Spitfire Versions

[bluesteel]

Sacrilege!

No decent, self respecting British prop plane would lower itself to being debased by having an Allison engine fitted!

Um, except for the Mustang, that is

J

But the mustang came from north america?

Ironically the Mustang was designed for a British specification, but didn't live up to its promise until the Allison was replaced with a Merlin.

Bluesteel

[B777LR]

Sacrilege!

No decent, self respecting British prop plane would lower itself to being debased by having an Allison engine fitted!

Um, except for the Mustang, that is

J

But the mustang came from north america?

Ironically the Mustang was designed for a British specification, but didn't live up to its promise until the Allison was replaced with a Merlin.

Bluesteel

But it was still an american design?

[B777LR]

American designers, working for an American company in the USA.  I think it could safely be said that the Mustang is an American aircraft.

So the mustang is a american design for a british requirement with a american built copy of a british engine! ^_^  

[Brian da Basher]

American designers, working for an American company in the USA.  I think it could safely be said that the Mustang is an American aircraft.

So the mustang is a american design for a british requirement with a american built copy of a british engine! ^_^

Exactly! Most Mustangs were powered by Packard-built license versions of the Merlin.

Brian da Basher

[kitnut617]

I think to be more specific, the Mustang is an improved P-40.  Initially, NA was asked to build P-40's ordered by the BPC.  NA responded that they could design and build a better aircraft.  They were told to design and build it in 120 days (I think) The end result was the P-51A (can't remember the NA model number) which looks a lot like a P-40 IMO. The wing though was a Curtiss patent which NA bought just for the project to speed things up.  I think the wing was supposed to go on a future version of the P-40.

Robert

[Daryl J.]

I've often wondered what a pointy-tail'd, pointy wing'd, 5-blade GriffonSpit would look like.    Sort of Spit VII meets Spit XIVebubbletop.         Painted in overall gloss sea blue and USMC markings of course to serve alongside a USMC Beaufighter.

And, gettting back to off topic, wasn't the Mustang actually heavily reliant on the replacement for the Me-109E series with the designer defecting from Germany after employment w/ Messerschmitt?   Perhaps the Allison should go on the -109?
mmmmmmm.......methinks there's a game afoot..........supercharged Allison from a Monogram P-38, a leftover Hasegawa Emil...........putty...........time.......
But enough thread hijacking....      





Daryl J.

[elmayerle]

Since we are on the subject of Spitfires, what would be the mark/model for a Spitfire powered by an Allison engine?  Was it ever attempted or even considered?  What would it look like?  Perhaps the engine cowling from a P-40, P-38, or early P-51/A-36 mated to a Spitfire fuselage?  Franken-Spit!

For low altitude operations, perhaps, but that's all I can see such used for without a major design change to add the Merlin's supercharger setup to the Allison.  Of course, according to sources, there was a time in the late-1930s when the Allison had better performance than the Merling, but RR had a lot more folk to put on development.  As it is, even today, Allison connecting rods are preferred by engine rebuilders to Merlin ones, something about them being more rugged.

I can see an Allison-engined Spitfire strictly as something hurried together by a maintenance unit to get a fighter, any fighter, back up in the air.  I can see the same process also producing cannon-armed, Merlin-powered Mustangs.