WI: A strong Polish interceptor, 1939

Polish (their state and their military) have had a few things that Yugoslavs lacked. There was no universal dislike for the ruling Serb dynasty by more than half of population. They were not surrounded from day one of invasion. Germans and Italians quickly established puppet states all along of Yugoslavia within a days and weeks. Yugoslav AF itself was not as well dispersed as the Polish AF.
Bf 109E was a benchmark in 1939-40, but not in 1941, let alone the Hurricane I outfitted with fixed pitch prop and no 100 oct fuel.
 
Hispanos and Gnome Rhones etc. are all very well but would it be wise for Poland to base it's fighter production around imported engines? That is why I plumped for the PZL Pegasus. There is nothing wrong with it as a fighter engine. It just never got used as such. Not a narrow radial but perfectly workable.
 
The Yugoslavs had a pretty substantial air force, including a large number of those benchmark 109Es and Hawker Hurricanes and just a handful of IK-3s. They were suffering a similar lack of early warning and fighter control, again against a vastly larger force. They lasted 11 days.
They had about 64 Bf 109 and some 24 Hurricanes. They were in process of training the crews for them I believe. In my opinion they were in worst positions then Poles.

Air Force lasted 11 days. As long as Yugoslavian army. According to wiki all attacking forces had some 57 aircraft shot down against 49 Yugoslavian.
 
Hispanos and Gnome Rhones etc. are all very well but would it be wise for Poland to base it's fighter production around imported engines? That is why I plumped for the PZL Pegasus. There is nothing wrong with it as a fighter engine. It just never got used as such. Not a narrow radial but perfectly workable.
They could buy licenses for them. Yes somebdy mentioned licence for HS was considered but scratched because to expensive. After all Pzl-11 engine Bristol Mercury was also license built by Skoda factory in Poland and Hungarians license built Gnome Rhone.

I am curiouse on that Pzl Waran engine which was suppose to be ready in late 1939.
 
Hispanos and Gnome Rhones etc. are all very well but would it be wise for Poland to base it's fighter production around imported engines? That is why I plumped for the PZL Pegasus. There is nothing wrong with it as a fighter engine. It just never got used as such. Not a narrow radial but perfectly workable.

One of them just won't do for a performance edge.

You need to do this

757px-The_latest_type_of_a_Grumman_Navy_fighter_-_NARA_-_195921.jpg

The F5F had two Wright R-1820s that were about an inch smaller in diameter, and a bit more powerful from more displacement from bigger pistons, but less stroke.
It did 1000HP on 87 octane.

A Polish version of this won't need the Skyrocket's 1200 mile range either, so will be even lighter get similar performance, despite less HP
 
They had about 64 Bf 109 and some 24 Hurricanes.
let alone the Hurricane I outfitted with fixed pitch prop


I've only seen one photo of one of the 24 Hurricane Is supplied to Yugoslavia and it had a 3-bladed prop.

20 Hurricanes were built under license in Yugoslavia. Production was halted by the invasion. One example was fitted with a DB-601 engine. This was in addition to the 24 sent from Britain.
 
Looks like just the 1st twelve Hurricanes were with Watts (fixed, 2-blade) prop, while the rest 12 of those produced in Britain and all 20 Yugoslav-produced examples were with De Havilland (3-blade 'adjustable') prop.
Link
 
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