Modern day propeller fighter - hypothetical

(Nev) wrote:

Some of the latest developments in propeller aircraft has fascinated
me. It also brought up an interesting hypothetical question; mostly
when reading about modern day warbird replicas.

With relatively easily available technology off the shelf (no rail
guns or laser cannon please). Lets say a reasonable development budget
of oh say $300 million. The question is are we capable of producing
superior prop aircraft than the great fighters of WWII and what
configuration would it take?

[snip]

If we were to design a new prop, gun armed aircrafy would it
essentially look pretty similar to a carbon fibre, turbo-prop P-51
Mustang or would it be some bizzare split wing, dual rear engined
travesty?

Bizarre, hardly. Have you taken a look at the Beech Starship?

http://www.bobscherer.com/Pages/Starship.htm and
http://www.brunton.net/starship.html

Seems like that would be a reasonable starting point for such a fighter.
Advanced composite construction, modern avionics and flight controls, and
sexy as hell.

/------------------------------------------------------------\
| George Ruch |
| "Is there life in Clovis after Clovis Man?" |
\------------------------------------------------------------/

George Ruch wrote in message . ..
(Nev) wrote:

Some of the latest developments in propeller aircraft has fascinated
me. It also brought up an interesting hypothetical question; mostly
when reading about modern day warbird replicas.

With relatively easily available technology off the shelf (no rail
guns or laser cannon please). Lets say a reasonable development budget
of oh say $300 million. The question is are we capable of producing
superior prop aircraft than the great fighters of WWII and what
configuration would it take?

[snip]

If we were to design a new prop, gun armed aircrafy would it
essentially look pretty similar to a carbon fibre, turbo-prop P-51
Mustang or would it be some bizzare split wing, dual rear engined
travesty?

Uh, it WAS a modernized Mustang- the Piper Pa-48 Enforcer of the '80s:

http://www.aerofiles.com/piper-pa48.jpg

.... and rejected too...

Rob