A carrier aircraft damaged far from its ship needs enough surviving power to return across open water. A small fragment can puncture a liquid-cooled engine's exposed radiator system and disable the entire engine. An air-cooled radial can sometimes continue running after damage to one or two cylinders. The Corsair and Hellcat also show why a radial's broad frontage need not make it unacceptably inefficient: careful cowling reduces the drag penalty. An earlier British commitment to more powerful sleeve-valve engines is proposed as a counterfactual way to improve naval aircraft without competing directly with the Air Ministry's demand for Merlins.
Notable Point · 5:24:46-5:28:38
Why radial engines suited carrier aircraft
Radial engines offered damage tolerance for aircraft returning across water, while careful cowling reduced the drag of their broad frontage.