As the latest installment will show I am currently sorting out tangles in the TL as research exposes anomalies. I might have to carry out a re-write/edit of most of section 5.
 
Excellent stuff as always, and did the Spit really have that kind of 8-month long delay? If so i'm surprised heads didn't roll! Also *REEEEE's at the Bomber Barons* No! No big wasteful bombers for you! I really like the idea of splitting the Industrial part of the aircraft production stage away from the Air Ministry and onto its own thing, less oversight and less pencil pushing I hope.
Dowding's doing a good job, the re-engined Albacore with an extra 250 - 300 HP to call upon would probably give it a bit better performance, probably not enough to get it to break 300kph but still better than nothing, and would probably be more useful in a climb having extra horses to call upon.

It seems that the multi-seat fighter ideas been put out to pasture so the OTL Fulmar might be strangled in the crib and instead the Folland Fulmar could go in its stead. But what ever gets decided needs to be done NOW as the FAA is still based around the Sea Gladiator and Skuas as its main 'fighter' but at least the Roc's been thrown from the window. And it seems the Defiant might emerge as a 'kind of Hurricane but fatter' instead of a turreted fighter. And good to see the Whirlwind could well be coming along. If it goes into production some time in 39 then we'll probably see it in small numbers. IIRC it had a rather short range so it might well not get deployed to France and could stay at home as an anti-bomber measure.
 
Yes, But the OTL Barracuda Mk1 only had 1260Hp from it's Merlin type 30 engine, so ITTL having 2000Hp makes the Barracuda a very different 'kettle of Fish' indeed. ITTL the two seat naval fighter for the FAA is not yet dead, simply rather than outdated Gladiators the FAA are getting state of the art cannon armed fighters by 1940! Both Dowdings are doing a cracking job, a little bit of inter-service understanding goes a very long way. At The moment the Whirlwind is Fighter Commands problem child.
 

Driftless

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A Whirlwind that has consistently high performing engines at altitude would have been *very* useful in any Battle of Britain

*edit* (apply appropriate RAF jargon here :biggrin:) "24 Heinkels 3,000 feet below - Dinner is served!"
 
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The Whirlwinds OTL did not end up doing that bad ( as a rugged ground attack aircraft ), it hurt that they were kept back for anti invasion defense ( due to having cannon ) so missed what would have been their best time operationally but they were used up rather than relegated to training or scrapped. Better engine and they might shine more as a fighter or equip the CAS squadrons ( more survivable than a hurribomber and heavier payload )
 
5.06 The Butterflies Appear On The Flight Line
Part 5 0.6 The Butterflys appear on the flight line

Over at Fighter Command there had been changes as well, Air Commodore Arthur Harris was due to take up the post of Senior Air Staff Officer Fighter Command in July 1938. Group Captain Keith Park was scheduled to go to Palestine. Unfortunately, in April Park was hospitalised with a case of acute streptococcal pharyngitis which rendered him unfit for overseas service, coupled with Harris pestering the CAS about sending him to serve somewhere tropical with his new wife. Sir Cyril Newall simply had the appointments swapped and a happy Sir Harris and his new wife disappeared of to Palestine.
After a month on sick leave the newly promoted Air Commodore Park would arrive as the second in command of Fighter Command with responsibility for fighting efficiency. Having earlier in 1938 been flying Hawker Fury fighters as commander of Tangmere air station Park set out whilst still on leave to qualify to fly all the latest fighter aircraft either in service or proposed for Fighter Command. In short order Park had carried out a familiarisation flight in a Miles Kestrel and when he had flown solo in it had progressed on to fly a Hurricane and a Henley (at Hawker’s Great western Airfield), a Spitfire (at Eastleigh), a Folland Fulmar (the 2nd Prototype at Hamble) and at Martlesham both Defiant types, The Gloster Guardian and the little Vickers Vemon. The two aircraft on the south coast had been flown as an interluded during a weeks sailing whilst on sick leave. Hawker’s had been visited on his way to Martlesham and then onto Fighter Command headquarters at Bentley Priory in Stanmore to take up his post.

