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Allied and Soviet Air Forces Please use this forum to discuss the Air Forces of the Western Allies and the Soviet Union. |
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Why the USAAF gave up on the A-36 in favour of the P-47.
I believe this is the answer to the question asked by Nick Beale on June 20, 2010 (page 4 of the thread 'The RAF and dive-bombing').
Nick asked, “Can I change the question? Why did the USAAF give up on the A-36 in favour of the P-47?” The short answer is that the order for 500 (only) A-36s was a USAAF subterfuge (or scam?) for keeping the Mustang/Apache (Allison V-1710 engine) in production after Lend-lease funds ran out and the 1942 USAAC budget for Pursuit fighters had been used up. The USAAC budget for Attack aircraft, however, still had funds, which could be accessed by turning the P-51 into the A-36 (fitting air brakes and cannon). By the time the 500 A-36s had been delivered, the USAAF had decided that the P-51B (Packard Merlin) was a long-range bomber escort with potential to achieve air superiority over the Reich alongside the P-47 Thunderbolt. In this environment an act of Congress would have been required to build additional A-36s instead of P-51Bs. As the A-36s vanished through attrition, the units operating them switched to old P-40s and then to P-47s or P-51s that could not perform dive-bombing. None of these aircraft had the accuracy of the A-36, but no one in authority in the USAAF gave a monkey so long as the only complaints came from brown jobs. The long answer:
Last edited by tcolvin; 18th July 2010 at 00:08. Reason: Grammar |
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