Sure comrade...you just keep telling people that. Your stint in the re-education camp will do you wonders...
Da, very refreshing! Currently, GLONASS coverage is excellent (outages of between one-to-three months being well within acceptable productivity quota goals).
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A fairly simple whif wherein Air Corps funding for Harold Caminez's Allison V-1710 engine design was cancelled once US airship development ended. As such, the V-1710C is not available for use by Curtiss.
French use of the Curtiss
Hawk 75A had shown that the USAAC's radial-engined P-36s would be readily outclassed by potential German opponents. Plans were underway for US production of the Rolls-Royce
Merlin but the British insisted on exclusive supply so long as the US remained officially neutral. The British had, however, provided the Air Corps with captured German equipment to study.
Of most interest was a damaged Messerschmitt Bf 109E-4/N fighter, W.Nr. 1190, which had been shot down over East Dean on 30 Sept 1940. Upon arrival in the US, this Messerschmitt was delivered to Curtiss for inspection. Although Curtiss' primary interest was in studying Messerschmitt production techniques, it was also readily apparent that the German Daimler-Benz DB 601N engine could be fitted into the Curtiss
Hawk 75A.
Photo of Curtiss workers unloading W.Nr. 1190:
http://www.kurfurst.org/Engine/DB60x/DB601_datasheets_N.htmlWhile Curtiss set about installing the captured DB 601N into a Air Corps' Curtiss P-36 airfame, a crash program was undertaken to reverse-engineer this powerplant for US production. Curtiss found that it was necessary to increase the main undercarriage legs to improve propeller ground-clearance (the new legs compressed as the gear was retracted). To improve control and re-establish the centre-of-gravity, the vertical tailplane was also moved aft.
(Top) Prototype XP-40 converted by fitting a USAAC-supplied P-36A with a Daimler-Benz DB 601N.
The Hudson Motor Car Company undertook engine production. The 33.93 litre DB 601N entered US service as the Hudson V-2070 '
Hornet'. Like the German original, the V-2070 produced 1,200 hp on 100 octane fuel. The US was also interested in the German
motorkanone arrangement. In place of the Messerschmitt's Oerlikon cannon, the USAAC chose a 20 mm Madsen gun (which would replace the P-36's twin cowl guns). Delays in Madsen deliveries led to production P-40s to be armed with a single .50-calibre motor-gun along with twin .30-calibre wing guns.
The initial-production P-40 model was quickly eclipsed by the P-40A with four wings guns and the Madsen motor-cannon. This The P-40A was the first model to equip active-service squadrons (the handful of P-40s were employed as trainers and on experimental duties). The P-40A was fitted with a V-2070-2 engine and modest armour protection for the pilot (fuel-tank protection would not arrive until the heavier P-40B).
(Bottom) Curtiss P-40A, USAAC 18th Pursuit Squadron (note lengthened rear fuselage).
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