Upon commencing work at Fighter Command headquarters Park quickly struck up a rapport with Sir Hugh Dowding. Having been to Martlesham on his ‘Flying Tour’ Keith Park soon returned there as part of a visit to Bawdsey Manor to learn about RDF and how Fighter Command would utilize the CH system then being constructed and commissioned. Whilst at Bawdsey Manor Park was introduced to ‘Taffy’ Bowen who briefed him on the progress with AI RDF1.5 and 2. Then Keith Park was taken for a flight in an Anson for a practical demonstration of both system. Before returning to Bentley Priory Squadron Leader Hart and his team in operational research illustrated the limitations of the current hardware and operating procedure and the difficulties that would need to be surmounted to arrive at an operational system. Air Commodore Keith Park returned to Bentley Priory with much to ponder on. if the CH system was showing promise and could provide the answer to daytime Bombers then the AI system was struggling valiantly to catch up in the night.

At a meeting of the Air Council to consider which aircraft were to proceed to construction status and to adoption by the RAF a final decision on the production for the Bolton and Paul Defiant. The discussion on whether to proceed with the original turret fighter as conceived or to build the revised four cannon armed single seat fighter was to all intents and purpose resolved by Air Commodore Keith Park, whom Sir Hugh Dowding had arranged to attend the meeting, when he made the following observations having flown both version of the aircraft. Firstly the turret version only carried half the armament currently considered necessary to score a quick kill against an enemy bomber having only four rifle calibre machine guns against the eight carried by the Spitfire and Hurricane. Secondly unlike the Bristol fighter the success of which the turret fighter is supposed to emulate the defiant has no forward firing guns. Finally having flown in and seen combat in the Bristol Fighter during the Great War Park reiterated that most kills achieved by the Bristol Fighter were with the forward firing guns.

With the shadow factory scheme for the increase in production going ahead another means of increasing capacity was considered. This was the use of subcontractors to build aircraft sections for later assembly into complete aircraft. For this purpose a specifications 17/38 and B.18/38 were issued for a twin engine reconnaissance bomber designed for rapid construction from nonstrategic materials by labour formerly unskilled in aircraft production. Two designs were considered, the Bristol Type 155 originally designed to specification B9/38 and a design designated D.H.97 from De Haviland. The B.18/38 specification was issued to Armstrong Whitworth for the development of the design from the Bristol type 155 optimised for subcontract construction from non strategic materials. De Haviland proposed their Modified D.H.95 Flamingo design that was due to have it’s first flight in June. The AM decision was to order the Armstrong Whitworth Albermarle off the drawing board. This aircraft was to use either the Bristol Hercules or the Alvis Maeonides two row radial engines. The D.H.95 Flamingo was being built to the specification 10/36 and that had not required and was not therefore optimised for sub contract and non strategic material construction.

As scheduled in June the first prototype of the D.H. 95 Flamingo to specification 10/36 flew from the De Haviland Factory field ,This aircraft was powered by a pair of Alvis Pelides engines. The Flamingo was a modification of the private venture D.H.95 passenger aircraft modified to conform as closely as the existing De Haviland deign permitted to specification G.24/35 re issued as part of specification 10/36. To cope with the increase in weight that the design modifications would incur the engine had been changed from the original twin Bristol Perseus engines of 930 Hp each to twin Alvis Pelides engines of 1050Hp each. Initial flight testing by De Haviland indicated that the Flamingo would fulfil all the expectations of the AM. The single engine performance was particularly noted as the aircraft had the ability to climb away on a single engine once airborne from take off. With the concerns being expressed about the performance of the Blackburn Botha design, which was considered severely underpowered. Both the Beaufort and the Flamingo had been redesigned to take more powerful engine than the original 10/36 specification requested. A review was undertaken by the AEE, and the AMR&D and it was recommended that the Blackburn Botha be cancelled and the Brough factory turned over to the production of the De Haviland flamingo as The De Haviland factories were already working at very nearly their capacity.

