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Show American Battle Planes Must Be World's Best, Is Pledge of Designers and Manufacturers ;. . . i " -i HAVOC One of the latest of the nation's battle planes is the Douglas "Havoc" fighter-bomber, a two-motored ship. U. S. Air Superiority Result of Constantly Improved Machines The test of battle the only valid test of the performance of combat aircraft has by now resulted in a number of box scores which reveal the pattern of accomplishment of American combat planes. "In every theater of operations, American airmen and American planes have met the challenge of our enemies and outfought them by scores never worse than two to one in our favor," said Gen. Henry H. Arnold, commanding general of the army air forces. "All types of American fighter planes have shot out of the skies the best interceptors both Germany and Japan have put against them." This has been true since January, 1942, when our planes were outnumbered on practically all fronts. While much of this favorable fighting fight-ing ratio is attributable to the excellent ex-cellent training, versatility and courage cour-age of our pilots, a good part is traceable to the mechanical superiority superi-ority of our planes. Constant improvement im-provement is the watchword. Even though production schedules must be delayed, our aircraft must be the best possible, say army and navy air corps officers. Here is a summary of the chief combat planes which -have run up the high scores in our favor from a report just released by the Office of War Information: Fighters. V-type liquid-cooled engines are found in most fighter models because the long, slender shape of a liquid-cooled liquid-cooled engine is more adaptable to streamlined fighter design. It allows better vision, and has a smaller frontal area for the same horsepower. horsepow-er. But it will be noted that in the P-47, where 2,000 horsepower was desired, an air-cooled engine was used. The same is true of the navy's Vought F4U (Corsair) and the new Grumman F6F Hellcat. The navy uses no liquid-cooled engines. The navy's fighter program is large. An airplane carrier carries torpedo planes, bombers and fighters, fight-ers, and of these the fighters are needed to protect the other planes and the carrier itself. Fighters also protect land bases. In the South Pacific, army P-38's are doing this latter job along with navy fighters. In the opinion of the materiel command, com-mand, the Curtiss P-40, or War-hawk, War-hawk, has reached the limit of its developmental de-velopmental possibilities. It has gone through numerous type changes, the most basic being the P-40F when the engine was changed from Allison to Merlin. Although the latest model P-39 round-trip flights up to 2,600 miles; the raid on the Ploesti oil fields in Rumania from bases in Egypt, the raid on the Messerschmitt works at Wiener-Neustadt, and raids in the Pacific on Wake, Paramushiru and Surabaya. The B-24 is used by the navy under the designation PB4Y-1. Medium, Light and Dive Bombers. New models of the two-engine Tokyo raider, the North American B-25 (Mitchell), are equipped with heavier armament and possess increased in-creased speed and range. The B-25 is the chief medium bomber in the present program, production of the Martin B-26 (Marauder) being tapered ta-pered oft. B-25's, powered with Wright Cyclone engines, are flying on 11 fronts, are used by both army and navy for anti-submarine patrol pa-trol service, and have scored particular par-ticular successes with skip-bombing. The Douglas A-20 (Havoc) is the principal light army bomber in the program until the totally new, advanced ad-vanced light bomber mentioned above comes into production. The newest Havoc, used by the army for low-level bombing, is fitted with a power turret and with armament for ground strafing. The A-24, army version of- the Douglas SBD (Dauntless) dive-bomber, dive-bomber, is now being produced in decreasing numbers, chiefly for training purposes. Grumman Avenger. The Grumman Avenger, the navy's carrier-based torpedo-bomber, has completely supplanted the Douglas TBD (Devastator). It carries machine ma-chine guns as well as torpedo or bombs, and has destroyed many Japanese vessels in the Pacific. Chief among the navy's patrol bombers are three flying boats and two land planes. The land planes are the Consolidated PB4Y-1 and the Vega PV-1. The flying boats are the Consolidated PBY (Catalina), Consolidated Con-solidated PB2Y, (Coronado), and Martin PBM (Mariner). All three flying boats are used for transport purposes as well as for patrol and bombing operations. The two-engine PBY, the oldest, slowest and smallest, small-est, the ship which first spotted the Jap forces on the Aleutians, is still being built, still dive-bombing and combat, the P-47 or Thunderbolt, has been currently rolling up a score of approximately four to one in its contests with Messerschmitts and high-flying Focke-Wulfs over England, Eng-land, France and the Low Countries. Armed with eight .50 caliber machine-guns, and heavily armor-plated, it is capable of flying over 400 miles an hour and of reaching an altitude of 40,000 feet. High Scorer for Navy. The Grumman Wildcat or F4F, a navy fighter, with Pratt & Whitney Twin Wasp air-cooled engine and with folding wings for compact stowage stow-age on aircraft carriers, has run up many high scores in Mediterranean. Although the F4F will continue to be manufactured for use on auxiliary carriers and for training, it is now being supplemented by a new plane, the Grumman F6F (Hellcat). This newest member of the navy's fighter family is described by the navy as "an answer to the prayers of our pilots!" A big brother of the famous Grumman Grum-man Wildcat, the Hellcat has better