Suppose there was no Curtiss wright: P-35 with the Allison 1710 liquid cooled engine

[oldcrowcv63]

I have had one too many Bellini cocktails tonight on the canals of Venezia and the following thought surfaced based on thread entires discussing the evolution of the P-40 from the P-36: Suppose no Curtiss Wright and no P-36, would the P-35 have been nominated for installation of the Allison V-1710 engine?
What would it have looked like? How would it perform?

Probably have to imagine a P-43 with an Allison.

 

[tomo pauk]

Something like Re.2001?
Reggiane Re.2001 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[pattle]

I think the P35 was a good basic design as proved by the later P47's and Regianne's, no idea how well the Allison would have worked in it though but at a guess maybe as well as it did in the P40. As far as appearance goes, again I don't know perhaps the design may have turned into something more like the Regianne that the P47.

 

[R Pope]

Biggest thing with no P-36, then there would be no P-40, and North American wouldn't have been approached to build them for Britain, and thus no P-51.............

 

[wuzak]

The reason the Army chose the P-36 over the P-35 for a trial installation of the V-1710 was that it was very much narrower behind the engine section. This would suggest that a P-35/V-1710 would not gain the advantage over its parent aircraft than the P-40 did over the P-36.

 

[wuzak]

Biggest thing with no P-36, then there would be no P-40, and North American wouldn't have been approached to build them for Britain, and thus no P-51.............

I would imagine that if the P-35 was chosen as the airframe for the V-1710 that it would spawn the P-37 and P-40 variants.

 

[GregP]

Let's suppose they based it on something like the XP-40Q. It might look something like this ...

On the other hand, maybe not ...

 

[gjs238]

The P35, and later P43, wet wing concept never worked out.

 

[Koopernic]

The P35, and later P43, wet wing concept never worked out.

The P-47N had a successful wet wing (it was directly modified developed out of one of the P-47M prototypes).
I suspect there were minor problems with the wet wings in the P-35 and P-43 that could have been resolved. To avoid any anxiety in selling the P-47 Republic probably had them removed from the P-47 entirely to move the conversation on.

 

[Shortround6]

I don't know if the P-47N used a "wet wing" or not.

Fuel tanks in the wing do NOT mean a wet wing. In the P-35 and P-43 ( and a number of other late 1930s aircraft) they tried to seal up spaces in the wing and use the space as a fuel tank instead of installing a seperate tank in the space or even sticking a rubber bladder into the space. However as wings flexed in flight the seams (usually riveted) worked loose causing leaks. Different sealants were tried, maybe by 1944/45 they got a sealant to work, I don't know. But trying to make these tanks self sealing in a combat damage sense was much harder.

 

[MIflyer]

The original concept for the P-47 was a small fighter with a V-1710. Fortunately, they went the other way and built the P-43's big brother.