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Originally Posted by Michele
Nice speculative concept.
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A couple years ago elsewhere on the net someone posted a list of vehicles they'd like me to design; a combat version of the N-9M was one of them.
I had already done
my version of the flying wing from
Raiders of the Lost Ark and the Ho 229 is in Weird War II (not my design ;). I wanted to do something different from the two.
Something I didn't mention was that the N-9M first flew in very late 1942 and I'd expect the XA-37 to have it's first flight by the spring of 1943. For my campaign (with Atlantean assistance), they would probably enter production by mid-1943; for other campaigns, it might not be until the end of 1944, at which time the current versions of the P-38 and P-47 might be better options.
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I'd question the choice as to weaponry and ammunition when it comes to hunting heavy bombers.
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I looked back at my book on US fighters and the few deigns that were intended as bomber hunters (there weren't many) tended to have 37mm (or even 75mm!) guns. So yes, the 37mm guns are best suited for ground attack or shooting down bombers. The 20mm guns would make more sense for a more pure fighter version, with a higher rate of fire and more compact ammo (allowing more to be carried).
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The first attack with rockets makes up for the shortage of heavy ammo.
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The rocket idea is a good one, although at the point I'd likely intoroduce the plane, the 5" rockets aren't ready yet but 4.5" rockets are (they were first test-fired from a P-40 in the summer of 1942).