One of the great sinkholes of the United States war effort IOTL during the Great Patriotic War was the effort by General Motors' Fisher Body Division to produce a new fighter. The plane, despite being fathered by the respected Don Berlin, was a failure in every sense of the word--a regular George W. Bush of fighter planes, with both cases showing heritage ain't everything. 
Berlin, who led the design teams for Curtiss that produced the P-36 and P-40, was higly regarded as a designer and manager of aviation projects. His departure from Curtiss-Wright is felt by many to be one of the causes of its collapse as an airplane producer. Berlin conceived of the P-75 as a high performance long range fighter rapidly produced from already proven components of other aircraft. What resulted was an aeronautical chimera that was overweight, overbudget, underperforming, and behind schedule. The United States invested a considerable amount of resources based on GM's promise to produce a super plane. This promise was not kept.
Comrades, here is question: What if instead of wasting all the money and effort on developing the P-75 from scratch, the United States had convinced General Motors to produce under license another long-range super fighter, the P-38? Being in existence, the P-38 was much more of a known quantity. The P-38 had actual specificatons close to that projected for the P-75 (which the P-75 never claim close to achieving). The P-38 also had the advantage--at least for GM--of using two GM produced Allison engines, as did the P-75 (thought the engines for P-75 were coupled). Another advantage of having GM produce the P-38 was that second sourcing would allow Lockheed to introduce changes more easily. For example, Bodie in his definitive book about the P-38 notes that P-38K, with paddle bladed propellors and superior performance, was not introduced because procurement did not want to shutdown the sole production line for two weeks to allow for the change. Presumably, if GM does produce the P-38, Lockheed may have additional resources available for improving the P-38 (and its aerodymanically more sophisticated follow-on, the P-49), as well as newer projects such as P-80 and the Constellation.
That is not to say that adding GM as an additional production source for the P-38 would be a perfect fit. One problem was the P-38 was an extremely complicated and sophisticated plane. With twin turbo-charged, intercooled engines, the plane had extremely complicated engine mountings. Still, GM had shown itself as a competent producer of modern aircraft. The majority of Wildcats and Avengers were produced by General Motors' Eastern Aircraft Division. Though not as complicated as the Lightning, these were still sophisticated aircraft. Presumably, this ability would allow GM's Fisher Body to produce the P-38 rather than wasting time and money on the P-75.
(Interestingly, GM also held a major interest in North American Aviation, producer of the P-51.)
So what if GM tries to produce the P-38 instead of failing at the P-75? Does GM producing the P-38 seem to be a reasonable possibility? What would it take for it to have happened? What be result?
For those who have doubts about the efficacy of the P-38, here is a link to a website that catalogues a discussion about the P-38 from the old usenet days: http://yarchive.net/mil/p38.html
Berlin, who led the design teams for Curtiss that produced the P-36 and P-40, was higly regarded as a designer and manager of aviation projects. His departure from Curtiss-Wright is felt by many to be one of the causes of its collapse as an airplane producer. Berlin conceived of the P-75 as a high performance long range fighter rapidly produced from already proven components of other aircraft. What resulted was an aeronautical chimera that was overweight, overbudget, underperforming, and behind schedule. The United States invested a considerable amount of resources based on GM's promise to produce a super plane. This promise was not kept.
Comrades, here is question: What if instead of wasting all the money and effort on developing the P-75 from scratch, the United States had convinced General Motors to produce under license another long-range super fighter, the P-38? Being in existence, the P-38 was much more of a known quantity. The P-38 had actual specificatons close to that projected for the P-75 (which the P-75 never claim close to achieving). The P-38 also had the advantage--at least for GM--of using two GM produced Allison engines, as did the P-75 (thought the engines for P-75 were coupled). Another advantage of having GM produce the P-38 was that second sourcing would allow Lockheed to introduce changes more easily. For example, Bodie in his definitive book about the P-38 notes that P-38K, with paddle bladed propellors and superior performance, was not introduced because procurement did not want to shutdown the sole production line for two weeks to allow for the change. Presumably, if GM does produce the P-38, Lockheed may have additional resources available for improving the P-38 (and its aerodymanically more sophisticated follow-on, the P-49), as well as newer projects such as P-80 and the Constellation.
That is not to say that adding GM as an additional production source for the P-38 would be a perfect fit. One problem was the P-38 was an extremely complicated and sophisticated plane. With twin turbo-charged, intercooled engines, the plane had extremely complicated engine mountings. Still, GM had shown itself as a competent producer of modern aircraft. The majority of Wildcats and Avengers were produced by General Motors' Eastern Aircraft Division. Though not as complicated as the Lightning, these were still sophisticated aircraft. Presumably, this ability would allow GM's Fisher Body to produce the P-38 rather than wasting time and money on the P-75.
(Interestingly, GM also held a major interest in North American Aviation, producer of the P-51.)
So what if GM tries to produce the P-38 instead of failing at the P-75? Does GM producing the P-38 seem to be a reasonable possibility? What would it take for it to have happened? What be result?
For those who have doubts about the efficacy of the P-38, here is a link to a website that catalogues a discussion about the P-38 from the old usenet days: http://yarchive.net/mil/p38.html
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