TIL that Boeing was ordered by the US Government to see if the B-17 could use the Alison V-1710 engine from the P-40 Warhawk to safeguard against shortages of the Wright R-1820 it normally used. Boeing didn’t see the point and farmed the job out to Lockheed who built one example called the XB-38. As Boeing had suggested would be the case, it was a bit rubbish. It had a lower service ceiling, shorter range and lower payload than a normal B-17. To add insult to injury, on the ninth test flight, it caught fire and after not trying especially hard to put the fire out, the crew fucked off and let it crash.
It has to be said though, if the success of combat aircraft was judged purely on aesthetic value, it was absolutely fucking fantastic.
Imagine the Yanks joy when they found out the plane that was shooting their Mustangs and Sabres out of the Korean sky was powered by a fully licensed Russian built version of the Rolls Royce Nene.
Yes, that was a bit of a fuck up on our part. Mind you, after the war we were happy to export anything to anyone. I seem to remember Ferguson tractors also got a large order from the Soviets.
I think Klaus Fuchs wins. A British physicist who was on the Manhatten Project and later went on to head up physics at Harwell. He was also passing everything to the Russians and was responsible for their very early nuclear bombs.
Today, I have been enjoying the SNCASE SE.100 and its design aesthetic that can be summed up as ‘very fucking French.’
It had a take on a tricycle landing gear… just a really scary one where the pilot was supposed to plant the tail and bring it down on the huge, heavily sprung nosewheel. Take off was effectively conducted as a unicycle.
Intended to attack bombers, it had forward firing machine guns but the main weapon was operated from the back. The idea was the SNCASE SE.100 used its surprising turn of speed (as fast as an early Spitfire) to overtake a bomber, whereupon the gunner raised a long barrel cannon from a slot in the rear fuselage and hosed the crap out of it;
Only one was ever made and didn’t do very much before the fall of France in 1940. It’s like a sort of ‘Flying attack Citroen’ though and is therefore cool.
