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Aviation History
1939
1939 - 0903.PDF
MARCH 30, 1939 FLIGHT. 311 The French Hanriot H-220 two- seater fighter is claimed to have a speed well in excess of 300 m.p.h. It is in production. A multi-purpose type which can function as a two- or three- seater fighter is the Potez 63 (centre right). Certainly one of the fastest fighting aircraft in the world this Allison-engined Lockheed (lower right), was crashed a few weeks ago. forward of the leading edge of the monoplane wing. Fokker has de parted from this layout in his D.23 (two Walter Sagitta) by adopting twin tail booms (as in the older G.i) and placing his engines in tandem with the pilot between them. The D.23 is armed with two 13.2 mm F.N.-Brown ings firing explosive bullets and two rifle-bore machine guns. Eventually a machine of this type, but with two Daimler-Benz DB-6oos or Rolls-Royce Merlins is likely to be developed. Armour plating is fitted to the front and rear of the pilot's seat. The engines provide further protection. Even more unorthodox is the little Payen Flechair (Pa. 112) now being built in France. In the prototype of this somewhat bizarre-looking machine two Salmson engines of 100 h.p. each are fitted, driving, by means of "electrical coupling" counter-co axial revolving airscrews. Two 7 mm. machine guns and one 23 mm. Madsen shell-gun are specified, though a Payen com pressed-air gun (37 mm.) is visualised. Another departure (though re sembling the Fokker G.i in lay out) is the American Allison- engined Lockheed, said to do nearly 400 m.p.h. This proto type has been crashed and development work is likely to be somewhat impeded. Largest and most heavily armed of the twin-engined multi-seater fighters on test to-day is the Bell Airacuda, which has two liquid-cooled Allison engines driving pusher propellers and fitted with exhaust-driven superchargers. Thirteen examples have been ordered for the U.S. Army Air Corps. The pusher arrangement has enabled two gunners, each provided with a large-bore shell-gun, to be accommodated in the noses of the nacelles, the guns having a limited range of movement. Three machine guns, carried in streamlined "blisters," form the auxiliary armament. The development of fighting aircraft during the next five years should be exceptionally interesting. It is unlikely that the single-engined single- seater will disappear for some time, for the use of co-axial airscrews should permit the installation of engines of 1,700- 2,000 h.p. Machines thus powered should be able to carry at least four shell-guns of 20-23 mm. bore, or, on the basis of eight machine guns for the Hurricane and Spitfire, twelve of these small weapons. There is one argument which, however, must not be ignored: if a machine will do 400 m.p.h. with an engine of, say, 1,700 h.p., an aircraft with two similar power plants will go even faster. The cost of squadrons of these big fighters, however, hardly bears contempla tion. An opposing school demands lighter, simpler, cheaper, lower-powered fighters for localised defence, developed along the lines of the Caudron Cyclone (450 h.p.), which, although slower by 20-70 m.p.h. than machines with 800-1,000 h.p., picks up speed very quickly in a dive. Two shell-guns and three ma chine guns form the armament the Allison-engined five-seater Bell pusher fighter of
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