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Aviation History
1941
1941 - 1114.PDF
d FLIGHT, May 15th, 1941 THE AMERICAN FIGHTER (Continued) (Below) "... the Skyrocket. Thisis a completely new type of very unconventional appearance, having.two engines set well inboard, and the fuselage nose cut off short. . . ."/v- 1 Above) " . . The Bel!Caribou ... is a com- bination of at least twounorthodox and very interesting deviations.' '• Americans were ahead of us in developing one, i.e., the monoplane. In this we see an in- cidental influence of American civil design, for there they had suc- cessfully used the stressed-skin tv^fe-^of monoplane for a con- siderable time, and had developed aerofoil sec- tions of efficient aero- dynamic and structural shape. As early as 1932 two American fighter aircraft having the monoplane system were in service with the U.S. Army Air Corps. These were the Boeing P. 26 wire-braced monoplane, which with a 500 h.p. engine recorded a speed of 231 miles per hour; and the Curtiss A.8 Shrike two seater fighter with a 600 h.p. Curtiss Conqueror D.12 liquid cooled engine. • Another influence on this early development of the mono- plane for, service use was the interest which had been taken in high-perfgjSnance monoplane racing aircraft such as the Gee Bee of 1930 which, with a 535 h.p. Wasp Junior, had a speed range of 80 to 284 m.p.h. The Curtiss-Wright, with its liquid cooled in-line engine, represented as it were a prototype of the present formula, but unfortunately that type of engine was allowed to die out in the States, and the ubiquitous radial took its place. Although this article is not intended as a comparison between the development of fighter aircraft in the United States and Great Britain, certain comparisons wrtTpr^ve interesting. At the time of the P.26 and A.8 our standard fighters in this country were the Bulldog (which gave 170 m.p.h. on a 450 h.p. engine) and the Hawker Fury, giving 207 m.p.h. with 480 h.p. engine. These figures bear close comparison with the pre-1932 standard American pur- suit ship, the Curtiss XP.22, which had been derived from the Schneider Trophy racers of 1921-22. This machine was the usual unequal-span, staggered and wire-braced biplane, with a speed of 205 m.p.h. Thjs~was a critical period in fighter development, and it waSat this\ime that the Americans, thanks to their use- of the monoplane, began to exceed our fighter perform- ances. The issue was only finally decided in our favour when, in 1935, with the Hurricane and Spitfire, the mono- plane and the in-line liquid-cooled engine were wedded to the high-performance fighter as we now know it. Thus we established a lead over American contemporary types which we are still holding, thanks to the fact that, untiLthe very recent development of the Allison, the United States Air Arms were dependent on radial engines which, however efficient, could not compete with the Merlin. Another unconventional type from an old factory is the Lockheed P.38 Lightning, a twin motor single-seater fighter."
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