Although my job has seriously cut into model building time, the nature of the job allows me to do a lot of thinking of what I'll do to my models.
I got to thinking about this project quite a bit lately and pondered about if it could actually fly if it were built as I envision. So did some weight comparisons between the P-51H, F-82G and the FJ-1, mainly because these three have basically the same wing (albeit with different chord profiles)
Empty Max' (in lbs)
P-51H 7040 11,500
F-82G 15,997 25,591
FJ-1 8,943 15,118
I've discovered by comparing my models, that the F-82 is more based on a P-51H than just using wings and rudders, the fuselages of the two (Merlin powered) practically match, with the F-82 rear fuselage being extended along the natural profile lines for five feet or so.
Also, although the F-82 uses two fuselages, it's wing area is only about 1 1/2 times that of a P-51H but the empty weight of the F-82 is way more than twice as heavy as a P-51H.
So with using basically the F-82 center wing for my P-86B, I would imagine that the empty weight for the P-86B would be around 18,000 lbs. I'm thinking that it would take a lot of runway to get a fully loaded one off the ground, so I got to thinking what to do about it. I didn't want to make the wing bigger like NA did to the F-82, so I decided to go with slats & flaps.
Sort of like this below. Here you can see I've matched up some slats to the outer wings and I'm scratch building a slat for the center section. It will also get some Fowler flaps which would be from inside of one aileron to the inside of the other. I'm also thinking that the ailerons would droop too. I think with these wing modifications, it should get into the air quite quickly ----
I also decided to extend the rear fuselages behind the wing after moving the wing back to it's original position. I've extended it 1/2" which is 3 scale feet. This allows for a much bigger center fuel tanks in the fuselages, and also to counter the weight in the pod that sticks out in front of the wing. It also allows room for the re-positioned wheel bays, I'm moving them from where they are in front of the front spar in the F-82 center wing section, to in front of the rear spar. I will also turn them around so the u/c leg hinge is near the rear spar.