Shipbucket

Excellent additions!
RT-9 reminds me Armstrong-Whitworth Ensign. And great to see Sieranavia livery!

Haha, the Ensign was actually the main aircraft I asked Rowdy to base it on, only make it a bit smaller and change the tail design. My actual collage ref I put together for it was just the centre section of a FW.200 with the wings and engines moved up with aft section and cockpit of the ensign. Produces a rather pleasing design.

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"The first rule is not to lose; The second rule is not to forget the first rule"

Nice aircraft! Congrats to Rowdy and Denodon for great draws and backstories.

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Worklist

"If people never did silly things nothing intelligent would ever get done." ~Ludwig Wittgenstein

Hey all, here for you is the B variant of the Litvinov PI-37;



Shortly after the PI-37A entered service, the SRAF issued a new requirement for a high altitude fighter and interceptor. The standard PI-37 was found unsuitable for this task as the radial engine had poor altitude performance. Movich, the primary supplier of aero-engines for the SRAF proposed modification to the airframe to allow for the Movich V-1350 inline engine (a development of the Hispano-Suiza 12Y proposed but rejected for the Korolev TB-31A.

Litvinov adapted the airframe and lengthened the nose to accommodate the new engine as well as to maintain balance given the lighter weight of the engine. The new engine offered superior performance at altitude than the radial and granted improved climb performance. In counter however the inline engine was more susceptible to damage at low altitude and had inferior engine response times. The new engine also reduced the armament to twin 20mm guns in the wings and a single 7.62mm gun in the port nose cowling, later replaced by a 12.7mm gun.

The new fighter dubbed the PI-37B saw more diverse service than its A variant abroad. The B series saw extensive service over China before and after the declaration of war against Japan. A few captured Chinese frames saw testing and evaluation by the Japanese against their own aircraft. Unlike the A series, the B never saw operations onboard carriers given the Navy's preference for more compact radials.

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"The first rule is not to lose; The second rule is not to forget the first rule"

They look very cool! Great work!

Nice! I have to say I think it looks better with an inline engine...

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Nice job! I agree with Rowdy, the B version looks better.

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Worklist

"If people never did silly things nothing intelligent would ever get done." ~Ludwig Wittgenstein

Thanks all. I do admit the inline engine certainly makes it look sleeker and more aggressive than the big radial. I might play around with things and see what other variants I can come up with. Plenty of other schemes I could depict it in as well. Night fighters anyone?

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"The first rule is not to lose; The second rule is not to forget the first rule"

Still a lot of drawing to do but here is a rough fleshing out of the design;



Given their size, I'd imagine they'd be called battlecruisers by foreign nations despite not having 'battleship' caliber guns. Bridge structure needs drawing. The He-60 floatplane is a stand in until I get around to drawing a proper Sieranian floatplane to go in its place. Also the 40mm guns are in provisional locations and no 20mm guns have been drawn yet as I still need to figure out their optimum positioning. Directors will also need to be fitted amongst all the other work that needs to get done.

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"The first rule is not to lose; The second rule is not to forget the first rule"

Looking good!