W.I. - no Hs 129 attacker?

There is a very simple way of screwing the -129. The French don't handle some thousands of G&R 14N engines to power it. They were just powerful enough for the job - yet did not put a burden on the German industry... the perfect theft ! In passing, this would also screw the Me-323 powered glider.
G&R probably didn't manufactured thousands of engines before France fell?
Hs 129 used the 14M - one of the smallest and lightest 14 cylinder engines around, of just under 19L displacement. Even the small R-1535 was of substantial greater capacity. The 14N was the big brother, with more than double the capacity. Power was ... meh, almost 39L engine barely beating 1100 HP mark after a lot of development from the god-awful 14K series.
(other countries did 1000-1100 HP on 87 oct and with simple 1-row radials of under 30L by end of 1930s)
French finally managed to come out with the much improved 14 cylinder radial - G&R 14R - that shared bore and stroke from the 14K and N versions. Improvements include the central bearing for total of 3 (vs. just 2 for earlier relatives) so the engine can withstand better the increase of boost and overall power, vastly better supercharger (better than on BMW 801C and D, or on Hercules pre-100 series), a 2-speed S/C drive... But, it was too late to matter.

The G&R 14R would've been a good fit on the Fw 190, Ju 87 and 88, Do 217, He 111, Regianne and Fiat fighters... The 14N - less so, unless the resulting aircraft is tailored strictly for 1 job.
 
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thaddeus

Donor
my understanding they schemed a "lightly" armored version of the FW-189 in addition to an armored attack version?

that along with Henschel continuing production of the HS-123, would seem the most conservative, simplest path?
 
Got
G&R probably didn't manufactured thousands of engines before France fell?
Hs 129 used the 14M - one of the smallest and lightest 14 cylinder engines around, of just under 19L displacement. Even the small R-1535 was of substantial greater capacity. The 14N was the big brother, with more than double the capacity. Power was ... meh, almost 39L engine barely beating 1100 HP mark after a lot of development from the god-awful 14K series.
(other countries did 1000-1100 HP on 87 oct and with simple 1-row radials of under 30L by end of 1930s)
French finally managed to come out with the much improved 14 cylinder radial - G&R 14R - that shared bore and stroke from the 14K and N versions. Improvements include the central bearing for total of 3 (vs. just 2 for earlier relatives) so the engine can withstand better the increase of boost and overall power, vastly better supercharger (better than on BMW 801C and D, or on Hercules pre-100 series), a 2-speed S/C drive... But, it was too late to matter.

The G&R 14R would've been a good fit on the Fw 190, Ju 87 and 88, Do 217, He 111, Regianne and Fiat fighters... The 14N - less so, unless the resulting aircraft is tailored strictly for 1 job.
Got my G&R "14" wrong - well there were too many of them.
 
Looking through some of the proposals I merely note that those appear to be outperformed by the Fairey Battle. The main shortfall of the Battle being sheer size.
 
Looking through some of the proposals I merely note that those appear to be outperformed by the Fairey Battle. The main shortfall of the Battle being sheer size.
Unless we go for a fighter bomber avenue, the proposals are going to be indeed out-performed by the Battle. That does not mean the slow aircraft will be useless provided they can operate under air superiority. 'Slow' aircraft usually can carry more (yay for them, but it was not always the case), while fighter-bombers do not require that air superiority is achieved (nod for them). Problem with fighter bombers is that they require top-of-the-line engines if we want them to carry a lots of ordance (minus for them).
The Fw 190 line was always one of my favorites. As a fighter bomber, they compete for engines with fighter versions. There is several ways to circumvent this: kill some stillborn programes (He 177, Me 210/410) so there is more DB engines that can be installed on Fw 190 fighter versions thus there is more BMW engines around, and/or have G&R 14R manufactured instead of 14M that went into Hs 129B. Probably some other solutions for the engine problem can be made, perhaps Jumo does not embark into the Jumo 222 fiasco so there is more Jumo 211 and earlier 213 to choose from?
 
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