 | Best Fighter Designer?| Aviation Discuss Best Fighter Designer? in the World War II - Aviation forums; Willy Messerschmitt, Kurt Tank, Alexander Kartveli, Reginald Mitchell, Jiro Horikoshi, Alexander Yakovlev, Sidney Camm, Kelly Johnson, Raymond Rice, Edgar Schmued? ... |
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08-30-2006, 03:52 AM
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#1 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Nov 2005
Posts: 149
| Best Fighter Designer?
Willy Messerschmitt, Kurt Tank, Alexander Kartveli, Reginald Mitchell, Jiro Horikoshi, Alexander Yakovlev, Sidney Camm, Kelly Johnson, Raymond Rice, Edgar Schmued? They were all great, but I nominate Kelly Johnson as the greatest, with a very honorable mention of Reginald Mitchell. | 
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08-30-2006, 05:40 AM
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#2 | | Der Crewchief
Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Ansbach, Germany
Posts: 28,136
Country:  | I go for Willy Messerschmitt, Kurt Tank, and Kelly Johnson.
__________________  US Army Blackhawk Crewchief 2000-2006 Classic ww2aircraft.net quotes: fly boy said: "isn't that the first jet bomber? becasue i have flown one in a flight sim before and i know how it handles" "wait what ok who made the b-2 crash come on people that messed up its a b-2" "ah yes the mistel those things are so annoying is games and in real life" | |
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08-30-2006, 08:14 AM
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#3 | | Your ad here. ;)
Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Moorpark, CA
Posts: 11,885
Country:  | Kelly Johnson.
__________________  http://www.vg-photo.com Wherever their bones may lie, the courage of heroes is consecrated in the hearts and engraved in the history of the free. Lt Col Honner DSO MC, 39th Commander speaking of the dead from the battle of Kokoda. | |
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08-30-2006, 09:17 AM
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#4 | | Konfused with a 'K'
Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Turin, Italy
Posts: 20,412
Country:  | Kelly Johnson and Kurt Tank...
__________________  with my one last gaping breath id apologise for bleeding on your shirt... | |
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08-30-2006, 09:24 AM
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#5 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Phila, Pa
Posts: 2,013
Country: | Reginald Mitchell. Designed one fighter before cancer got him. It was a classic. Better than any other fighter it took increases in horsepower and armaments on the same basic frame (strengthened, of course). Horsepower doubled over the life of the aircraft and it stayed a viable machine.
Also believe the Spitfire was the only Allied fighter to stay in production throughout the way (F4F/FM2 may be the exception). | |
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08-30-2006, 09:26 AM
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#6 | | IP/Mech THE GREAT GAZOO
Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Colorado, USA
Posts: 12,140
Country: | Johnson, Tank, Messerschmit and Mikoyan
These were the last of the solo designers. After WW2 fighter design was primarily a team effort with a chief engineer being assigned to the effort.
I give Mikoyan a lot of credit. From the Mig-1 through the Mig-17, he was under duress to produce.
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08-30-2006, 11:37 AM
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#7 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Royal Deeside/St Andrews, Scotland, UK (atm Pretoria, South Africa)
Posts: 10,712
Country:  | Good points Joe. For me I will go with Tank, Johnson and Mitchell.
__________________  "Success is not Final, Failure is not Fatal, it is the Courage to Continue that Counts"
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08-30-2006, 04:09 PM
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#8 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: London
Posts: 2,608
| I would also go for Mikoyan for what his team did all the way through to the Mig 29.
Sydney Camm as my second choice | |
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08-30-2006, 04:29 PM
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#9 | | Der Crewchief
Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Ansbach, Germany
Posts: 28,136
Country: | I can agree with all of those, they all produced the best aircraft of there days and Kelly possibly the best over the longest period of time.
__________________ US Army Blackhawk Crewchief 2000-2006 Classic ww2aircraft.net quotes: fly boy said: "isn't that the first jet bomber? becasue i have flown one in a flight sim before and i know how it handles" "wait what ok who made the b-2 crash come on people that messed up its a b-2" "ah yes the mistel those things are so annoying is games and in real life" | |
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09-01-2006, 12:37 PM
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#10 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: City of the Angels California
Posts: 810
| Hans Multhopp
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09-02-2006, 09:37 AM
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#11 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Dec 2005
Posts: 1,848
Country:  | Messerschmitt, Tank, Mitchell and Mikoyan
__________________  "The German Luftwaffe always fought without any reserves. This is also the reason why we have pilots with extremely high numbers of victories."
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09-02-2006, 11:48 AM
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#12 | | Master of Ewes
Join Date: Dec 2003
Posts: 19,959
Country: | are we just going by their WWII designs? because many on thr allied side kept designing great planes after the war to we considder those?
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"Reminds me of the time I sank the Tirpitz" comments a Spitfire pilot, "One pass of course, old boy." | |
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09-03-2006, 06:11 AM
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#13 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Campospinoso (PV), Italy
Posts: 615
| I would say Kurt Tank.
He always had to deal with more engineering constraints than any of his 'competitors', from the necessity to use a '2nd choice' engine to the need of engineering the aircraft to be produced in separate factories and assembled somewhere else (and this is not a small challenge, in terms of design and weight optimization).
Nevertheless, his fighters were at least on par with all the other best.
Messerschmitt always had more support and resources available (at least after the success of the 109 and after he won the battle with Udet), and the last designs were more the work of Waldemar Voigt than of Willy.
Kelly Johnson and Mikhoyan expressed their best after WWII.
Mitchell was probably the most genial, but life did not gave him the chance to develop his masterpiece nor to start a 'school': just look at the problems that Supermarine had in improving the basic spit frame and design a new model (apart of fitting a bigger engine): the 'new' spit (XIV) was a nightmare to develop and the other models (Spiteful and jets) failed the target.
Another guy who had not the chance to express his potential is Mario Castoldi of Macchi: when in competition with Mitchell for the racing seaplanes his designs were performing at least equally, when it came to design a fighter Castoldi had to deal with the sloppy Fiat radial instead of having a Merlin available. But the basic MC200 airframe was extremely competitive as soon as a decent engine was fitted (202 and 205V), and Castoldi's designs around a good engine (205N, 206, 207) were killed because the war for Italy was over.
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09-03-2006, 07:14 AM
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#14 | | Facetious Extraordinaire
Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Northampton, UK
Posts: 2,072
Country: | I wouls say R J Mitchell thinking on how the Spitfire/Seafire could still be kept updated and front lined after all those year's in service.
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09-04-2006, 02:43 PM
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#15 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Kiwi Land
Posts: 848
Country:  | