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In the Second World War there was a pressing need among the Western Allies for thousands of airplanes to be used for towing the targets for training the navies gunners to blast at, the armies anti-aircraft batteries to bang away at and for the air forces to do their aerial air to air gunnery practice for fighter pilots and bomber crews to shoot at.
Usually obsolete, obsolescent and flawed aircraft were shoved into this role as there was no other good use for those airplanes. But because of the cost of developing and producing these combat inadequate aircraft this was not the best use of valuable resources.
If the various design bureaus and air ministries and production boards had rejected a few more planes that turned out to be mistakes so they wouldn't have made it into production in OTL where would our target tugs come from? This maybe granting them a little more knowledge than likely but bear with me for the sake of discussion.
So we need to design and build 3000 or more target tugs in the U.S. for the U.S. and for Lend Lease to the U.K. and the Commonwealth for their training needs. We don't want to waste money and resources so we want an efficient design that is a one-size-fits-all so it can tow targets as fast as 200 mph at low and medium level for the armies AA and low,medium and high altitude for the navies and air forces.
What kind of plane would you design for this job? For low cost one engine for sure.
But radial air cooled or inline liquid cooled?
How many horsepower?
How big should the plane be?
How many crew members?
A rear tow hook only or an on board winch and drum for the towing?
All metal or wooden wings?
Who should build it?