Comments by "Mike Armstrong" (@mikearmstrong8483) on "Supermarine Nighthawk – the First Night Interceptor" video.

I fail to grasp how nobody in charge of the program could see that a pair of 100 hp engines weren't going to cut it. By 1916, the British were using the 110 hp Le Rhone, 130 hp Clerget, 150, 200, & 220 hp Hispano Suizas, 230 hp Bentley, 230 hp Siddely and 275 hp Rolls Royce engines, with the American 400 hp Liberty engine becoming available by the time this contraption actually flew.
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@direktorpresident The L12 Liberty was first run only 5 months after the 1st flight of the Nighthawk, and the earlier L8 Liberty was developed roughly concurrently with the Nighthawk. So my comment was poorly worded when I said "available" by the time it flew, but the anticipation of the imminent introduction of the engine should have put the flight testing on hold for a while (not that the concept was really valid anyway). And it's a matter of power to weight ratio; if the engine is twice the weight but 4 times the power, it will fly. The much smaller DH-4 had no problem flying with the L12 Liberty.
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