Aces High Bulletin Board

General Forums => Aircraft and Vehicles => Topic started by: handy169 on July 08, 2006, 02:19:09 AM

Title: P-58 chain lighting
Post by: handy169 on July 08, 2006, 02:19:09 AM

Type:           Fighter -> attack aircraft -> bomber destroyer
Crew:           2, Pilot & Gunner
Armament:       4x 37mm cannon, 4x 12.7mm machine gun,
            up to 4,000 lb bombs
 
4 x 37mm!!!! *drools*

Title: P-72
Post by: handy169 on July 08, 2006, 02:22:02 AM

Type:              Fighter
Crew:           1, Pilot
Armament:       six .50 cal machine guns
                or optionally four 37-mm cannon
                plus optional two 1000 lb. bombs

dang all these quad 37mm planes that never got into production!

Title: P-81
Post by: handy169 on July 08, 2006, 02:24:55 AM

Type:           long range escort fighter
Crew:           1
Armament:       six .50 cal machine guns
                or six 20mm cannon
 
 
6 20mm's .. not bad

Title: P-58 chain lighting
Post by: Widewing on July 08, 2006, 08:20:57 AM

All three types never advanced beyond prototypes. Moreover, of the three, only the XP-72 could be considered a viable fighter. According to Republic (who designed and built the XP-72s), 37 mm cannons were never considered. The original Army specification called for the cannons, but was revised when faced with the fact that it was a pipedream.

During test flights, one of the XP-72s attained 490 mph on 3,000 hp. Pratt & Whitney promised 3,450 hp for the production engine, which would have allowed the XP-72 to attain speeds well above 500 mph. Had the Army wanted them, P-72s could have been rolling off the line by the spring of 1945. However, the need for these aircraft was virtually eliminated by the P-80 and the Army cancelled the program, giving Republic a contract to design and build their own jet fighter, the XP-84 Thunderjet.

Lockheed's XP-58 was a massive fighter, obsolete in concept before it ever flew. Convair's XP-81 was a mixed power fighter, using both turbojet and turboprop power. Even if a sufficiently powerful turboprop engine were available, it still would have been a great deal less capable than the P-80. It was a huge fighter, and range would have been no better than a pure jet. Inasmuch as it was still more than a year from being sorted out, the Army cancelled the project.

My regards,

Widewing

Title: P-58 chain lighting
Post by: KgB on July 08, 2006, 09:56:14 AM

Damn,one burst from quad 37mm.Hmmm....might as well use them as air brakes.

Title: P-58 chain lighting
Post by: handy169 on July 08, 2006, 12:06:28 PM

just the thought was nice though .. in concept

Title: P-58 chain lighting
Post by: handy169 on July 08, 2006, 12:07:20 PM

air brakes.. not much different then the A-10 with its gatlin gun ..