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It would have been a big help for someone to look at a map and see that Supermarine could hardly be placed in a better position for a surprise raid.
A sea plane company would tend to be near the coast. I suppose it could have been placed on the other coast, the one not close to Europe, but perhaps there was less of the kind of people and industry there to support an enterprise such as super marine.
How about a Buzzard powered version? Bulkier but lighter than the Dagger, at least excluding radiator weight (and radiator and header tank placement could at least be easier to manage CoG changes compared to the Goshawk).The Kestrel never seems to have been suggested as a replacement for the Goshawk. The Air Ministry asked Supermarine for a Napier Dagger version, but the company declined and the Ministry didn't really want it, Verney told MacLean as much through those unofficial back channels.
The real 'what if' would have been a PV 12 powered version. The possibility that a Type 224 might have been powered by the PV 12 is tantalisingly raised in a Supermarine report of October 1934. In the end a different aeroplane was designed around the PV 12/Merlin, and we all know how that turned out.
Thanks for the reply Koopernic. A world war was obviously coming, the 224 and the Spitfire were not sea planes I consider it a great oversight that the facilities of Supermarine were not moved and or dispersed, their factory and offices were easily picked out and attacked. The production should have been set up/dispersed to Wales Scotland English Midlands or North East West.
I had a great surprise on a sightseeing boat trip to lake Windermere to find that the ramp is still there where Sunderland flying boats were assembled, Shorts is was based in Northern Ireland, over the Irish Sea, I presume the attraction of a lake won over an industrial complex just because you can take off and land most of the time.. There is no heavy industry there now and certainly none in the 1940s in a war all is possible.
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Somebody already had; you seem to be forgetting that plans were under way, before the war, for the Castle Bromwich plant to start production, and it was only a combination of poor management and militant union members which held things up. Once Beaverbrook prised the factory out of Nuffield's dead grip, and told the workforce it was a case of build Spitfires, or go down the mines, things started to move.It would have been a big help for someone to look at a map and see that Supermarine could hardly be placed in a better position for a surprise raid.
the only thing that would really get Supermarine to improve its production facilities would have been an order for numbers of Spitfires like the one placed for Hurricanes; at that time the largest single order for a British military aeroplane. This would have required an increase in floor space and workforce beyond what Supermarine was capable of at Woolston. .
Very much so; until late 1939 the Spitfire seems to have been largely unwanted, probably because it was felt that the Hurricane could cope with the only aircraft likely to arrive here from Germany. As the 224's performance was below that of the Hurricane, it would never have been put into production.As 'nuuumann' has noted, once again some are posting with the benefit of hindsight.
Building 200 obsolete when built fighters justto try to expand Supermarine's plant and work force (and the British were building way too many obsolete when built aircraft) seems like a waste of time and money.
Perhaps I should have said that they didn't want any more from Supermarine;
... and it was only a combination of poor management and militant union members which held things up.
Or perhaps it would have led to greater interest in Gloster's monoplane fighter development (F.5/34 and F.9/37).It might have been worse if Gloster was not instructed to build Hurricanes under licence - even more obsolete biplane fighters.