Underpowered? overloaded.

[Igo kyu]

Originally Posted by Jumoschwanz

I don't see the point to this post.

Thanks for making the response anyway.

The military puts up specifications it wants for an aircraft, and then multiple manufacturers put a plane together to compete for the contract.

In Britain it was the air ministry which supplied the specifications:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...specifications

This is a partial list of the British Air Ministry (AM) specifications for aircraft. A specification stemmed from an Operational Requirement, abbreviated "OR", describing what the aircraft would be used for. This in turn led to the specification itself, e.g. a two-engined fighter with four machine guns. So for example, OR.40 for a heavy bomber led to Specification B.12/36. Aircraft manufacturers would be invited to present design proposals to the ministry, following which prototypes of one or more of the proposals might be ordered for evaluation. On very rare occasions, a manufacturer would design and build an aircraft using their own money as a "private venture" (PV). This would then be offered to the ministry for evaluation. If the aircraft generated interest in the ministry or RAF due to performance or some other combination of features then the ministry might well issue a specification based on the private venture aircraft.[1]

The designers not only have to try and meet the specifications, they have to work around available materials and technology. On top of those obstacles there is always government corruption trying to give the contracts to manufacturers that do not always have the best aircraft designs.

With all that in mind, it is silly to fixate on a designer or engineer about the performance of an aircraft.

Who else is responsible? There are problems, and compromises must be made, but in the end any particular engine can do so much and until it is redesigned no more. I'm not trying to put unfair blame on the 27th designer, but the top guy should know what's going on.

There were some outright silly designs in use at the start of the war, as well as some great ones. There were occasional aircraft that got to the prototype stage, and sometimes beyond that, and then failed.

It's fun sometimes to think of what might have been, we're all armchair generals in our own heads, I don't think there's anything wrong with that.