XP-46

[cardboard_killer]

[80 Years ago today] "• The Curtiss XP-46 has its first flight. It had been ordered by the British Purchasing Commission as a successor to the P-40, incorporating the best features of European fighters. Armament is to be two .50 caliber machine guns in the nose and eight .30 cal in the wings. The US Army Air Corps required extra armor which degrades performance. The USAAC will request that Curtiss instead concentrate on an upgraded P-40 so as to not disrupt production and the P-46 will be cancelled."

 

[Yo-Yo_Kirby]

This aircraft's nose is oddly similar to the Morane-Saulnier M.S. 406 except the big radiator isn't underneath the ring-style intake.

Props to them for the radiator layout. Its positioning seems to be inspired by the Hurricane. They could've achieved Meredith effect to have low net drag.

The P-40 aimed to have high versatility and ruggedness relative to other fighters, but it ended up having inferior performance relative to the Spitfire and Bf 109. Pilot survivability was important to the design. It's most likely they had wanted to maintain these qualities in the P-46.