The Struggle for Speed

Off the snow-covered airport at Stratford, Conn. last week thundered a sleek, fat-bodied Navy Monoplane fighter with strange bent wings, not unlike a Junkers Stuka's. WPAsters working on the field's new runways gave it scarcely a glance, because it was an old sight. Almost every day for weeks past the new F4U had been rolled out of the Vought-Sikorsky plant across the road, had throbbed, roared, leaped into the air, whisked out of sight.

One day it had headed south, landed an hour later at Washington (275 miles), where Navy pilots flew it, found it good. Of Vought-Sikorsky's new F4U, built on contract to Navy specifications, Secretary of the Navy Knox had proudly announced that it had a high speed in excess of 400 m.p.h. Tough, seasoned Rear Admiral Jack Towers, the Navy's veteran flying air chief, had said to newsmen: "I believe this to be the fastest airplane in the U. S. today." One newsman, remembering glowing reports of 450-m.p.h. speeds by other U. S. fighting aircraft, asked how come. The Navy's No. 1 airman stonily repeated: "I believe this to be the fastest airplane in the U. S. today."

Nobody contradicted him publicly, for, unless the Army had some real secrets up its sleeve, he was right. More through loose, wishful reporting than through the fault of manufacturers or responsible flying officers, the Army's new pursuit planes have been crowned with kudos for speeds they have not reached with military loads under service conditions. Most airmen knew last week that the Curtiss P-4O pursuit plane had a top of around 360 m.p.h., and that other Air Corps speedsters--the sleek Bell Airacobra (P-39), the twin-engined Lockheed interceptor (P-38)--were only crowding 400. They were not doing anything close to the 450 m.p.h. that many a layman thought they were.

The importance of this fact was that last year the Army, fed up with the air resistance of air-cooled radial engines (their "built in head winds''), all but abandoned them for fast fighter craft, ordered the bulk of its fighters equipped with Allison 1,090-h.p. liquid-cooled inline engines. Meanwhile Pratt & Whitney and Wright Aeronautical, top-flight U. S. engine builders, stuck to air-cooled radials (which in-line engine men scornfully call "starfish") and increased their power. Result: Pratt & Whitney is in production with a tremendous single package of power: a 2,000-h.p. 18-cylinder air-cooled radial. It has passed the Army's grueling 150-hour test, is now being made to British order and for Army bombers. Meanwhile Wright has gone into production with an even bigger air-cooled job: 18-cylinders, 2,220-h.p.

General Motors' Allison plant has just got going. It produced 73 engines in July, 65 in August, 223 in September, 286 in October. Many Army pursuit planes built for Allisons came off the line without power plants to drive them, and "bugs" were found in the comparatively untried engine. Built to develop 1,090 h.p., Allisons had to be held to 950 and until this week, when the restriction was finally lifted, Army pilots could not get full performance out of their ships.

When P. & W. came out with its 1,850-h.p. radial engine, later stepped up to 2,000, the Vought-Sikorsky F4U became feasible, with the assistance of research-wise National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, which helped slick the new plane up as no air-cooled job had ever been slicked before. An old flying adage is that "there is no substitute for soup," i.e., horsepower. In soup the new radials were ahead of the Allison by close to 2-to-1, even when the Allison was putting out its full power. Excess power means not only more speed, but better climb, higher service ceiling, more ability to lug the heavy armament load needed in modern fighters.

Burdened with a lot of weight that Army pursuit ships do not need--catapult and arresting gear, a beefed-up tail for carrier service, flotation gear--the Vought-Sikorsky F4U still has a cruising radius of more than 1,000 miles, a service ceiling in excess of 30,000 feet. Fitted with the new 2,000-h.p. engine -- in place of the 1,850-h.p. that now drives it--it will have still better performance.

On the Navy's bet on air-cooled engines 7, the Army's bet on liquid-cooled, a lot of money is at stake, in addition to the ultimate excellence of U. S. pursuit planes. The Army has let contracts of $90,500,000 for Allison engines and airplanes to put them in--Curtiss, Lockheed, Bell--and has a stake of $62,448,000 in Packard Motor Co.'s project to build liquid-cooled 1,000-h.p. Rolls-Royces -- round total, $153,000,000.

Moreover, if the Army decided to copper its bet and put some of its money on air-cooled engines, the change would not be easy. The air-cooled engine makers have their capacity booked for at least two years.

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