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Using what’s available component-wise and to the capability of Britain’s aeronautical designers, have a fighter competitive with land based designs in widespread FAA fleet service by Jan 1940. Specifications:

1) Replacement for Sea Gladiator.

2) Single seat, single engine. Every FAA fighter up to now (and after the Fulmar/Firefly) has been single seat (postwar jets aside). So this isn’t a huge POD.

3) Folding wings. Must fit down Ark Royal’s lifts.

4) Monoplane, closed canopy, folding and stout undercarriage. Sorry Gloster F.5/34, your undercarriage design excludes you.

5) >800 mile endurance on internal fuel.

6) 8 x machine guns or a mix of cannon and mg. Taking into consideration the need to address earlier the lack of belt fed cannons and the reliability issues of 1930s cannons.

7) >330 mph top speed, with rate of climb >2,500 ft/min. Hawker Hurricane was 340 mph and 2,780 ft/min.

8) Robust, rot/corrosion resistant construction, able to ditch sufficiently safely and float long enough. Included dinghy.

9) Good management of pilot workload, including single crew use of carrier locating RDF system. Is autopilot possible in this era?

10) Reliable engine operation, and ease of maintenance, conducive to distant sorties and extended ops.

11) To cause least disruption to RAF rearmament procurement. This doesn’t mean Merlins are absolutely out, but they’d be the hardest to justify.
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