Despite a debate which at times became quite heated regarding the waste and potential delay into service, of the aircraft to fulfil specification 10/36, which would result from this late change the advantages of the De Haviland design and it’s larger engines finally held sway. Blackburn, who were by now getting fatally familiar with having their own designs cancelled and promptly replaced with the construction of another company’s design, figuratively speaking rolled up their sleeves and simply got on with the job, reassuring the AM that they would do all possible to have the first Flamingo entering service as soon as possible and the entire Order of 240 machines completed as quickly as the original schedule for the Botha.
 

perfectgeneral

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Blackburn are the largest subcontractors in the country, poor souls. At least they get to build worthwhile aircraft. A Mosquito with blunt nose radial engines will be a little slower. Not much, but some.

Park is an Air Commodore and kicking bottom. Interservice coordination is a huge change too. Great stuff.

Sorry I have been neglectful. I disassociate sometimes. I'm back in the room and loving this timeline. The real Whirlwind here is sonofpegasus.
 
There still might be a mossie as the Flamingo was a real thing

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Havilland_Flamingo

And lets hope if they do make an attack aircraft version of it that they do change its name :p The personnel one's a big change, bigger than the aircraft although Harris could well return. Park and Dowding striking up a good relationship is very important, IIRC these two didn't exactly get on, much to the detriment of the service so this change is a big plus. Had to look up the Venom, its tiny! It also kind of looks like something you'd expect to see half hanging out of a skip.

Good to see the Blackburn Botha has been canned and as has the Defiant! Good riddance to bad rubbish! Rebuilding it as a cannon armed fighter could be useful in a CAS role as the performance isn't too dissimilar to a Hurricane IIRC. And is it just me or does the Albermarle kind of look like a Martin Maryland bomber with the name and Made in the USA parts filed off?

Excellent stuff as always :D
 

perfectgeneral

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Lucky break for us that Park came good when it counted. Not as planned can be good.

I wonder where a valued officer like Harris will wind up?
BC again?
 

Driftless

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I wonder where a valued officer like Harris will wind up?
BC again?

If he's going to Palestine in mid-1938 and gains familiarity with the Eastern Med and Middle-East; might he likely stay there after the war starts? That would only be a hair over a year (if the war timeline follows our history)
 
5.07 The Butterflies Start to Soar
Part 5.07 The Butterfly start to soar.

Glosters F9/37 twin engine two seat fighter design had been modified to take twin Alvis Pelides engines, work on the first prototype had been completed and the first flight had taken place in early April. Company flight testing was proceeding well and the second Prototype with Peregrine engines was due to fly three months later provided the engine arrive on time,

Bristol had responded to specification E11/37 for a twin engine fighter with four cannons mounted in a turret, with a design using as many components as possible from the Beaufort torpedo bomber designed to specification 10/36 but using the more powerful Hercules engines. Bristol was issued a specification F6/38 for a twin engine four cannon fighter similar to the F9/37 but using a turretless version of Bristol’s design response to specification E11/37. An order for four prototype aircraft Bristol type 159 was placed on the day of issuing the contract these aircraft were numbered R2052-R2055. The Bristol type 159 was given the name Beaufighter to recognise it’s design inheritance from the Beaufort.

After much thought and discussion with his engineers Hive recommended that RR drop the Perigine rather than the EXE. His reasoning was that the Exe developed more horse power than the Perigine, was air cooled and could substitute for the Bristol Taurus engine. Earnest Hives did put on the rider that he estimated that building the first 250, 24 cylinder Exe engines would take the same resources as 1200 Merlin engines, though he did not put the same codicil on the cost of continuing the Perigrine. It was up to the AM to decide. Cancelling the Perigine would deprive the Whirlwind of it’d engine without a viable substitute other than the slightly heavier and more powerful Exe. Cancelling the Exe would leave the Blackburn B-20 looking for a substitute engine. At least there was the possibility of using the Exe as a substitute for the Bristol Taurus on aircraft such as the Gloster F9/37 and the Beaufort.

