GP-222 Berryrod
Instructions: Activate group 1 and move left slider up to fold wings.
Description: This is a late World War 2 era prototype design for a carrier-based fighter. Although jets were starting to make an appearance on land, they required long runways and did not seem suitable for naval use. Because of this, navies requested propeller-based designs as potential replacements for their existing fighters. Increasing the power of the standard single-engine plane was a possibility, but increasing engine size reduced pilots' forward visibility, an obvious problem when attempting carrier landings. Twin-engine designs with engines in the wings were a possibility, but forced the plane to be wider, creating storage issues. The GP-222 Berryrod tried to avoid these problems by mounting a counter-rotating propeller powered by twin engines in a pusher configuration behind the pilot. This avoided restricting the pilot's view, while also allowing the wings to fold and take up less space than a standard twin-engine design. The design handled well, and achieved an impressive top speed of 450mph at sea level. These results were impressive enough for several orders to come in and the plane saw use until the 1950s when jets finally displaced propeller planes as fighters in all circumstances.
Specifications
General Characteristics
- Predecessor Push-configuration ! (TOURNAMENT) (CLOSED)
- Created On Windows
- Wingspan 69.6ft (21.2m)
- Length 41.6ft (12.7m)
- Height 15.1ft (4.6m)
- Empty Weight 8,554lbs (3,880kg)
- Loaded Weight 12,775lbs (5,795kg)
Performance
- Horse Power/Weight Ratio 0.313
- Wing Loading 17.6lbs/ft2 (85.8kg/m2)
- Wing Area 727.2ft2 (67.6m2)
- Drag Points 3535
Parts
- Number of Parts 84
- Control Surfaces 16
- Performance Cost 506
Looks really interesting. Its lore downplays the design of twin engine setup by saying that they can be too wide, but the rear wing on this one is pretty wide on its own no? Because of this I could only land on USS Beast. Its performance is surprisingly great for its unusual design. Really fast and nimble and with a set of devastating machine guns, it could easily ruled the sky!