Essential and Dispensible WW2 aircraft.

Orval Fairbairn wrote:

"Daryl Hunt" wrote:

Keeping it in the whatif department. Whatif they had installed decent
Turbos and Supers on the Allisons. What would that have done for even the
P-40. Afterall, later productions on the P-38 and the P-47 would have had
equal or more range and speed of the P-51C and the P-40 would have had near
identical performance and speed.

Actually -- no. The Merlin-engined P-40s still had far inferior
performance to the P-51.

The P-40N listed a top speed of 350 mph at 16,400, cruise 290; the P-51B
was 440 at 30,000, cruise 362.

Even the last iteration of the P-40, the XP-40Q, finally made 422 at
20,500. By then, the P-51H would make 487 at 25,000; cruise 380.

the P-60 series fared no better. Curtiss simply produced inferior
products. Just look at their version of first-generation jets. It is no
wonder that they got out of the plane-building business.

So, would it be true to say that that theP-40 would have been 'eaten alive' had
they been used in Europe ?

Graham