The P-40 Warhawk that was found in Egypt last month got me to wondering about WWII fighter aircraft in general. The P-40 Warhawk was supplanted by the P-51 Mustang, likewise the Hurricane was supplanted by the Spitfire, so I put together a little spreadsheet comparing the specifications of these four aircraft. I just used the specs I found in Wikipedia. They were all similar size and style: single seat, low wing monoplanes with big V-12, liquid cooled engines. They were about 30 feet long, had a wingspan of about 40 feet, and weighed about 3 tons. We built about 15,000 copies of each one, and each aircraft cost about a million dollars (in today's money).
The big difference between the older and newer aircraft was the addition of a supercharger. The supercharger gave the newer planes more power and more altitude. You have to take the performance specifications with a grain of salt. On one other page I looked at about the Hurricane, the performance specifications were all different. The Mustang versus Spitfire performance specs are especially suspect as the Mustang apparently weighed considerably more than the Spitfire, had approximately the same amount of power, yet according to the specs, the Mustang performed as well or better than the Spitfire.
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2 comments:
Hurricane and Spitfire were short range air defence fighters built a couple of years earlier than the Mustang because the US did not join WW2 until 3 years later.
The Mustang was a long range bomber-defence cover plane that could go from UK to Berlin and back.
The Spitfire can turn inside and lands slower than the Mustang, but the Mustang can outrun it.
Also, there is a lot more involved into aircraft performance than just weight and power. Although those specs are important, the Mustang used stressed skin, and was much more aerodynamic than the spitfire. The spitfire's huge elliptical wings gave it better turning ability, but would loose speed in a turn. Also, the thickness of the wings played a huge differencs.
There are just too many factors involved.. torque in the engine, the setup of the propeller, aerodynamics, etc can make a huge impact. Take the P40 for example. All it took was a different propeller to turn a mediocre airplane into one of the best climbers in the war and a very potent aircraft.
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