WesWorld

NEW SPECIFICATIONS

F.36/34: Issued to Hawker for the Hawker Hurricane with new RR Merlin V-12 engine developed from the Peregrine, first flight planned for November 1935.

F.37/34: Isuued to Supermarine for the Supermarine Spitfire as stop-gap fighter with the new RR Merlin and armed with eight 7.7mm Browning MGs, first flight planned for October 1935.

F.11/35: A new turret fighter capable of 370mph at 15,000ft and armed with either eight 7.7mm MGs or four 20mm cannon, this has been superseded by F.37/35.

F.18/35: Hurricane and Spitfire replacement, speed of at least 400mph, armament of twelve 7.7mm Browning MGs and a service ceiling not below 35,000ft. Can either be single or twin engined. To enter service in 1938.
Contenders are; Bristol with Bristol Centaurus, Napier Sabre or RR Vulture engines, single-engined fighter with twin tails, Gloster with a pod and boom design with pusher Sabre engine and twelve MGs in nose, Hawker with a new single-engined fighter based on the Hurricane but with powered by RR Vulture and with new wings for twelve MGs and lastly Supermarine have tendered the Type 324 a twin Bristol Taurus powered fighter with twelve MGs in outer wings, an alternative with pusher engines is submitted as the Type 325.

F.37/35: A new bomber-destroyer armed with four Oerlikon 20mm cannon with a top speed of at least 350mph which can be either a modified existing type or a new design with single or twin engines. To enter service in 1938.
Contenders are; Boulton Paul P.88 a single engined fighter powered by either the Bristol Hercules or the RR Vulture, the Bristol 153 a twin-engined fighter powered by two Bristol Hercules radial engines, Gloster G.39 powered by two Taurus radials, Hawker has offered a Hurricane armed with four cannon, Supermarine has offered a larger Spitfire type with new wings and improved radiators and Westland has offered the P.9 a twin RR Kestrel or Peregrine powered fighter.

B.1/35: A new twin-engined heavy bomber capable of 250mph with a bombload of 10,000lbs and armed with powered nose, dorsal and tail turrets. To enter service in 1938.
Contenders are; Armstrong Whitworth AW.39 powered by two RR Merlins with a top speed of 260mph, Boulton Paul submitted the P.79 (an improved B.3/34 entry), Handley Page has offered new bomber powered by two Hercules or Merlins with a top speed of 251mph and Vickers offered an improved Wellington with Hercules engines.

B.8/35: Issued to Fairey and Hawker for a new light bomber to replace the Battle, armament to include eight wing-mounted 7.7mm MGs plus dorsal weapon. To enter service in 1938.
Contenders are; Fairey has offered a Barracuda de-navalised and powered by a RR Merlin engine and the Hawker P.1006 a two-seater bomber with Hurricane outer wings and powered by the Merlin and carrying two 250lbs internally.

B.12/35: A new four-engined heavy bomber to replace the AW. Whitley. This new bomber is to carry a bombload of 14,000lbs over 2000 miles with a cruise speed of at least 250mph. Self-defence armament is to be provided by powered nose, dorsal and tail turrets. To be in service in 1939.
Contenders are; Armstrong Whitworth AW.42 powered by four RR Vultures carrying up to 20,500lbs of bombs and armed with nose, tail and ventral turrets, the Boulton Paul P.90 is all-metal and powered by four RR Peregrine engines and can carry 14,000lbs of bombs at 248mph at 15,000ft and is armed with nose and tail turrets, Bristol has tendered a four Hercules powered bomber carrying 14,000lbs with a cruise speed of 290mph, Short Brothers have tendered the S.29 powered by four Hercules and carrying 14,000lbs of bombs and also armed with nose, tail and dorsal turrets, Supermarine Type 316 powered by either four Kestrel, Peregrine, Merlin, Hercules, Pegasus XVIII or Napier Dagger engines cruising from 265 to 300mph and armed with nose, tail and ventral turrets and Vickers Type 293 is a four-engined Wellington carrying up to 18,000lbs and powered by the Taurus meets all specified performances.

R.1/35: A new small reconnaissance flying boat cruising at least 250mph with an all-up weight of around 25,000lb and armed with nose and tail turrets and capable of carrying 6,000lbs of bombs. To be in service in 1938.
Contenders are; Blackburn B.20 using a new aerodynamic advance to achieve high speed and powered by two RR Vultures, the Shorts S.36 powered by two Perseus radial engines and the Supermarine 314 powered by two Vultures.

