Shipbucket

Sweet The Sea Hornet holds a special place in my estimation, being one of the most capable of piston engined combat planes; I like to think what a much earlier development would have acheived, alongside similar for the Mosquito. For a start a superb daylight escort fighter for the European theatre, coming in on top cover for swarms of Mossies, acheiving so much more (in terms of saved lives and effective bombing) than the blunt terror bombing of German cities - which helped cement the Nazi grip on the civil population and possibly lengthened the war. And navalised versions for the Pacific campaign?

While it's an intriguing thought, I don't think it would have been possible to develop the Hornet earlier. One reason being that deHavilland developed the techniques required to build the Mosquito pretty much as they built it. Another less obvious reason is that a lot had happened in the field of aerodynamics between 1940 and 1944.

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Amazing work on the Sea Hornet. One of the sleekest, and faster, piston-powered aircraft ever.

I share Bill's thoughts, had the Pacific War dragged on another year then the Hornet could have been vitally important. It was everything the Westland Whirlwind was not. Whether Britain could have afforded the resources for twin-Merlin powered fighters given the need for Merlins on so many other types earlier in the war is open to question. I now have the image in my head of a USAAF-marked reverse lend-lease Hornet with Packard Merlins escorting B-17s over Germany in mid/ late 1944...

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Well, its accepted that the Mosquito could have been brought into service much earlier, once its concept was accepted; as it was De Havilland's had to develop it initially as a private venture. Given a diferent concept of tactical and stretegic air warfare, I don't see any reason why an earlier Hornet could not have been in service, maybe ahead of the Mosquito. To this end I would initially utilise the spare Kestel manufacturing to get the type airborne and in service, this would be a lighter version, but still superior to any opposing types. The Whirlwind would not be built, instead a Peregrine engined Hornet, then the better Merlin engined version. If the vast indusrtrial capacity was diverted inpart away from building heavy bombers both the Hornet and Mosquito could have been in service when the RAF was the only branch of the armed forces that the British could have used to oppose Nazi occupied Europe. A powerful tactical airforce equipped with both types would have been potent in attacking high value targets. Ahead of the Mustang the Hornet could have provided a decisive long range escort to the B-17's when they began to deploy; heck, they could have also done the same with daylight attacks with Lancasters and Halifaxes.

This is all 'blue sky thinking'

And lets not forget, Whittle had the jet engined aircraft ready to be developed before the war!

And just like Whittle had to wait for the right materials to become available, deHavilland would have to wait until 1940 at least so they can get their hands on NACAs laminar flow studies.

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“Close” only counts with horseshoes, hand grenades, and tactical nuclear weapons.
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Considering that the Mosquito/Hornet concept was based around Spruce material construction (with Canada's vast resources), utilising the large amount of furniture manufacturing capacity laying idle at the beginning of the war, I would still think that a basic design could still have made it into the air even without laminar flow technology. I mean, are we serioulsy suggesting that no aircraft could have been designed and built until Hawkers got their hands on Kurt Tanks technology, when a hapless FW190 pilot landed on a British airfield - hence the leap from the Typhoon to the Tempest?

No, the aircraft in question just wouldn't be the Hornet. Laminar flow was just one example of technologies that would need to be in place to make the Hornet possible. You'd also need much more powerful engines at an earlier point and a radically different view on air combat than what people had during the early years of the war. Views that weren't changed until combat experience forced them to.

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“Close” only counts with horseshoes, hand grenades, and tactical nuclear weapons.
That which does not kill me has made a grave tactical error

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Source Materiel is always welcome.

We'll have to agree to disagree Otherwise I'll have to give myself a warning for going off topic

So I just drew up the Boeing XF8B and decided to do a Whiffworld version of a USAAF Long Range Escort Fighter, had WW2 been drawn out due to some changes in the Japanese tactics and a few losses or prolonged battles on the side of the Allies.

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Daaaammmmmnnnnn... amazing job night'

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