WIX Archives
Re Cleveland 1945
Posted by Joe Scheil on Tue Dec 24, 2002 10:17:47 PM
In reply top Reno 1945 posted by david j burke on Tue Dec 24, 2002 02:57:13 PM
If there was no WWII there would not really have been such aircraft as the P-51 and the like. These were wartime creations...
I think there would have been more extensive development of the variants of the P-40 and P-47, with the Navy showing up to the races in the F4U, their fastest fighter, and one of the heavy hitters with the R-2800. The Brits may make an appearance with either a Napier Hawker, a modified MB-3? But the Spitfire cant compete yet as the Type R motor is developing slow. The Italians and Germans are showing racer strength, with modified He-100 and Me-109R derivatives
and Fritz Wendel still looks fast. The 109R D-INJR still holds the record...The Allison engined aircraft cannot put the power down so the only real contenders are the smaller civilian entries...Remember before 1939 the civilian racers were generally cutting edge. I bet the militaries would have been bested by them! Actually their biggest competiton would have been from manufacturers competing for contracts...And I doubt the jets would be flying yet...
But WWII gave us far more exciting aircraft....
JOE