Re-engined planes (1 Viewer)

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I wonder what the heat waves coming off that turbo right in front of the windscreen would do to the pilots forward visibility. Any night flying would be out of the question.

Not to mention the pilot's comfort levels with that heat in front of him.
 
A Vulture powered Corsair

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The height of the engine looks OK, but what about the width? The Mustang's fusealge is not much more than 30" wide - and the radial with cowling is going to be 55"+.

The NAA will have to do what Lavotchkin Kawasaki did while re-engining their fighters :)
 
Think they attached different engine mount and added 'skirts' to blend the engine cowling with the hull?
 
And the advantages of a Taurus powered Whirlwind are?

More drag

more power for take off and low level work

little or no additional power at 15,000ft or so

An engine that may have had as many problems as the Peregrine

An engine that suffered from chronic overheating, from what I understand.

And one that wasn't going anywhere while Bristol were sorting Hercules production out (a la Peregrine and Vulture et al for Rolls-Royce).
 
And the advantages of a Taurus powered Whirlwind are?

More drag

more power for take off and low level work

little or no additional power at 15,000ft or so

An engine that may have had as many problems as the Peregrine

Taurus-engined Gloster F.9/37 was achieving 30mph more than Peregrine-engined one, so that should account for something. Deletion of glycol radiators enables as twice as much of internal fuel. One engine type less (reduces logistics footprint RAF others that could use it).

Anyway, Twin Wasp is my preferred engine for both Whirly F.9/37.
 
Taurus-engined Gloster F.9/37 used a pair of prototype engines that never saw service. Wasn't it later re-engined with Taurus III engines which dropped it's speed by about 30mph? All service Taurus engines seem to have had a FTH of about 3,500 hundred feet.

Taurus engine was about 1300lbs, Twin Wasp is about 1450lbs, Peregrine was about 1140lbs without radiators which could be mounted on or slightly behind the center of gravity.
 
Perhaps it was the Taurus III at 900 HP, but Taurus II (1940, for Beaufort I) was rated at 1080 HP?
 
The later Taurus ( VI, VII, XVI ) engines seem to be rated at 1130hp at 3100rpm using 4.75lbs boost at 3,500ft. even on 100/130 fuel, they may have done nothing more than check to see if the fuel fouled the plugs more than 87 grade. If you loose 2% per 1000ft of altitude then these engines would be good for about 870hp at 15,000ft. Great engines (maybe?) for a low altitude attack plane, not so good for a fighter expected to do much of anything even at 15,000ft. If you regear the supercharger to raise the FTH you lose some of the low altitude power. Bristol never really put any more development into the engine and it was troublesome enough that not only Australia power it's Beaufort's with Twin Wasps ( more of a supply issue though) but the British made plans to do so also. Ship carrying the first shipment of engines was torpedoed however. 164 British built planes did wind up with Twin Wasps however.
 
So we have basically two 'paths' for a 'Taurused' Whirly.
One is that engines stay as they were. Such a plane can do tank busting/CAS (in lieu of Hurri II-IV, and (not tank busting) later Blenheims ), anti-shipping job (perhaps not by a torpedo, but with bombs), long range fighter sweeps (but not vs. France/Low countries under LW control), .
With re-geared engines, it can be almost as competitive as Typhoon, perhaps?

As for Taurus being being troublesome, that is clear to all of us ;)
 
How might have looked Ki-61 with front end of an captured P-40 and clipped wings, HMGs relocated in wings. Perhaps 600-630 km/h - depending on Allison - and comparable with Hellcat Spit Mk.V.

How about Ki-61 with Meredith Effect radiator installation (a la P-51 Mustang; buried in fuse with underneath airscoop)? Maybe a Ki-61D?
 
Original Ki-61 almost 'had' the radiator harvesting Meredith effect; really a 300-400 more HP (with inline, or 500-600 with radial) was needed by 1944 for the plane to remain competitive.
 
Original Ki-61 almost 'had' the radiator harvesting Meredith effect; really a 300-400 more HP (with inline, or 500-600 with radial) was needed by 1944 for the plane to remain competitive.

There was no plenum chamber area, so in its production state it did not. I'm not arguing whther it remained competitive or not, just what it would look like with a Meredith effect radiator installation and perhaps a better inline engine. Isn't that what this thread is about? A little fantastic indulgence?
 

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