Over at Westland Aircraft their chief designer W.E.Petter had been overseeing the final design and construction of the first prototype Whirlwind due to the problems with getting air worthy Perigrines from RR the first aircraft was given a pair of the most powerful Kestrel engines then available. Having sorted out the delays with the under carriage legs the aircraft began manufactures flight trials in January 1938. These were done with the aircraft flying light but with the correct centre of gravity. The primary purpose was to check the basic aircraft handling characteristics especially when the large fowler flap was used for landing. It very quickly became apparent that turbulence from the flap when it was deployed was causing buffeting on the tail surface and this was resulting in handling issues. Petter set out to remedy this and the aircraft was rebuilt with the tail plane raised to sit on the tail fin in a T-tail configuration. Whilst this work was being done a pair of handed, hand build Perigrine pre-production engines arrived and were fitted for when the trials would recommence again shortly before Easter. With about a fifty percent increase in the available power the Whirlwind had suddenly become a thoroughbred and even when fully ballasted to mimic a full war load of cannons and ammunition her performance was breath-taking. Unfortunately for such a thoroughbred she was lame far more often than not as the Peregrines continued to require undue nursing and certainly could not attain or sustain the full power they were designed to achieve for any length of time. On the plus side however the major handing issues had been cured but the aircraft did have a higher landing speed than desired.


Before the late summer RAF exercises the RN held their summer exercises in the North Sea. HMS Couragous was scheduled to steam of the Suffolk coast for two days whilst the Folland Fulmar completed it’s deck landing trials. These trials consisted of landing on a clear deck using the arrestor wires and then after the aircraft had been re spotted at the aft end of the flight deck completing a free take off. After the first successful landing and take off was completed subsequent series were done at increasing aircraft weights and ship speeds to establish the aircraft deck landing limits. As there was some time between each sequence in each teast as the Fulmar returned to Martlesham to be reballasted for the next trial there was a considerable time between each landing sequence. This down time was utilised by the FAA test pilots to get one over on their RAF counter parts by deck landing various other high performance aircraft from the Martlesham test flight. The first of these was a standard Hurricane landed on sans tail hook at a ship speed of nearly thirty knots, the take off was done at the same ship speed utilising the whole length of the flight deck. Prior to landing on a sand bag of ballast was added aft of the COG to help keep the tail down under heavy braking if it was needed. The ballast bag was removed prior to the take off from the deck so as not to impede the raising of the tail as the aircraft gathered speed on the take off run. By the end of the first day they had witnessed not only a Hurricane land safely but also a Henley, the Bristol 148. The Fairey P4/34, Alabacore prototype and the Fairey battle/Monarch engine testbed. The highlight of the second day was the Supermarine test pilot Geoffrey Quill landing a production Spitfire onto the carrier and then taking off again. Geoffrey Quills method of a left handed curving approach to keep the flight deck in sight for as long as possible was written up in his subsequent report and would form the basis of the FAA standard landing technique until the advent of naval jets. Though Quill’s demonstration of the Spitfires capability was remarkable and only really achievable due to the apparent wind over the deck being recorded at some fifty miles an hour, it was the sight of the Bristol 148 seemingly hovering over the same deck as it demonstrated it’s superb low speed handling characteristic’s which caused most discussion. This aircraft capable of achieving nearly 300 mph could land in most conditions aboard the RN slowest aircraft carrier HNS Eagle and more importantly take off from same deck with a full war load. No one was ever quite sure who had authorised these tests that had by the end of the first day proved successful though later on post war various people would lay claim to initiating the trials. During these fight trials HMS Courageous was Waltzing backwards and forwards around the North sea reasonably close to Martlesham so taking advantage of this scientists from Bawdsey flying in Anson serial Number K8758 and obtained some very good photographs of the RDF image of the ship. When shown to members of the FAA/naval research team there was much excitement and arrangements were made to fly the aircraft down to Lee on the Solent to carry out demonstration flights for various senior officers using the shipping in the channel as convenient test targets.
 

perfectgeneral

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I am pleased about the T-tail. With Exe engines the Whirlwind would be an F5 twister. Nice synergy of testing between departments. I dread to think how a deck crash of a prototype could delay things.
 
by the time of the deck trials most of the types mentioned beyond prototype stage. The Hurricane is in service, the Henley is entering production, the Spitfire is an early production one. However the Bristol 148 and the P4/34 Albacore are prototypes but not the sole example and whilst the Battle is a flying testbed there is now a stream of Battles leaving the Factories with a trickle of Monarch engines as well.
 
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