I-16 instead of Hurricane?

Archibald

Banned
Sometimes I feel that the only interesting aspect of a (obviously doomed) operation Sea Lion would be the RAF scrapping the barrel and throwing every available aicraft in the air... for example, imagine that kind of relic straffing German soliders on the beaches.... :D
 
Bristol F2s were all scrap long before 1940 but all the ex bombers in use for training, target towing etc. had their bomb racks reissued and light bomb racks issued for basic trainers eg Tiger Moth. I knew a TT Westland Wallace pilot whose entire unit asked to be sent to Fighter Command as experienced pilots but were refused being told they were needed to be able to bomb any German invasion.

So, yes, Sealion troops would have seen a crowd of varied biplane bombers of all sizes from Heyfords to Tutors as well as the normal first line Blenheims, Battles and Lysanders and heavier Whitleys, Wellingtons and Hampdens. But not Bristol F2Bs. This is not normally factored into Sealion scenarios so it would have been even more unlikely to succeed than is normally thought and involves hundreds of extra aeroplanes.
 
Sometimes I feel that the only interesting aspect of a (obviously doomed) operation Sea Lion would be the RAF scrapping the barrel and throwing every available aicraft in the air... for example, imagine that kind of relic straffing German soliders on the beaches.... :D

It couldn't have gone that far. While the Spitfire was a consummate fighter aircraft that might not have been, a fighter comparable to the Hurri was not a big stretch. The Gloster F5/34, the Belgian Renard R-38, or the Rogozarski IK3, a Yugoslavian Hurricane clone could have given comparable performances. Keep in mind that the premise of this thread owes its genesis to an ethereal mist dwelling in the mind of an idle Glaswegian, and is both fantastically imaginative and ASB. Had the aerodynamicist from the Mossie project spent 6 weeks at Miles Aircraft, and George Dowty whipped up a quick retractable gear, the M-20 might'a been sumpin. The Boulton Paul Defiant conventional fighter could be another contender. The biggest potential stumbling block would be the lack of Merlin engines, a shortage that would have been sorely felt.

renard_r-38.jpg
 
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