range, speed, climb, maneuverabil-' ity and altitude. It has a 2,000 horsepower horse-power engine as compared with the Wildcat's 1,200. It has a low wing, improved armor, and a new flexible type gasoline tank which is an" improvement im-provement over the ordinary puncture-proof type. It carries .50 caliber cali-ber machine guns. The Corsair or F4U also has a 2,000 horsepower Pratt & Whitney engine and is easily distinguishable by its inverted gull wing. The Corsair Cor-sair has until recently been the chief navy fighter in the South Pacific. Now Hellcats are beginning to join it in large numbers. ' Heavy, Four-Engine Bombers. The newest models of both the Boeing B-17 (Flying Fortress) and the Consolidated B-24 (Liberator) bombers are equipped with new defensive de-fensive armament in the form of nose turrets with machine gun .fe-stallations. .fe-stallations. External bomb-racks can increase the potential bomb capacity of the B-17 to 17,600 pounds. Nevertheless, this plane has a smaller small-er bomb capacity at long range than the B-24. The most accurate comparison, com-parison, perhaps, is to say that load- ceiling and general performance have been improved, the P-39 has shared the climb-deficiency of the P-40. It is being supplanted by a new model now under construction, with a low drag wing and a two-stage two-stage Allison supercharged engine which will make it an efficient plane at any altitude up to 38,000 or 40,000 feet. The greatest efficiency of the P-39 models has been below 15,000 feet. Like the P-39, the new plane will be equipped with cannon. Low Altitude Fighter. Although superior to the P-40 and P-39, the original P-51 or Mustang is also only a low and medium-altitude medium-altitude fighter. Now in production is a new P-51 with a highly supercharged, super-charged, Packard-built, RoDs-Royce Merlin engine, similar to the Merlin 61 engine in the newest Spitfires. Its performance is reported as even better bet-ter than that famous ship's. The new engine gives the plane the highest high-est ceiling (up to 40,000 feet) and the highest speed (well over 400 miles an homr) of any fighter in existence. The A-36 (Invader), the fighter-bomber fighter-bomber version of the P-51, has seen heavy service in the Mediterranean strahng enemy shipping and rescuing rescu-ing pilots who have been downed at sea. The four-engine PB2Y has double dou-ble the horsepower of the PBY. The PBM does good work in anti-submarine coastal patrol and long-range reconnaissance. Not even the newest new-est navy flying boats have speeds much above 200 miles an hour, but all are required to be able to land in a choppy sea. The Vega PV-1 (a navy adaptation of the twin-engined Vega B-34 "Ventura" "Ven-tura" bomber) is the navy's chief land-based anti-submarine patrol plane. It carries depth charges or a torpedo, is heavily armored, and is now often used in preference to flying boats in anti-submarine operations op-erations because of its greater speed. The Consolidated PB4Y-1 is a four-engine four-engine land-based bomber and, as previously mentioned, is used for long-range bombing missions and for anti-submarine patrol work. Design and Technical Improvements Aeronautical engineering demands experimentation with numerous designs de-signs in order to obtain several high-performance high-performance aircraft of the required types. But on the other hand, the constant con-stant improvements being made on models already in use, and the continuing con-tinuing addition of totally new airplanes air-planes to our forces, slow down the rate of production. Nevertheless, even at this stage in the war, when clear-cut air superiority superior-ity over the enemy has been achieved, there is no assurance that the planes which have achieved it are- superior to planes which the enemy may produce tomorrow. Changes in strategic and tactical problems, too, and changes of terrain ter-rain over which fighting takes place, bring with them new demands for aircraft design and equipment. Even planes which have run up high box-scores box-scores must be constantly improved and replaced. The make-up of our air fleet has never been static, and is not to become so. HELLCAT Successor to the famous fa-mous Grumman "Wildcat" is the new "Hellcat." It has folding wings, as shown in the picture below, so that it will take up a minimum of space on the deck of a carrier. The Hellcat is a standard fighter now in both the V. S. and British navies. It has more power and climbs faster than the Wildcat. ed with 2,800 gallons of gasoline the B-17 can carry 6,000 pounds of bombs (the usual load carried over targets in western Europe), whereas where-as the B-24, with 2,900 gallons, can carry 8,000 pounds of bombs. Consequently Conse-quently the B-17 is being concentrated concentrat-ed in the western European theater and the B-24 is being used chiefly elsewhere in the Middle East, in India, In-dia, China and Australia for longer range operations. B-24's have made theater, and its best features are being incorporated in the new P-51, which will replace both the A-36 and the old P-51. The latest model of the Lockheed P-38 or Lightning is a fast, powerful fighter that has been given greatly increased horsepower in its Allison engine, improved pilot's vision, and improved intercooling for better high-altitude performance. It outperforms out-performs the Zero and later Jap fighters at all altitudes. The P-38 has always possessed the versatility that is coming increas-"ingly increas-"ingly to characterize all combat aircraft. air-craft. It has excelled at low-altitude strafing, high-altitude fighting, and as a particularly long-range bomber escort. Its distinctive silhouette, with its twin tail booms, has been seen over four major fighting fronts. The newest fighter at present in |
