I was interested in the idea of designing the "ultimate" WWII fighter plane, with two engines, and highly manueuverable. This is what I came up with. There had been other two-engined fighers. the USN had the Tiger, but it was huge, and probably about as nimble as a ship. It was used after WWII as an attack plane rather than a dogfighter. The British Mosquito (and its development, the Hornet) was a better example. Though rather large for a fighter, it's wooden construction made it exceptionally light, and its large wing area gave it grip. It couldn't turn inside a Spitfire or Messerschmitt, but near enough. And there was the American P-38 Lightning. It's narrow fuesleage brought the two engines relatively close together, but it was still a large plane as fighers went, and couldn't mix it up with more agile European fighters. In Europe it was relagatted to ground support duites, and acheived its greatest potential against much less powerful Japanese fighters in the Pacific.

My solution to the problem was to go with a pusher prop arrangement. The two propellor spans nearly meet just behind the tail, and can be as close to the centerline of the plane as possible. The P71d was unstable though. The P71E model introduced a pair of stabilizing fins foreward, so the nose wouldn't pitch up or down as violently. This time I've gone in for radial engines, not in-line. I thought sufficient air could easily be ducted to them from the front. A pair of 2000 hp Pratt & Whitney Wasps provide a fantastic amount of oomph for a plane so small. As much as a B-25 Mitchell medium bomber, in fact.

The Sidewinder is shown next to an F4U Corsair for comparison.