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Aviation History
1940
1940 - 0761.PDF
MARCH 14, 1940 FIGHTERS (CONTINUED A projected design by Vulteefor a single-seater fighter with two Allison vee-twelveengines. The armament visualised is four shell-gunsgrouped in the nose. The machine will qualify betterthan the Dornier Do 17 or the nickname "flyingpencil." On the face of things the torsional strengthof the rear fuselage is to be questioned. impose even more stringent demands on airscrews, though these should be met by constant-speed designs. It is claimed that when an American fighter was dived up to a speed of 575 m.p.h. (from 22,000ft. to 9,000ft.) the engine never exceeded its normal rated 2,550 r.p.m. A four- bladed version of the electrically controlled Curtiss air- screw is being tried out on a machine of similar type. In certain installations the design of the airscrew must permit a fuselage-mounted shell-gun to fire through the hub. There are a number of designs which make this possible (e.g., Ratier and V.D.M. and a new secret Curtiss developed for the Bell Airacobra). ~ The primary armament of the present-day single-seaterfighter is a number of fixed guns. These may be classed according to whether they use ball ammunition or are ableto fire explosive shells. The term '' machine gun '' will be used for the former class, while the shell-firing weaponswill be known as "shell-guns." It must, however, be borne in mind that the majority of modern shell-guns arevirtually large-bore machine guns firing explosive ammuni- tion. Although many encouraging successes have been achieved by our Hurricanes and Spitfires, which have eight small-bore Browning machine guns, it is recognised that, provided it is hit in non-vital parts, the modern stressed- skin bomber can take a large number of rifle calibre bullets and stand a good chance of returning home. Coupled with the fact that armour will undoubtedly be encountered in increasing quantities, this means that the future of the large-bore shell-firing gun is assured. The rifle calibre The Flight drawing below depicts the Fokker D.23 single-seater twin-engined fighter which, fitted with Isotta Fraschini Delta engines, is claimed to have a top speedof 342 m.p.h. More powerful engines are visualised. The airscrews rotate in opposite directions, com-pensating torque and gyroscopic form. V. D. M. . AIRSCREW INVERTED V12 CYL. ENGINE 15-2 MM. BROWN I NO GUN ARMOUREDSEAT AMMUNITIONCONVEYOR FDR MACHINE GUN 7'0 MM. BROWNING MACHINE GUN (EACH SIDE) 15-2 MM BROWNING GUN FIRING EXPLOSIVE AMMUNITION V. 0. M.FULL FEATHERING AIRSCREWINVERTED V 12 CYL. ENGINE A MODERN TWIN-ENGINED FIGHTER
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