Improved P-40 on P-51 Development

[KJ_Lesnick]

If the P-40 was fitted with one of the following

• Single-stage, twin-speed supercharger
• Twin-stage, twin-speed supercharger

at some stage between the P-40 to the P-40D to increase critical altitude: Would it have interfered with North American Aviations decision to refuse to develop the P-40 and develop their own P-51 instead?

 

[riggerrob]

Updating superchargers was only part of the solution.
P-40 would also need a variety of aerodynamic updates to reduce drag (laminar air foil sections, buried radiators, etc.). All those updates made NAA's first P-51 Apaches significantly faster than P-40s at low altitude.

 

[lastdingo]

Drag is most important at high speeds which the fighters rarely achieved. Laminar airflow doesn't happen on a P-51's wing during turning, rolling etc. - it helped with range and diving (unless the dive included evasive maneuvers).

The P-40 reached eventually about 400 mph / 640 kph, without even a clean retraction of the main landing gear. It would have benefited greatly of a Merlin 6x series engine, as would the P-38. I think those two fighters could have substituted for the P-47 and P-51. The Luftwaffe was overwhelmed with numbers more than by the P-51's air combat quality.

 

[Kevin Renner]

The F and L models of the P-40 did get the Merlin but only equipped with single speed twostage supercharger. Effective combat ceiling was 20,000 ft. Perhaps a better option would of been adequate production of turbo-superchargers.

 

[Archibald]

The official story is that back in 1940-41 North American Aviation was requested by the British to build P-40s for them. Engineer Harrison Storms however decided to build a much better aircraft that corrected the P-40 aerodynamic flaws, and the result was the Mustang.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harrison_Storms

Curtiss answer to NAA's Mustang was the XP-46 / XP-60 - a dog of an aircraft. Curtiss was toast.

 

[Arjen]

The XP-40Q reached 422mph at 20,500ft, unfortunately that was in 1944.
Two-stage supercharged Allison V-1710 engine.
First flight 13 June 1943.
OldMachinePress has a page that tells the XP-40Q's story:
https://oldmachinepress.wordpress.com/2015/08/18/curtiss-xp-40q/

 

[Zizi6785]

Source:
http://videolog.blog.naver.com/PostView.nhn?blogId=naljava69&logNo=60070732841&parentCategoryNo=&categoryNo=&viewDate=&isShowPopularPosts=false&from=postView

 

[RyanC]

It would have benefited greatly of a Merlin 6x series engine

I was reading an old WINGS (Feb 1973) that had an interview with the P-40's chief designer, and it mentions that while on a visit to the UK, he accidentally wandered into a secret Rolls test cell where a Merlin 60 was undergoing test; and by the time people figured out what was going on, he'd already sent the important bits of data back home to Curtiss via diplomatic pouch.

Curtiss' refusal to accept his proposal to make the P-40F a Merlin 60 engined plane was a key reason why he left Curtiss.