Which airplanes weren't given a fighting chance

[strezahuzum]

The Romanian IAR-80/81 fighter never had the chance to take on mid or late-war Allied fighters with anything like even odds...
Because the stupid Luftwaffe commanders refused to supply the IAR factory with BMW-801 engines or provide some of the necessary tools for licence production , this Romanian -built fighter had to finish the war with virtually the same engine it started : IAR K14 ( 1040 horsepower at best ), a locally produced version of the French Gnome-Rhone 14M radial engine ...

Had the IAR-80/81's beend refitted with the BMW-801 they might have stood a fighting chance against the Russian La-5, or the American P-38's and P-51's it faced in 1944...

[delcyros]

Good point.
I always liked the IAR 80/81 airframe. However it remains questionable how good the plane could be with a BMW 801. Nice idea.

[strezahuzum]

Originally Posted by delcyros

Good point.
I always liked the IAR 80/81 airframe. However it remains questionable how good the plane could be with a BMW 801. Nice idea.

Think about this : a fighter that could achieve a top speed of maximum 505 km/h ( 316 mph ) gave quite a good acount of itself in the air battles of summer 1944 against the 15th USAAF, when IAR-81/80 squadrons claimed close to 100 confirmed heavy bombers.

Former engineers considered that with the BMW 801 the IAR-80 could have exceeded the Bf-109G6 i!!

[V-1710]

What of that 4 engine Japanese heavy bomber? Or the Consolidated B-32 Dominator?

[delcyros]

There are several questionable points: The rumanian claimed 100 heavys shot down in 1944?
A) What are the sources saying to this (official US loss reports)
B) What planes did they fly
C) How many (of the?) claims contributed to german units there

Then the Bf-109 G6: It is very easy to say so, because you will find (surely) a version which has low performance (G6/R6) but also the better ones? G6AS? In clean fighter configuration? I don´t think so.
What remains is the point that the IAR had the potential to be an excellent fighter with a better engine but further redesignings would cost time, which simply wasn´t avaiable. However it is a wild looking plane.

[FLYBOYJ]

Originally Posted by V-1710

What of that 4 engine Japanese heavy bomber? Or the Consolidated B-32 Dominator?

We have a thread on the B-32, look in the archives...