Earlier fast unarmed bombers

From ‘RAF Bomber Command and its aircraft 1936-1940’ by James Goulding and Philip Moyes.

In May 1937 the de Havillands Albatross airliner made its first flight….Powered by four de Havilland Gipsy Twelve Srs I engines of 525hp each, the Albatross could carry a 6,000lb payload over a range that would include Berlin and back, cruising at 210mph. With such as performance a military version of the aircraft seemed to have possibilities and a project was drafted which would conform to Specification P.13/36. This was projected with two Rolls-Royce Merlin engines, but this bomber was underpowered and not able to meet the specification requirements. With Merlins the top speed would have been 260mph and it could carry 4,000lb of bombs at 230mph for 1,500 miles. To meet the specification, double the power was needed, which was not surprising as all the other P.13/36 designs projected were mostly using two Vultures, with Sabres, Centaurus or Hercules as alternative power plants.

In August 1938 a revised twin-Merlin bomber was projected – again of similar size to the Albatross – but it too proved unsatisfactory.

Towards the end of 1938 de Havillands proposed a different bomber layout, no longer an adaptation of the Albatross design but a smaller, three-seat twin-Merlin design with a top speed of 300mph and a cruising speed of 268mph. This design had fixed forward armament and manually operated guns. All-wood construction was again suggested.

During the last months of peace during 1939 de Havillands investigated various projects, during the course of which they held discussions with Sir Wilfred Freeman. From these discussions it seems probable that the first definite proposals for a fast, small, unarmed bomber made of wood was evolved. By September 1939 the de Havillands project team had finalised a design for a fast bomber with a crew of two, powered by two Rolls-Royce engines using 100-octane fuel. This unarmed aircraft was estimated to carry two 500lb or six 250lb bombs for 1,500miles cruising at 320mph. Top speed was 405mph.



Now given the Albatross had a 105ft wingspan, double the power should have been easy – four Merlins??- but can the wing structure take it, the wing would have to be reduced to les sthan 100ft (possibly 80ft for the P.13/36 specs)?


The P.13/36 was originally wanting the possibility of catapult launch and the ability to carry four later two torpedoes internally, what does that suggest for the layout of this de Haviland design?

If faced with official disinterest, what would be de Haviland’s ability to make a 'racing' Mosquito (like the Comet) conveniently of the size and weight as the actual Mosquito to prove their theory?




 
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