Shipbucket

Consolidated 31 Corregidor

In 1938 Consolidated started work on a successor to the Model 28/PBY, suitable for both civil and military use.



With the aircraft design already well progressed, the Davis high aspect ratio wing was made available and Consolidated chose to produce the Model 31 as a company demonstrator with the new wing profile to validate this new design. The wing design would become used by Consolidated on the Model 32 Liberator.
The aircraft was nicknamed the "pregnant guppy", and first flew in May 1939 powered by the new Wright R-3350 engines. The new wing met expectations, and provided a 20% increase in performance, resulting in increased range and speed. Although marketedly superior to the PBY, Consolidated found little interest from the US Navy, potentially due to the lack of Naval involvement in the design process and the introduction of the Martin PBM.
Cosolidated continued to push for a navalised version of the Model 31, modifying the prototype to accept defensive turrets and up to 2 tonnes of munitions. Eventually in 1942 the USN took over the aircraft as the XP4Y-1, and in October 1942 an order was finally placed for 200 aircraft. A factory originally intended for the Sikorsky VS-44, was allocated to Consolidated for construction, but the shortage of R-3350 engines due to their use in the Boeing B-29 led to the contract being cancelled and instead the factory used to produce more PBY's.
No aircraft other than the prototype were constructed.

Air Tractor AT-802 - Various users

Great additions some everyone.

Netherlands - Piper PA-18 Super Cub

darthpanda wrote: ↑February 25th, 2023, 12:28 am Air Tractor AT-802 - Various users

Nice work! But a really small correction: the Military Firefighters Corps in Brasil are a state level unit, not a Federal one or general one. The Air Tractor that you brilliantly made is part MFC of the state of Mato Grosso

small series of North American FJ-Fury

Hawker Tornado

Hawker's follow-on model from the Hurricane was doomed by its Rolls Royce Vulture engine.



Hawker had started planning for the replacement for the Hurricane in 1937, using the next generation of engines from the RR Merlin. The new design was an enlarged, all metal Hurricane, to be armed with 12-guns or 4-cannon, with the engines being either the Rolls Royce Vulture, or the Napier Sabre. Hawker labelled the 2 models the "R type" with the Vulture and the "N type" with the Sabre. Two prototypes of each were ordered, and were now given official names. Ordinarily the aircraft would be labelled "Mk.I" and "Mk.II", but Hawker instead gave each otherwise identical model its own name, "Tornado" with the Vulture and "Typhoon" with the Sabre.
The prototype Tornado was the first to fly in October 1939, and the first Typhoon flew in February 1940. Immediately apparent was the insufficiency of the tailplane, requiring an increase to the rudder surfaces. But unfortunately insufficent strengthening was added to the supporting structure, leading to the intrinsic weakness of the production Typhoons. The Typhoon's chin mounted air intake had significantly better aerodynamics than the original belly mounting of the original Tornado, and this was adopted in subsequent Tornados. With experience from the Battle of Britain, the rearwards visibility from the cockpit was insufficient, and additional windows were added, culminating in the more extensive glazing of the production Typhoons. These changes led to the second Tornado losing much of its "Hurricane-esque" looks.
But the Tornado was fatally doomed by the failure of the Vulture engine. As Rolls Royce chose to cancel the Vulture the Avro Manchester, Blackburn B.20 and the Tornado were also cancelled. Hawker continued with the Typhoon, which became a highly successful ground attack aircraft, but was never used as a Hurricane/Spitfire successor.
Hawker did not just scrap the Tornado though. The third protype was used to trial a radial engine installation, and became the pre-prototype for the Tempest Mk.II.

danricco wrote: ↑February 25th, 2023, 5:03 pm

darthpanda wrote: ↑February 25th, 2023, 12:28 am Air Tractor AT-802 - Various users

Nice work! But a really small correction: the Military Firefighters Corps in Brasil are a state level unit, not a Federal one or general one. The Air Tractor that you brilliantly made is part MFC of the state of Mato Grosso

is fixed

F-8 Update