R J Mitchell's B.1/35 as a fast unarmed bomber?

[PMN1]

Ralph Pegram’s ‘Beyond the Spitfire; The Unseen Designs of R.J.Mitchell’ describes Mitchell’s design for B.1/35.

It had a narrow fuselage less than 6ft at its widest point and carried its entire bombload within the wing to the rear of the spar.

It had three gun positions, nose, tail and dorsal.

The nose gun was such that the operator would have to lie prone to operate it due to the narrowness of the nose. With the tail position, although the operator was in a compartment in the base of the tail, the guns were operated remotely. There was also a third position in the roof that is thought would be a retractable mounting.

Power would be from two Twin-Aquila sleeve valve engines.

It would need different engines but is there any potential for the design to actually be an unarmed speed bomber?

 

[Dynasoar]

Interesting concept. With the bomb load behind the mainspar, it might be a twitchy handful during takeoff and climb. What was the projected performance?

Dynasoar

 

[tomo pauk]

...
Power would be from two Twin-Aquila sleeve valve engines.

It would need different engines but is there any potential for the design to actually be an unarmed speed bomber?

What were dimensions and weights as projected?

 

[Ashley Pomeroy]

I learn from Wikipedia that "amongst the requirements of Specification B.1/35 was a speed of no less than 195 MPH while flying at 15,000 feet, a range of 1,500 miles while carrying a payload of 2,000lb of bombs" - it was issued in 1934. My hunch is that the end result would have been a good-looking deathtrap by the time of the Second World War. The engines were apparently very unreliable and I imagine that changing the design to accommodate different engines would mess up the aerodynamics, as the cowlings would have to be redesigned.

The problem is that fast bombers by 1934 standards weren't fast by 1939, which is one of the reasons the Mosquito had such a cool initial reception.

 

[PMN1]

The book does not give any expected performance figures, dimensions or weights but based on the line drawing, the design as is would look to have a length of around 66ft and a wingspan of around 90ft

 

[tomo pauk]

90 ft wingspan is 25 ft more than Ju 88A1, the length being almost 20 ft greater. I don't think there is any British engine around that can make a performer out of the Supermarine's proposal.

 

[Deleted member 94680]

Come WWII the tail gunner could be deleted for true remote guns though. They could be operated from the cockpit.