,000', and Caldwell knew perfectly well the VIII, with 8 guns, would never do it.