Hi
The E.107 was the sabre I, But does anyone know what the E.108 was ?
Any specs, would be great, as it is mentioned the air staff discussed re-engining the whirlwind with it in 1938, other options being the R-R Exe and Bristol Taurus.
Source
interceptor fighters by Bowyer
The book is a mine of interesting info,
I never knew that CBAF was due to produce whirlwinds before it changed to Spitifre II on 17 june 1939.
Cheers
Jerry
By: brewerjerry - 1st October 2011 at 00:56
Hi Guys,
Many thanks for the replies,most interesting and helpful.
Cheers
Jerry
By: alertken - 30th September 2011 at 10:17
CBAF
bj: There is contradiction/agendas in the early story of CBAF. Lord Nuffield had fallen out with Air Minister Swinton, 1936, on the structure of auto-industry re-entry to aero-engine manufacture, and on Wolseley as designer/parent. Morris got into light tanks instead. New Minister Kingsley Wood sat with him, 5/38. Morris entered Tiger Moths, on an assembly line basis. Wood invited Nuffield to run a green fields airframe assembly site and gave him the job of selecting one. He chose Castle Bromwich quite precisely in Herbert Austin’s Longbridge backyard. Wood bought a fabulous range of Czech, German, US machine tools: remember, in mid-1938 – after Austrian Anschluss, before Munich – it was entirely possible that the balloon would not go up, sanity would prevail, and all that Rearmament plant/tooling would become available at scrap prices for civil auto use.
Wood assigned Battle to CBAF. Soon AM Freeman shifted that to Austin and put in Whirlwind; on 12/4/39 he ordered 1,000 CBAF Spitfire Mk.IIA. Now: as well as Whirlwind? or instead? Confusion No.1: Swinton had been dismissed in May,1938: his Memoirs, P119: “this decision (I think: to order Mk.IIA from rotten Nuffield) cost (at) least 1,000 Spitfires which should have been in reserve (?having been built by a Vickers plant) when the Battle of Britain started”. My confusion No.2: E.B.Morgan/E.Shacklady,S’fire,Key,1987, P51: an A.M. memo of 11/7/39: Spit. had been “in danger of being eliminated from the re-armament programme (Its) future was assured (due to the) stubbornness of 1 man (Nuffield, insisting) on producing (all of all) 1,000 (at CBAF, so Whirlwind was) squeezed out”’. What then happened was that the new Minister of Aircraft Production squeezed Nuffield out of CBAF, put Vickers-Armstrongs in…and the first “CBAF” delivery magically occurred within days: Shacklady tells us it was a Supermarine-built machine trucked up.
Nuffield was, ah, a positive personality: when Beaverbrook fired him 17/5/40 he averred: “the last Air Minister who defied me (Swinton:4/36, shadow engines) got the sack. If you defy me (on CBAF, so will you)”. Nuffield went to the PM and reminded him of donations to the Party, but was told “I cannot interfere in the manufacture of a/c” P.Howard,Beaverbrook,,Hutchinson,64,P127; M.Adeney Nuffield – a Biography,Hale,93,P154. Agendas: auto-fabrication processes were not what, say Supermarine, practiced; Whirlwind+cannon vs. Spitfire+.303 is a fun, What-if subject. What comment forgets is that in mid-1939 UK Defence Policy rested on Maginot bottling the Hun, such that dog-fights over Kent were not foreseen. Bomber escort+ loiter endurance, were foreseen – not Spitfire virtues.
I welcome input on all this. I am not satisfied I know the actual factual.
By: wieesso - 30th September 2011 at 06:08
Dagger VIII
1938 – 955 hp, intermediate altitude supercharger, initially known as E.108
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September 30, 2011 at 4:56 am