A.G. Williams
Airman 1st Class
- 182
- Oct 10, 2020
To return to the OP for a moment....
I'm not sure to what extent this happened in practice, but in principle the optimum way of meeting a requirement was surely to have the preferred, advanced model under intensive development, backed up by a model with inferior performance but immediate availability and zero risk, just in case.
In this context, the Sea Hurricane would be the obvious back-up for a carrier fighter, whatever was chosen as the preferred model. Fit it with folding wings and arm it with underwing RPs as the main hitting power against naval targets, and call it done.
I'm not sure to what extent this happened in practice, but in principle the optimum way of meeting a requirement was surely to have the preferred, advanced model under intensive development, backed up by a model with inferior performance but immediate availability and zero risk, just in case.
In this context, the Sea Hurricane would be the obvious back-up for a carrier fighter, whatever was chosen as the preferred model. Fit it with folding wings and arm it with underwing RPs as the main hitting power against naval targets, and call it done.