Essential and Dispensible WW2 aircraft.

On Wed, 03 Oct 2007 06:10:50 -0700, Eunometic
wrote:

Yes but the P-47B or P-47C didn't have the tail tank and therefor
range yet.

The D didn't get it until the tear-drop canopy version, IIRC. In any
case, the N variant didn't turn up until the Merlin-engined P-51 -
with rear fuselage fuel tanks - had been in action for more than a
year.

If pressed to find a solution to extra tankage it would have been
possible to introduce a tanked wing earlier i feel.

Possibly; but when know that despite extending fighter escort range
being a critical priority for the USAAF, the P-47D with increased
internal fuel capacity wasn't available until well into 1944. You
might as well speculate what might have happened if the USAAF had
actually increased the internal fuel capacity of the Spitfire VIIIs
and IXs they had been using in the MTO for a full year before Giles
and Arnold got another two Spit IXs from the UK to do the same.

Or you could speculate about the USAAF overcoming institutional
resistance to the P-51 before the RAF had to ram the initial test
reports of the type down Arnold's throat.

One of the critical factors overlooked in all this is the pressure for
monthly production output to sustain combat operations. One reason
that the USAAF could rely upon the Merlin-engined P-51 is that it
didn't entail the reduction or cancellation of other types currently
in production.

Gavin Bailey


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