What-if aircraft of the Mexican Fighter Panic of 1939
part II: the Proposals
This week Dragon Hobbies announced they will follow up on their 1/48 Northrop Gamma raceplane and 1/48 Gamma bomber of the Chinese air force with a newly tooled 1/48 Nortrop Epsilon. For us, this is the occasion to follow up on our earlier article on the Mexican Fighter Panic of 1939 with a description of the aircraft proposals by Northrop, Douglas and Vought.
To recap, the Mexican fighter panic of 1939 came about because of some rumors that Mexico might turn fascist, join the axis and offer its airfields to the Luftwaffe. Questions about what planes the Luftwaffe
could possibly station on those fields and
how it would get them there notwithstanding, the idea that suddenly German bombers
might be flying over Los Angeles sent the U.S. Army Air Force into a panic and got it scrambling for fighter planes.
We have already covered the 'panic fighter' development of a simplified fixed landing gear P-40E and a single-place armed T-6 Texan, as this were the only two project that were actually built, albeit only as prototypes.In this article we will focus on the fighter plane proposals that were submitted and reviewed, but not build, namely the panic fighters of Nothrop, Douglas and Vought.
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It is indicative of the general attitude of army intelligence in the prewar years that although the 'fighter panic' itself was supposed to be kept secret from the public, both John K. Northrup and Vought were able to submit unsolicited proposals for a quick and cheap fighter before the year 1939 had ended. Nothrup's case was at the same time the most natural and most perplexing as John himself was at that time without a company. In 1938 his old employer Donald Douglas needed production capacity for his new line of DC passenger planes and as a response outright bought the Northrop workshop, retaining Nortrup himself as a chief engineer. Still, even with his contacts to top defense contractor Douglas, Nothrup should not be able to know that the army was secretly looking for a panic fighter. And yet, in December of 1939, even while he himself was working full-time on the Douglas Dauntless dive bomber, Nothrup still submitted an unsolicited offer for a stopgap fighter.
Looking at the original project by John K. Northrup, its lineage becomes immediately clear. The lines of the plane can be traced back to the Nothrop Gamma record plane and raceplane. In effect, the plane was a simplified Gamma with a 1000 hp radial up front. It even retained the original Gamma's fixed landing gear trousers. This at a time when even before 1938 Northrop's later Gamma versions had already first a semi-retractable, then a completely flush retracting undercarriage. Yet, the fighter promised to be fast, cheap and more importantly based on proven technology. The army was interested, but... though the project was submitted as a Northrop plane and the name Epsilon was a direct reference to the earlier Nothrop Alpha, Gamma and Delta, Nothrop was in essence an aircraft manufacturer without an aircraft factory. If Northrup had submitted his proposal as a way to return to owning his own company it backfired. Instead of setting up Nortrup with the contract he needed to start another new company, the army took the plans to Douglas...
In the spirit of fair play, Don Douglas gave John Nothrup full credit for the design and made him lead designer for the follow-up project, but he also teamed him with a young up-and-coming designer, Ed Heineman. Heineman, later known for such designs like the Douglas Skyraider, Skyhawk and B.66 was basically known for three principles: keep it simple, give it power to spare and make it roomy enough for future upgrades. In retrospect the Heineman touch in the new Epsilon-B are clearly visible. Starting with the engine, the same 1200 hp Pratt&Whitney that powered the two-person Dauntless dive bomber. Furthermore, for a stopgap fighter, the plane was big with enough room in the fuselage and wings to later add all possible extra weapons. It had a retractable landing gear, based on an earlier Nothrup design, but the mechanic was as sturdy as it was simple. Three months after the original design, the Epsilon-B wsa submitted to the army. However, like with the Curtiss and North American designs, by that time it was clear that the 'panic' that prompted the Army to request the stopgap fighter was just that: a panic, a pang of fear in anticipation of an event that did not happen. Being already overwhelmed with orders from the Navy, Douglas pulled the plug on the project.
The second unannounced proposal for a 'Mexican Fighter Panic' stopgap fighter came from Vought. Although later in the war the company would be responsible for the superb F4U Corsair, by 1939 the company was in a slump. Its latest fighter project, the model 141, had lost out in all navy competitions, first to the Brewster Buffalo, then - redesigned as the Model 143- against Grumman's F4F Wildcat. Even plans to sell the aircraft to the army, the Dutch and at one point even to Japan fell through. It is unclear when and how Vought got wind of the army's search for an uncomplicated poor-man's-fighter, but Vought immediately responded with its latest iteration of the 141, this time called the model 149.
In essence the 149 was a simplified version of the earlier designs with a fixed landing gear. The 141's perceived problems with lateral stability were countered by adding a massive tail-fin, which gave the effort immediately the nickname of 'project sailfish'. The proposal arrived at the desk of the army in January of 1940, but while it was reviewed with some interest, the army held back on any decisions until it arrival of the proposal for the Douglas Epsilon-B, so the two projects could be vetted against each other. And as seen above, by that time, the need for the fighter was already obsolete. Thus both the Nortrop-Douglas and the Vought
projects stayed exactly that: projects.
Still, in an environment where model kit makers are increasingly searching for interesting lesser-known aircraft to add to their collection, may be someday someone will produce both an Epsilon-B and a Model 149 so we can finally witness the fly-off between the two contenders... even if only in a 1/48 scale model diorama.
