[Guest]

When people say what looks good flies good, they typicall refer to the P-51. However, in 1944, the USAAF testetd one of the most beautiful airplanes of all time, the XP-67. The XP-67 was designed to be a long range two engined fighter powered by two Continental XI-1430 with provisions to use the exhaust to augment thrust. Unfortuantely, the original engine design failed miserably. However, it was suggested that the planes should have their Continentals replaced with Merlins and Westinghouse 9.5 inch jet engines where the exhaust thrust config was. Early estimates said that with these mods made, the Bat would be able to fly well in excess of 500mph and because of it's clean design, it should have had amazing manuervibility. Yet, the USAAF thought that the advent of jet fighters would bring about faster planes so they disregarded the project. Then near the end of the war they were scrambling to create mixed planes that would have had the range, speed, ceiling, manuervibility, etc. that the XP-67 could have given them to excort B-29's and other bombers over extremely long distances. The Merlin powered Bat would be an excellent mixed engine fighter to add to IL2 for everything from 1944-1946 so if someone who knows what they are doing please build this, that would be wonderful!

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Oh yeah, like on many other planes, they planned to use M4 37mm's but would have ended up trading them out for 6 M2 Brownings .50 cals for actual opps due to speed and reliability.
http://books.google.com/books?id=i984H9S...&ct=result
http://www.smallflyingarts.com/yabbfiles.../XP-67.jpg
http://www.warbirdsresourcegroup.org/URG...xp67-6.jpg
http://www.warbirdsresourcegroup.org/URG/xp67.html
http://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/factshe...?fsID=2268
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XP-67_Bat