RetroWarTHINK008: Boomerang HUNTER/KILLER Success in WW2
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Focke-Wulf_Fw_190
As to the rest of the design philosophy, Tank wanted something more than an aircraft built only for speed. Tank outlined the reasoning:
The Messerschmitt 109 [sic] and the British Spitfire, the two fastest fighters in world at the time we began work on the Fw 190, could both be summed up as a very large engine on the front of the smallest possible airframe; in each case armament had been added almost as an afterthought. These designs, both of which admittedly proved successful, could be likened to racehorses: given the right amount of pampering and easy course, they could outrun anything. But the moment the going became tough they were liable to falter. During World War I, I served in the cavalry and in the infantry. I had seen the harsh conditions under which military equipment had to work in wartime. I felt sure that a quite different breed of fighter would also have a place in any future conflict: one that could operate from ill-prepared front-line airfields; one that could be flown and maintained by men who had received only short training; and one that could absorb a reasonable amount of battle damage and still get back. This was the background thinking behind the Focke-Wulf 190; it was not to be a racehorse--but a Dienstpferd, a cavalry horse.[13]
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The RAF Lysander performed this vital HUNTER function until they lost local air superiority to German fighters during the Battle for France in 1940. Contrary to popular misconceptions, Soviet Air Force P-39/P-63s were used in air-to-air combats to keep German fighters away from IL-2 Sturmovik air-to-ground KILLERS. What Soviet Air Force aircraft types were used to HUNT?
The Boomerang had a new single-seat cockpit located directly over the centre of the wing, which was furnished with a sliding canopy which had 1.5-inch bulletproof glass and armor protection.[12] Common to many of the latest fighters at the time, the Boomerang was equipped with automatic cannons; as no such weapons had previously been manufactured in Australia, a pair of British-made Hispano-Suiza 20 mm were used.[12] Allegedly, an example which an Australian airman had collected as a souvenir in the Middle East was reverse engineered.[citation needed] Other armament fitted included four Browning .303 [medium] machine guns along with provision for up to four 20 lb smoke bombs; all of these were mounted within the wings.[12]
While RAAF records show that the Boomerang was never recorded as having destroyed any enemy aircraft, the type proved to be more useful in its capacity as a light ground attack aircraft used by Army co-operation squadrons, often replacing the lightly armed Wirraway in this role.[18] In this vital mission, the Boomerang directly contributed to the extensive ground war in the jungles of the South West Pacific theatre was often characterised by widely dispersed, small unit actions, which typically fought at close quarters and with uncertain front lines. In addition to strafing Japanese ground forces with cannon and machine gun fire, Boomerangs would often deploy smoke bombs to mark valuable targets for other units to attack.[18] The aircraft was also used for artillery spotting, aerial supply drops, tactical reconnaissance, and anti-malarial spraying.[18]
No. 4 Squadron and No. 5 Squadron flew Boomerangs in New Guinea, the Solomon Islands Campaign and Borneo Campaign, also in the close support role, with marked success.[21] Flying in pairs (one to observe the ground, the other to observe the air around them), their tasks included bombing, strafing, close infantry support and artillery spotting. When attacking larger enemy formations, Boomerangs often operated in conjunction with larger aircraft. In this role, the Boomerang would get in close to confirm the identity of the target and mark it with a 20 lb (9 kg) smoke bomb with the "cooperating" aircraft delivering the major ordnance from a safer distance. A partnership between No. 5 Squadron Boomerangs and Royal New Zealand Air Force Corsair fighter bombers during the Bougainville Campaign was said to be particularly effective.[citation needed]
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OBSERVATIONS
It seems the Boomerang would have been an even better HUNTER with a 2nd seat observer.
The earlier Wirraway attack/trainer has 2 seats with rear gunning, observation/bomb aiming capabilities.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAC_Wirraway
The Wirraway was powered by a single 600 hp Pratt & Whitney R-1340 Wasp radial engine, licence-built by CAC.[13] the engine drove a three-bladed variable-pitch propeller developed by de Havilland Propellers. Fuel was stored within a pair of 45 gallon tanks.[14] The two-man crew sat within a tandem cockpit, complete with a fully enclosed sliding canopy; both positions were fitted with flying controls. In addition, the rear cockpit featured a rotatable folding seat for the gunner/bomb-aimer, as well as a prone bombing position in the floor of the aircraft. The Wirraway could carry a light armament of a single 500 lb bomb or a pair of 250 lb bombs under the wings; light bombs or flares could also be carried underneath the centerline section. Additionally, a pair of forward-firing Vickers Mk.V machine guns were fitted along with a single swivel-mounted machine gun positioned at the rear of the cockpit.[15]
A group of five Wirraways based at Kluang in Malaya for training purposes was pressed into combat against Japanese ground invasion forces; these were generally flown by New Zealanders with Australian observers, and had some successes.[16][17]
On 12 December 1942, Pilot Officer J. S. Archer shot down a Japanese fighter aircraft (thought at the time to be an A6M Zero, but found after the war to be a Ki-43) after having spotted it around 1000 feet (about 300 metres) below him and dived on it, opening fire and sending the Zero hurtling into the sea.[9][1] This was the only occasion that a Wirraway shot down another aircraft (and is one more than the total of aircraft shot down by its fighter offspring, the Boomerang).
In response to a request by Sir Thomas Blamey for an army cooperation squadron operating a relatively slow aircraft, No. 4 Squadron, equipped with the Wirraway, was dispatched to Port Moresby during early November 1942.[22] Operating over New Guinea, the type performed aerial reconnaissance, photography, artillery spotting, communication, supply drops, dive-bombing, ground attack and propaganda drops. In this capacity, the Wirraway proved to be fairly suitable; however, due to the risk of being misidentified as a hostile Zero, altitude restrictions were often imposed to deter incidents of friendly fire from Allied anti-aircraft gunners.[22] Having become known for its versatility, fighter versions of the Wirraway operated over New Guinea for some time on ground attack and other Army co-operation tasks until other RAAF aircraft such as the Boomerang and American Curtiss P-40s were made available in sufficient quantity to replace them.[22]
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Today's 2-seat armored & armed crop dusters are being successfully used in combat by smart militaries around the world--but not yet the dumbass USAF dominated by fighter-bomber jocks who want their KILLER ego mounts to do everything--which they can't.
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