Post by Diarist on May 24, 2016 6:16:49 GMT 1
We had lunch in the main canteen. There will probably be a general election before the end of the year so Churchill was busy campaigning. We were then shown the two prototypes under construction. One was to be in accordance with AM Spec. F.37/35, a fighter armed with cannon, in this case four 20mm Hispano. The second would have an additional four .303 machine guns in the nose. It is sleeker than the Mosquito and has a much greater range. With the extra fuel tanks it could probably fly to Moscow and back!
Geoffrey has talked to his chief designers at lunchtime and they decided to not to take the Twin Wasp engines from P&W. If the Merlin engines arrive in January as promised there will be plenty of time to meet the May deadline. I've also had time to discuss the Castle Bromwich offer with John. He will be at the Annex next Monday when Sir Philip from the Air Ministry visits us. He has also called Rolls-Royce and they have not yet received the blueprints from Nuffield. Winston Churchill is not amused. The fact is that the new Vickers tank will have to wait for the engines because two months have been wasted. That however does give us more time to design a better turret. We also had time to talk about expansion plans for all the main production plants within Vickers-Armstrong. Emphasis must also be given to a training programme. Building aircraft is more difficult than assembling cars. We need training facilities near our main factories as well as Castle Bromwich. John will have a plan for presentation on Monday.
Winston Churchill is very impressed by what he has seen and heard today. Driving back to TRADOC he was full of praise. He has agreed to omit the word 'wood' from his English vocabulary, especially when talking to the Air Ministry. His next stop before going to back London will be Nuffield Engines. After meeting Lord Gort Sally and I left early so we can pack for tomorrow. The plan for tomorrow has changed a little but we are still within parameters.