Republic of Texas

[eltf177]

Great work. Especially that You've made effort to incorporate deliberate "faults" into your ship's design.

And that's makes them more realistic! Excellent work!

[Redhorse]

Red, can't wait to see what your first full canopy fighter will be...

And the winner is....

The Curtiss Hawk 75. Known in the USAAC as the P-36, it was selected to supercede the Boeing P-26 after that aircraft had been supplied to two fighter squadrons.



Like the Martin 139T, Texas fighter pilots from 17 Fighter Squadron went to the Curtiss plant to learn how to fly the high performance aircraft and the first fighter with retractable landing gear. Designated the F-6 in Texas Air Force service, it would equip a total of three squadrons before it, too was superceded in 1939 by an aircraft of superior performance.

17th Fighter Squadron, known as the "Coyotes", painted a wolf's head on the side of the aircraft. It was incorporated in the official design for squadron patches, issued in 1936 to celebrate the Centennial.

[macseann]

Happy Centennial, Texas!

I love how you've thought of another elegant way of keeping Texas from seeing the need to develop its own indigenous aviation industry or bringing in foreign types. Why spend the time and money building your own types or going to Hawker or Fokker or Dewoitine for aircraft when you can "cut in line" to get the newest American types thanks to your "special relationship"?

I presume once Texas gets involved in the war, native aircraft plants will start to spring up in Dallas/Fort Worth. Maybe Texas will be a more effective user of the Consolidated B-32 Dominator, all of which were built in Fort Worth, than the US was.

[bezobrazov]

Redhorse, you know that I very much like your AU-cruisers. However, ther's one thing I don't like about them: they all seem to lack covered, motor personnel boats (or in the instances of pre-1920s ships, such things like steam cutters, launches etc.) Don't you think you owe future Rear Admiral (I presume you're using an analoguous rank system to the USN) Chester W. Nimitz that?

[Redhorse]

Yeah. I suck at boats. There's a battleship on the drawing board. I'll do a better job crafting the boat complement for that one and beef up the complement for subsequent refits on other ships.

I presume once Texas gets involved in the war, native aircraft plants will start to spring up in Dallas/Fort Worth. Maybe Texas will be a more effective user of the Consolidated B-32 Dominator, all of which were built in Fort Worth, than the US was.

True. Bennett Aircraft Company establishes a plant near Fort Worth, Texas in 1936. It will go bankrupt in 1940, and reorganized as the Globe Aircraft Company. When Consolidated and North American show up during the war, you'll see almost exclusive use of their aircraft. (Which means you can predict which airframes are in service for the rest of this AU - Convair, Chance Vought, General Dynamics, Bell, LTV, and Lockheed Martin.)

The next ten years I cover are 1936-1945. This will take a while, but promises to be good stuff.

[Charwhick]

I can't wait to see the next section. Nobody can deny the appeal of WW Deuce ships and aircraft regardless of their preferred time frame. Two questions though. Will we see FD scale tanks? And will we see any Texan Flattops?

[Naixoterk]

One question: Do you have planned Texan volunteers to fight in the Spanish civil war?

[Syzmo]

I also cant wait to see what comes next and how Texas will respond to u-boats in the Caribbean.

[bezobrazov]

Hmmm...Charwick, not that I would want to shoot your suggestion down, but, being a resident of the Lone Star State (Republic) - why a flat-top? I cannot see us fighting anything, but possible surface raiders in the Carib and subs, and maybe having a tiff with local powers-wannabes, such as Mexico. Besides, with the excellent background story presented by Redhorse, where would we get the money?

[Redhorse]

You're likely to see light carriers for hunting U-boats during the war, but not in great numbers. I just have to figure out how to build up the knowledge base for carrier operations.

@Naixoterk - I'm not sure what to do with the Spanish Civil War. When I read about it and try to pick a side, my head hurts.