The Alternative Specification B.12/36
Heavy Bomber - Dated 15.07.36 - Issued to Tender
I upgraded Spec. P.13/36 from an aircraft powered by two Vulture class engines into to an aircraft powered by four Vulture class engines. Upgrading Spec. B.12/36 from an aircraft powered by four Hercules engines to one powered by six or eight Hercules engines isn't plausible in my opinion. The other way to go is to make it an aircraft powered by four Centaurus class engines which is effectively the S.36 Super Stirling. However, that won't work because the Centaurus wouldn't be ready in time for the ALT-Stirling to go into production in May 1940. More plausible engines may be the Napier Sabres or RR Vultures, but the latter would effectively make ALT-Spec. B.12/36 the same as ALT-Spec. P.13/36.
As Austin re-tooled from building Stirlings to Lancasters in the "Real World" I think that in this "version of history" the firm will build 950 ALT-Manchesters instead of the 620 Stirlings & 330 Lancasters that it built in the "Real Word".
The Real-Stirling was effectively reinventing the developed version of the ALT-Hampden with four Hercules engines which in turn was effectively the Real-Halifax with Hercules engines. In the "Real World" Short & Harland built 150 Handley Page Herefords which were Hampdens with Napier Dagger engines instead of the normal Bristol Pegasus engines and in Post 37 I wrote this.Short & Harland also built Sunderland flying boats so I was going to suggest that Rochester concentrated on building Sunderlands and Belfast concentrated on building the ALT-Hampden. However, the numbers don't work, because Rochester delivered 542 Stirlings from May 1940 to December 1945 and Belfast delivered 133 Sunderlands from January 1942 to June 1946. On the other hand I believe that the Real-Hampden & Real-Halifax were designed to be easy to produce and by extension so would the ALT-Hampden & ALT-Halifax. I've also heard that the Stirling & Sunderland were hard to produce. Therefore, Short & Harland might have been able to build 1,760 ALT-Hampdens with the resources required to build the 1,218 Stirlings that it built in the "Real World".
It's also likely that having built 160 ALT-Hampdens in this "version of history" Canadian Associated Aircraft would receive a contract to build another 140 ALT-Hampdens in place of the 140 Stirlings ordered in the "Real World". One of the two factories that built the Hampden also built the 430 Lancasters so it's plausible that it might continue to built the ALT-Hampden in this "version of history" instead of re-tooling to built the ALT-Manchester.
