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I agree. The V-16 could probably be made to work but so could the more advanced German V-24s.
However IMO Junkers should have been the only V-24 engine project which received funding. That would allow Daimler-Benz to complete the DB603 V-12, giving Germany an interim engine between the DB601 and Jumo222.
Nothing in this case. The DB605 was a great WWII era aircraft engine.
There appears to have been a difference of opinion between RLM and Daimler-Benz. RLM wanted larger aircraft engines. Daimler-Benz thought the DB605 series worthy of additional development. Daimler-Benz won the argument. That's why Germany had 1,800hp DB605ASM engines in mass production during 1944 and 2,000hp DB605D engines in mass production during 1945 while development and production of the DB603 series engine proceeded very slowly.
If the V-16 was a problem child, I hate to think what a V24 would be.
I was being a bit sarcastic. It seems that while not every engine was ready to go when it was canceled a fair number of them "claim" to have been ready when short sighted management or government agency pulled the plug. While the Jumo 222 is an extreme example with over 200 built but still not really ready to go due to changing requirements and changing dimensions for other programs to be put forward as ready for production with only one or two examples built seems like a triumph of optimism.
Even the P&W R-2800 didn't have a trouble free start and had at least 4 test rigs ( at least one of which was a 9 cylinder rig) before the first test engine even ran. Or see how many engines R-R went through to get to the first "good" Merlin.
The Vulture was also flown in the Blackburn B-20 Fling boat and the first Vickers Warwick.
Rolls-Royce never tried to put four cylinders on one crankthrow again.
A lot of "what ifs" seem to based on these prototype engines. There are reasons many of them stayed prototypes. The Wright Tornado did pass a type test but any realistic look at it should have killed it on the drawing board. Just because it is possible to build something doesn't mean it should be built.
The Vulture was more than a prototype. It was in production, albeit before it should have been.
I think the vulture and others were overtaken by events. They were for the next generation of fighters and bombers which actually were the last generation.
The vulture was supposed to produce over 2000HP however improvements in other engines meant merlins and griffons (and others) were producing that before the end 1944. An engine failure on a manchester was like a twin engine failure on a lancaster. The saving in weight and drag wasnt worth the added complexity and unreliability. Then of course jets came along.