Charles Talleyrand wrote:

"Keith Willshaw" wrote in message ...

My first guess, a Fairey Swordfish in 1914 should be buildable and
dominate the
skies. The speed, range and bombload would be simply unknown at the time.
With a
thousand mile range and a 1,600 lb bomb it would be a great strategic
bomber. It
should hold its own even in 1918 though I would not expect the war to last
so long.
Again, it's no F-16 but it should be buildable.


Hardly, the Swordfish was catchable by most late WW1
fighters and didng have much more disposable load
than a Vimy

I said a Swordfish in *1914*, which is beyond unbeatable by the planes of
1914.

I don't even think it's catchable by fighters of 1918. A Spad XIII has a top speed of
135 mph, an Fokker D. VII has a top speed of 120 mph, and a Swordfish has
a top speed of 138 mph. Remember, a fighter has to be significantly faster than
the bomber to catch it and make repeated passes at it.

A Swordfish may be able to do that clean, but it cruises at 85-90 kts loaded, and most all of the inline
engine fighters of 1918 are faster than it, even ignoring that they will considerably outclimb it and
will most likely be making diving attacks. Its bombload is 1,500 lb, no big deal for 1918 if you look
at multi-engined bombers, and its range isn't very exciting either -- you are apparently assuming that
it can achieve its maximum range while flying at maximum speed and carrying its maximum load, and that
isn't the case for any a/c. Here's the Swordfish II range with a 1,610 lb. Mk. XII torp and the max.
fuel (143 Imp. Gal.) it can carry with that load: 450nm @ 90 knots; combat radius would be around 1/3rd
- 2/5ths of that.

In 1914 it would very difficult to catch, but about the only way it might change the war significantly
would be if it was used as a torpedo bomber carrying 18" full-size torps in a mass sneak attack on the
German (and/or Austro-Hungarian) fleets in harbor. Even then it would have to operate from land,
because no one had a carrier during the war with sufficient deck run and speed for it to take off from
fully loaded, barring very high (and consequently rare) winds. Loaded with a torp and 143 gallons of
fuel, a Swordfish II required a 540 ft. deck run with 20 kts. WoD (Wind over Deck), and 345 ft. with 30
kts. WoD.

In late 1918 (i.e. after the end of the war) HMS Argus would have been able to launch them given
sufficent natural wind (550 ft. flight deck, 20 kt. speed), but couldn't have spotted more than a half
dozen or so at a time. HMS Furious was faster, but had a much shorter takeoff deck at the time, only
228 feet (before her conversion to a full carrier), and her a/c capacity was limited, so any kind of
carrier-launched mass attack during 1914-1918 was out of the question. But that assumes that sinking a
fair number of one of the Central Powers fleets in harbor would have significantly changed the war in
the allies favor, and that seems a bit questionable.

Guy