S.24/35: A new monoplane carrier-based torpedo bomber/ reconnaissance aircraft with a maximum all-up weight of 10,500lb, a minimum speed of 250mph and carrying one 1,500lb torpedo or three 500lb or six 250lb bombs with a crew of three and armed with five 7.7mm MGs. To be in service in 1938.
Contenders are; Blackburn B.21/B.29 and B.36 all high-monoplane designs powered by the 1200hp RR Exe (itself not yet begun testing) with fixed undercarriage, Bristol has offered a Taurus powered high-wing monoplane, Fairey has offered the Type 100 powered by an Exe or the Merlin and based on the Fairey Battle with a mid-height wing and bomb bay and the Supermarine Type 322 powered by the Exe or Taurus with semi-recessed torpedo and bomb racks under the fuselage and an alternative with a variable-incidence wing for better slow-speed performance has been offered as the Type 323.

M.15/35: A shore based twin-engined torpedo bomber to be based on an existing type to save costs and development time. In service for 1937.
Contenders are; Avro 672 based on the Anson with glazed nose, dorsal turret and two forward-firing MGs, Bristol 150 based on the Blenheim with higher fuselage, new nose and new dorsal turret and the Handley Page has offered a version of the Hampden with Napier Dagger engines and two forward-firing MGs.

N.8/35: Production contract for Gloster Gannet single-seat carrier fighter powered by Hercules radial, first flight June 1935 and to enter service in late 1936.

Q.32/35: A replacement for the de Havilland Queen Bee target drone with a top speed of at least 170mph. Airspeed and de Havilland have both tendered designs.

S.7/36: A new shipboard spotter amphibian aircraft with an all-metal hull and carrying a crew of three-four with a self-defence armament of two twin Vickers 'K' MG mounts, speed is to be at least 150mph with a range of 725 miles.
The sole entry is the Supermarine Sea Otter biplane powered by a Mercury radial and meeting all the main specification requirements. First flight planned for late 1936 with service entry to replace the Seafox in 1937 aboard battleships.

[Note] I've decided to put the RAF two years ahead of real historical timelines in aeronautics until 1940, then it changes to three years and by 1945 four years as a realistic staggered approach. I'm not yet sure when jets will appear but it may be 1939.

Presuming these might be open to foreign competition :
Most of these are built on the +3 to +5 year span. Which sounds like it puts them out of sync with your timeline and explains why many already meet your future specs.

F.37/35, F.18/35: The Fokker G-1A/C series already can beat the F.37/35 specs, and nearly makes the F.18/35 and the radial engined G-1B Hercules version has been under development, planning to fly it in the summer of 1935.

B.1/35 : Nothing Fokker/Koolhoven/Reynard/Atlantic make can meet the B.1/35 medium bomber spec, payload is way to high for current Dutch mediums.

B.8/35 : Not enough here to say if the Atlantic A-10 can meet the B.8/35 spec, but after missing a bid due to the lack of a navalized version, they are working on it.

For a number of constraints, the Dutch havent pursued heavy bombers beyond a single D.119 prototype building.


S.24/35 : The Fokker T.VI, just entering service, seems like it meets the S.24/35 specification.

M.15/35 : the Fokker T.VII is a twin engine fast torpedo bomber with a trio of 7.92mm twin MG turrets. The T.VIII-W is a seaplane twin engine torpedo bomber with two twin turrets.

N.8/35 : is not attainable by current offerings, as current Fokker carrier fighter offerings are still in-line, the radials are in development. I forgot the F.k.58, but a navalized version is not available yet.

S.7/36 : The C.IX-W is a two man floatplane, but otherwise sounds similar to the S.7/36 desire.

<blink, blink> Wow. Quite a list.


B1/35 seems pretty tough to meet with the engines listed, the Avro Manchester had to use a pair of Vultures to meet the spec historically.

On B12/35, a number of the submittals seem confused on the requirements, substituting a ventral turret for the required dorsal turret.

F18/35 - A Vulture-powered Hurricane??? Good grief, wouldn't it tip up on it's nose in a heartbeat?

I think I've seen that list somewhere before....

The Vulture-powered Hurricane would be the Tornado. Interesting that theres no Typhoon to go along with it.

I'm not sure that its worth developing the Merlin to the same extent in this TL. The Griffon has more power available earlier. The Vulture would be the ultimate solution but is again rather large.

All of these are real specfications but brought forwards a few years. All the aircraft are real submissions too.

I'll post the winners later on.

Broadly the 870hp Peregrine is sufficent for now and the Merlin is unlikely to get far, instead the Griffon will be the future engine alongside the Centaurus and Sabre. Maybe the RR Exe radial will get a bigger showing too.

