Quote:
Originally Posted by 6S.Manu
I'm not questioning the SpitIX's birth. Simply I think that engineering industry (engines, materials ect) always works for improvements and of course during wartime the improvements are researched very quickly (with problems of durability and safety, like you say the matter is to win the war).
Why did the DB use the fuel injection? Why was the Me262 drawn up in 1939? The war was almost ended but P51Hs, P47Ms, P80s were to be used by the Air Force: weren't the P51Ds and P47Ds enough to win the war?
|
Essentially you re both correct - there has always been a pre-emptive drive to produce more powerful engines, faster aeroplanes, with better rates of climb and more firepower well ahead of any direct reaction to the enemies technological advancement; given the rate of developments (2-3 years even back then) for an engine airframe, you couldn't do otherwise else if all you did was react to the technological advancement of your enemy you'd lose the battle very quickly. Take the Fw190 for example. That 1st flew well before any Bf109 met a Spitfire in combat.
What tended to happen particularly in the British industry was that a technology being developed focusing on a different aspect of the air war or already in development, was found to be suitable to solve an immediate problem with another, or the development was accelerated to get that technology into service as fast as possible. Take the Mk IX, for which this analogy applies on both counts.
The Merlin 60 series was actually designed for powering high altitude bomber designs, but it's much improved output and the fact it would give the Spitfire such a performance boost in light of the then Focke-Wulf ascendancy dictated that it was given priority in this arena.
The Mk IX then
is a reactionary a/c in this respect - it's a Mk V with the minimum modifications required to take the new engine. However the technology behind it is of a far more measured and pre-emptive development.
Similarly the Griffon. The Mk IV - later to become the MK XII - first flew in 1941 before the 190 threat was properly understood, but given that in it's early variants the Griffon's high altitude performance was lacking at a time when fighting took place from 20,000ft up it was something of a white elephant. However, they do become useful against the low-level tip and run raiders - tho this is more a case of it fortuitously being available and a suitable answer to an enemies tactics.
Until the two-stage supercharger comes in and we get the Mk XIV (another stop-gap by the way, essentially a Mk VIII with the minimum required modifications to take the Griffon 60 series) then we see a superbly performing fighter at all altitudes.
So unlike the Mk IX, the Griffon Spit's weren't a direct reaction to a particular technology crisis but indicative if the all encompassing urge to go faster, higher, get there faster and kill stuff quickly that drives all a/c development.