What if the Bugatti 100p became a fighter?

GrauGeist said:

The production version of the He100 had several fuselage changes, enlarged canopy, a conventional cooling system, armed comparable to the Bf109 at the time, was faster and had a better combat radius.

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Some of this is questionable.
Fuselage changes happened.
Enlarged canopy happened (most racers would need that) but the claims of "....canopy were slightly redesigned, with the pilot sitting high in a large canopy with excellent vision in all directions." maybe somewhat wishful thinking. No common photo shows a canopy offering anything any better than a Spitfire with a Malcom hood, if that.
The "conventional cooling system" is something of a myth. The cooling system was modified and retracting or semi-retracting ventral radiator was added. This was because the surface cooling system was not up to the task of service use. Both in climb and for ground running. There were other planes that had problems with ground running.
Cooling at high speeds is not that hard although it sounds contrary. What is really hard is cooling while climbing for several minutes or more. Same power as high speed but under 50% of the air flow through the radiator or over the cooling surfaces. On the He 100 they used the rear turtle deck, part of the vertical fin and the horizontal stabilizer as part of the oil cooler system. There was a tank filled with alcohol that had the oil cooler suspended in it and the the alcohol was pumped from the tank to the cooling surfaces and back instead of using a normal oil cooler.
The armament comparable to a Bf109 is questionable. They claimed a single 20mm in the nose and a pair of 7.9mm machine guns but a most (all?) of the export aircraft were delivered with only the 7.9mm guns. While the Germans managed to get a 20mm MG FF cannon into the nose of the early 109Fs that was over a year after the He 100 was in contention. The 109Es never got the 20mm gun in the engine or it was taken back out. It was still jamming too much for service use in 1939 and most of 1940. Heinkel was thinking about trying to put 2 7.9mm guns in each wing root.
No question that the He 100 was faster. With it's low drag it could stretch the fuel more than a 109E.

Spitlead said:

One only has to look no further than the Germany's Heinkel HE 100 race plane to understand why the Bugatti 100P wasn't put into military service. "Although it proved to be one of the fastest fighter [ed. fighter is a generous term] aircraft in the world at the time of its development, the design was not ordered into series production."

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Spitlead said:

There were numerous reasons for this. Key is the fact that it was a racing plane used for propaganda by the Third Reich.

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He 100 was initially conceived as a fighter, and then it was turned into a racer. That is opposite than what was mooted with the Bugatti in question, or the original Me 209, that were designed as racers 1st.

GrauGeist said:

... but what is clear, is that at the time the He100 was ready for production, the RLM mandated Messerschmitt build fighters and Heinkel build bombers.

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Spitlead said:

I do recall the RLM had mandated Messerschmitt to build fighters and Heinkel build bombers.

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These are quite a sweeping statement.
Me 109 and 110 were being produced in several factories both already before 1940, and that continued through the war. He 111 was also being produced in several factories, among them were two under Heinkel name.
Germans had no problems in having a host of factories making a design deemed worthy - along the three aircraft listed, that applied to Fw 190, Ju 87, Ju 88 etc.
We can also recall that Heinkel was making the He 219 fighters, and MTT was making aircraft as big as Me 323.

GrauGeist said:

The production version of the He100 had several fuselage changes, enlarged canopy, a conventional cooling system, armed comparable to the Bf109 at the time, was faster and had a better combat radius.

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As noted by SR6, that was not the case.

GrauGeist said:

It certainly had potential to evolve beyond a dedicated racing machine.

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Spitlead said:

I agree, it certainly had potential.

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+1 on these two.

GrauGeist said:

The He100 wasn't ordered into production for reasons unknown, not because of it's racing heritage. Some say politics, some suggest the He100 would deprive the Bf109 program of much needed engines, but what is clear, is that at the time the He100 was ready for production, the RLM mandated Messerschmitt build fighters and Heinkel build bombers.

The production version of the He100 had several fuselage changes, enlarged canopy, a conventional cooling system, armed comparable to the Bf109 at the time, was faster and had a better combat radius.

It certainly had potential to evolve beyond a dedicated racing machine.

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What happens if somebody develops a high performance aircraft around a different engine, perhaps a radial engine that Messerschmitt does not want?

There are lots of questions about the He100. Lots of prototypes were doing 400mph in 1940.

Howard Gibson said:

What happens if somebody develops a high performance aircraft around a different engine, perhaps a radial engine that Messerschmitt does not want?

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That would be the Fw190...

If you absolutely, truly, genuinely want to make a French racer into a French fighter then the D.550 already has that covered. Hell, It's why it was made in the first place.
The D.55x series are wildly more practical and feasible given that they were based on an already existing combat platform (D.520) on top of being far more conventionally built aircraft in general.
As beautiful as the 100P is, there's no real reason to develop it into a fighter when the D.55x exists.

Another example of trying to turn a race plane into a fighter is turning the Caudron C.460 into the Caudron C.714 fighter.

Photo of replica. While it won races in Europe and the 1936 Thompson trophy race with only 330hp (?) engine and could hit 310mph at low level, it also was using a wing only 22ft 2 in wide wide with 74.4 sqft of area. Gross weight was about 1930lbs.

By the time they had turned it into the Caudron C.714

The wing area had almost doubled. The weight had more than doubled. Still no armor or fuel tank protection.
The V-12 engine was not race tuned and made only about 60% more power (500hp vs 330hp) than the 6 cylinder engine used in the racer.
The fact that they had to scab a tray under the wing just to hold the 7.5mm machine guns didn't help. Granted the fighter used a canopy where the pilot could actually turn his head
French Air Force didn't want them and they tried to sell most of initial contract to Finland. The ones that made to Finland were used as trainers. Some of the ones left in France were given to 1 Polish group and one training squadron. While the Polish pilots did OK the C 714 was slow, climbed poorly and and strength issues. French Air Force had ordered the C.714s to be withdrawn form service but since the French had no other fighters to issue to the Group as replacements the Polish pilots used the C.714s rather than sit on the ground.
There were a few intermediate steps but the lineage is there.
One of the intermediate steps.

Vision was not a priority in some racing planes.

Shortround6 said:

Another example of trying to turn a race plane into a fighter is turning the Caudron C.460 into the Caudron C.714 fighter.
View attachment 833731
Photo of replica. While it won races in Europe and the 1936 Thompson trophy race with only 330hp (?) engine and could hit 310mph at low level, it also was using a wing only 22ft 2 in wide wide with 74.4 sqft of area. Gross weight was about 1930lbs.

By the time they had turned it into the Caudron C.714
View attachment 833732
The wing area had almost doubled. The weight had more than doubled. Still no armor or fuel tank protection.
The V-12 engine was not race tuned and made only about 60% more power (500hp vs 330hp) than the 6 cylinder engine used in the racer.
The fact that they had to scab a tray under the wing just to hold the 7.5mm machine guns didn't help. Granted the fighter used a canopy where the pilot could actually turn his head
French Air Force didn't want them and they tried to sell most of initial contract to Finland. The ones that made to Finland were used as trainers. Some of the ones left in France were given to 1 Polish group and one training squadron. While the Polish pilots did OK the C 714 was slow, climbed poorly and and strength issues. French Air Force had ordered the C.714s to be withdrawn form service but since the French had no other fighters to issue to the Group as replacements the Polish pilots used the C.714s rather than sit on the ground.
There were a few intermediate steps but the lineage is there.
One of the intermediate steps.
View attachment 833733
Vision was not a priority in some racing planes.

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And despite those changes it was still hardly effective.