The Spitfire won't last long, maybe for a few years but Hawker gets the lion's share of fighter contracts along with Gloster.

Good to see the Spitfire won't be around for long.

What? No Merlin? Hopefully Allision manages to install a decent two stage supercharger in the V-1710, how am I going to build the Mustang otherwise?

Australia will be taking a close look at the competition, there might be a few good designs there.

Hey the Mustang is a North American Aviation design !
(Doesn't mean copies are not expected)

Of course North American Aviation didn't produce planes in the early 1930s and was was absorbed by GMC's General Aviation division in 1933, still under the NAA name. Another notable company absorbed by that division, that did have a design and production history, was Fokker-America, aka Atlantic Aircraft.

That amalgamation, led by James "Dutch" Kindelberger, put out the Texan and Mustang.

However, in Wesworld, Fokker-America never was sold to GMC, and is back to the Atlantic Aircraft moniker. Hence why Atlantic (which I have discussed with CanisD) has put out the BT-9 / T-6 "Texan" trainer and will eventually be fielding the Mustang.

Without a Britich Purchasing Commision, there is no Mustang, hence my plan to steal the design and build it as an Australian product.

However if Atlantic America is already planning to build it, perhaps it could be their entry into the current RAAF competition or future competitions.

Probably a little early in 1935 for a Mustang, considering the first one didn't fly until late October of 1940.

I was figuring about 1937 would be about right for Wesworld, and the international aircraft market is active enough I'm sure there will be a reason to build the Fokker Mustang

for F37/35 Kongsberg Försvar offers their Geting type heavy fighter

Type: Kongsberg Försvar Geting Mk 2
Function: Fighter
First Flight: 1934; Entry into Service: 1936
Crew: 1
Engines: 2*1200hp Husquarna H60-58
Wing Span: 50ft 0in; Length: 37ft 0in; Height: 11ft 6in; Wing Area: 386sqft
Weight fully laden: 11600lb
Max Speed: 360mph at 18,000ft
Ceiling: 35,000ft
Range: 1000nm
Armament: 4 20mm Cannon in nose and up to 2 500lb bombs

Range will probably be shorter than planned, and bomb hooks can easily be omitted saving weight.

For F18/35, Focke-Wulf offers a version of the Fw-187 now entering service with the Luftwafffe. The 4 nose mounted 15mm MG-151s would be replaced with 7.7mm MGs and 3 more MGs would be mounted in each wing to bring the total up to the required 12. If aircraft are desired in 1935, engines would probably need to remain the DB-601A series used in the Luftwaffe aircraft, but for deliveries beginning in 1936 Focke-Wulf foresees no difficulties in replacing the Daimler-Benz engines with Rolls-Royce Merlins if desired. With the current D-B engines, all requirements are met and aircraft could be delivered as early as November, 1935.

Type: Focke Wulf Fw-187
Function: Fighter
First Flight: 1934; Entry into Service: 1935
Crew: 1
Engines: 2*1184hp DB-601A
Wing Span: 50ft 2in; Length: 36ft 6in; Height: 12ft 8in; Wing Area: 327sqft
Weight fully laden: 11100lb
Max Speed: 404mph at 15,000ft
Ceiling: 38,500ft
Range: 1000nm

F.36/34: Hawker Hurricane with new RR Merlin, first flight for November 1935.
Hurricane Mk II: Dimensions; 40/ 31.5/ 12.11/258 sq ft; 1x 1030hp RR Merlin I; max speed 316mph at 17,750ft; range 450 miles and service ceiling 36,000ft.

F.37/34: Supermarine Spitfire as stop-gap fighter with the new RR Merlin and armed with eight 7.7mm Browning MGs, first flight for October 1935.
Supermarine Spitfire: Dimensions; 36.10/29.11/12.7/242 sq ft; 1x 1030hp RR Merlin I; max speed 346mph at 15,000ft; range 600 miles and service ceiling 35,000ft.

F.18/35: Hurricane and Spitfire replacement, speed of at least 400mph, armament of twelve 7.7mm Browning MGs and a service ceiling not below 35,000ft. To enter service in 1938.
Winner is Hawker Tornado, first flight planned for mid 1936 and a Napier Sabre powered version to fly three months later as the Typhoon (a late offering from Hawker accpeted by the Ministry of Aviation. Orders for 500 of each.

F.37/35: A new bomber-destroyer armed with four Oerlikon 20mm cannon with a top speed of at least 350mph. To enter service in 1938.
Winner is Gloster G.39, first flight planned late 1936 and 200 will be ordered. Hawker Hurricane modifications to fly in mid 1936 for service from 1937 as Hurricane Mk III.

