I suggest a quick read of this as a good primer on the possibilities and problems:-
https://lynceans.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Helistats-converted.pdf
Also this one gives deeper references on the modern state of Heliostats.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0376042121000452
Bristol Bisley prototype first flown in February 1941, No belly pack, solid nose with four machine guns, very clean at this stage of development.
Fitting AI would increase the drag but this would IMVHO be a very useful night fighter in Malaya in late 1941.
Now have some bright-spark decide to...
One solution is to use a binary explosive where the two components are stored and pumped separately only being mixed as they enter the hose and fill it.
York Class Cavendish (Hawkins) Class
The York's were slightly smaller than the Hawkins class and carried three twin eight inch gun turrets, so getting two forward and one aft triple sixes should be possible for the RN design team, As long as the principle dimensions of the Hawkins class...
T2, Whilst your alt battleships seem reasonable I do have issue with your cruisers design. Are both the Admiralty and the RCNC all drinking lead paint! There is no way the RTN would except anything less than 8" guns on a Heavy cruiser unless the relevant Naval Treaties forbade them. There is no...
The Early version would have the Stickleback arial system as mentioned in my earlier post.
In the PAM time line I went all in with the original 112ft wingspan of the Sterling and four 2000hp plus Fairy Monarch engines !!
Finally found the reference I was looking for;- https://www.paxmanhistory.org.uk/blockade.htm
At 117 foot long and capable of carrying 40 tons in the hold and a further 6 tons on deck these boats are far more useful for running supplies than the standard American PT boat IMVHO.
American...
If you give the British MGB-501 design to American boat builders they could be spamming them out in numbers far more quickly than building new submarines,
Also the British did make some cargo MTBs to run to Sweden for Ball bearings IIRC.
How long would HMS Regulus be kept down by the IJN attack and how soon afterwards would the be able to surface and transmit. Perhaps the local IJN commander considered the risk to the invasion fleet was such that delay the submarines ability io report was worth the political risk. see the above...
The threshold between tandem wings and canards gets very blurred once you vary from the almost equal wing area of a true tandem wing design which the Miles M35 could be said to have to the Much greater variance in wing area exhibited by the later M39B which is closer to what would be expected...
Thinking of the OP's canard fighter reminded me of this late war project by Bolton and Paul, the P100. ITTL perhaps a merlin engine naval fighter designed by Miles/Bolton & Paul is built instead of the Defiant. This could post war lead to this intersting piece of kit.
This the OTL BAe SABA...
Were the USN using HF/DF at this time? The RN were struggling to get enough sets built to fulfil their requirements in OTL. ITTL of course this could be different.
I am not an aeronautical engineer, though I trained to fly gliders and was competition piloting paragliders for many years so all I would say is that if the Tandem wing was such a panacea why has it always been a developmental dead end. Every aircraft is a balance of compromises perhaps the...
In one word Brutal carrier exchange, first round to the IJN.
Going back a bit, the Miles M39B was a very intersting aircraft but an absolute 'No No' as a FAA fighter as it possessed possibly the worst possible flight characteristic for that use, the very stuff of nightmares for a naval pilot...