Worst US made twin engined aircraft used by Britain in WW2

[Shortround6]

<COUGH> Supermarine Walrus<COUGH>

Depends on what is meant by light amphibian. The Walrus was nearly twice the weight and had nearly twice the power. The Walrus was closer to the Grumman Goose than the Widgion.

 

[wuzak]

Er, no. The Air Ministry, ever cheap and ill-informed, was dead set against handed engines because they didn't have a clue about the engineering involved, and simply assumed a left-handed engine would require 100% different parts to a right-handed engine, doubling the costs of spares.

<snip>

When Rolls Royce eventually designed handed version of the Merlin, they had to promise the Air Ministry that they would make the engines 95% common in parts. As it was, all they needed to do was add an extra idler gear cog to crankshaft when making the handed Merlin 133/134 for the de Havilland Hornet.

The fact is the handed Peregrines for the Whirlwind were actually handed, not just fitted with an idler gear.

 

[wuzak]

He had a ton of American research data that showed the benefits of handed engines.

From NACA? What aircraft?

The Air Ministry then doubled down on their denial and staged tests that were rigged to deny any benefit from handed engines.

How did they rig the tests? Allow only turns in one direction?

 

[Navalwarrior]

I like the Curtis Wright 2600, so that make the A-20 my favorite all time plane. Really wish there were some around to fly, I'd pay large money for that privilege. The TBM-3 has one and a little tricky to start and really easy to flood, but when it comes to life it's an explosion under your feet. Flown the P51D and it's easy to see why they owned the sky, do a hard pull and roll over at 250 point down and your at 320+ right now But still love the A-20's.

Resp:
An A-20 was routinely seen at air shows until the pilot 'augured in' in the late '80s when the pilot had a heart attack on the flight home after the air show. I believe that a 'G' model was recently rebuilt to mint flying status in the US. I think Kermit Weeks has one sitting in storage, along with many other projects.