B.1/35: A new twin-engined heavy bomber capable of 250mph with a bombload of 10,000lbs and armed with powered nose, dorsal and tail turrets. To enter service in 1938.
Winner is Vickers 284 Warwick, first flight planned mid 1936, Centaurus version to fly late 1937. 250 on order of each variant.

B.8/35: Issued to Fairey and Hawker for a new light bomber to replace the Battle, armament to include eight wing-mounted 7.7mm MGs plus dorsal weapon. To enter service in 1938.
Winner is Fairey Balmoral, first flight planned early 1936 and 400 ordered.

B.12/35: A new four-engined heavy bomber to replace the AW. Whitley. This new bomber is to carry a bombload of 14,000lbs over 2000 miles with a cruise speed of at least 250mph. Self-defence armament is to be provided by powered nose, dorsal and tail turrets. To be in service in 1939.
Winner is Boulton Paul P.90, first flight planned late 1937, 100 on order.

R.1/35: A new small reconnaissance flying boat cruising at least 250mph with an all-up weight of around 25,000lb and armed with nose and tail turrets and capable of carrying 6,000lbs of bombs. To be in service in 1938.
Winner is Blackburn B.20, first flight early 1937, 50 on order.

S.24/35: A new monoplane carrier-based torpedo bomber/ reconnaissance aircraft with a maximum all-up weight of 10,500lb, a minimum speed of 250mph and carrying one 1,500lb torpedo or three 500lb or six 250lb bombs with a crew of three and armed with five 7.7mm MGs. To be in service in 1938.
The winner is Fairey Barracuda powered by the RR Exe, first flight mid 1936, 200 on order. Two Supermarine Type 323 are to be built as research aircraft, first flight early 1937.

M.15/35: A shore based twin-engined torpedo bomber to be based on an existing type to save costs and development time. In service for 1937.
The winner is the Bristol Beaufort, first flight late 1935, 200 on order. Handley Page Hereford is runner up with 100 aircraft order, first flight late 1936.

N.8/35: Production contract for Gloster Gannet single-seat carrier fighter powered by Hercules radial, first flight June 1935 and to enter service in late 1936.
Gloster Gannet: Dimensions; 38.2/32.6/10.2/230 sq ft; 1x 1,400hp Bristol Hercules I; max speed 326mph at 16,000ft; range 580 miles and service ceiling 34,000ft.

Q.32/35: A replacement for the de Havilland Queen Bee target drone with a top speed of at least 170mph.
The winner is Airspeed AS.30, 20 on order.

Hmmmm. These designs using the Vulture and the Sabre/Dagger are going to push Germany into doing more research on the Jumo 222, the DB-604, and other larger engines (the BMW-802/-803/P.8011, the Argus As-412/-413, etc) (though it looks like at least for fighters the DB-603 will do most everything I need). Focke-Wulf is disappointed, but not surprised, that it's submission did not win the day.

The various UKN companies are disappointed of course. In most cases current offerings met the specs, which gave some hope, but it was expected that the UK would turn primarily to domestic manufacturers. The promise of the F.18/35 entry exceeding 400mph is of some concern from a "keeping up with the jones" view, but as the HS12Y-51 and later HS12Z enters service they expect to match that.

Choice of the Boulton-Paul P.90 is interesting. Why not the Supermarine 316? The rotary bomb racks in the P.90 might make for interesting developments later on.

Gloster Gannet is an F.5/34 with Hercules engine?

RAF is doing everything it can to support home grown designs over imports from rival nations. However foreign offerings are still welcome.

Without the Merlin to concentrate on (but with the Exe to develop) maybe the Vulture can be made to work properly.

The P.90 was the favoured out of the Sterling and 316 in the real-world but doubts over Boulton Paul's competency and some hasty redesigning of the Shorts and Supermarine bombers won the day. I agonised over the choice but decided to give BP the chance. As you say rotary bomb racks might promise much but might also be a headache!

Yes the Gannet is the F.5/34 with a Hercules engine, Gravina had planned such a fighter when he was player so I thought why not? It complements the Sea Gladiator nicely and breaks up the Blackburn/ Fairey monopoly on RN designs.

Any pointers on where to find info on the Boulton Paul P.90?

Theres some info on the P.90 in this book but not a great deal.

Got ahold of that book, good stuff.

So no Westland Whirldwind? Wouldn't it be better than the Gloster G.39?

Are there any drawings on the other entries to R.1/35? I could only find pictures of the Blackburn entry.