Stratosphere Fighters

Press, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23745, 17 September 1942, Page 4

Stratosphere Fighters

Reports that the German Air Force is preparing new surprises, such as a stratosphere bomber operating at 40,000 feet, for an offensive in western Europe, should cause little concern to the British and United States Air Forces, for they are well prepared to meet any high-altitude attack. More than a year ago Sir Frederick Banting, the co-discoverer of l insulin, who was in the midst of high-altitude experiments when he was killed in an aeroplane crash, said: “ Whichever power gets up to *• 40,000 feet first and can stay there “ longest with the heaviest guns *' will win the war.” Those highaltitude experiments did not stop with his. death, and now the Royal Air Force and the United States Army Air Force have three new fighters with the power and armament to fight at 40,000 feet. The Royal Air Force is relying on the Spitfire, which is still the best battle-proved fighter in the air. Information about the high-altitude type, the Spitfire Mark IX, is scanty, but reports indicate that it may be equipped with a pressure cabin for stratosphere operation, and that the engine horsepower has been greatly increased. Also it is sure to be heavily armed with cannon and/or machine-guns. United States fighter design has lagged behind British and German, especially in altitude performance and armament, but the gap is being closed, and the P33 and the P47 measure up to the best fighter aircraft that Britain has produced. The P47, which is known to the United States Army Air Force as the Republic Thunderbolt, is America’s fastest fighter and one of the three or four machines with a genuine top speed of more than 400 miles an hour. A chunky, powerful looking fighter, the Thunderbolt weighs more than six tons and has a 2000 horsepower radial air-cooled engine instead of the liquid-cooled type which is virtually standard for fighters. A turbo-supercharger enables the Thunderbolt to keep , its performance at heights jivhere most fighters

with normal gear-driven superchargers are “gasping for breath/’ The armament is a secret, but it is believed that shell guns are fitted in the wings, and the Chief of Staff of the United States Army Air Force, Lieutenant-General H. H. Arnold, has said that the Thunderbolt carries guns generating an impact equal to the force of a fiveton lorry hitting a brick wall at 60 miles an hour. Equally fast and powerfully armed is the P3B, a twinengined heavy fighter known as the Lockheed Lightning. It is powered with Allison liquid-cooled engines, which are fitted with turbo-super-chargers giving the aircraft a highaltitude performance probably equal to the Spitfire and the Thunderbolt. The Lightning does considerably more than 400 miles an hour, and the armament consists of a 37 millimetre cannon and several machineguns of different calibres. These are mounted in the nose. The fighter which can get on top of its opponent has always had the advantage in aerial combat, and Britain and the United States are now well prepared for stratosphere fighting. No matter how high the Luftwaffe’s bombers are sent the , Spitfires, Thunderbolts, and Lightnings wiil be able to fly higher.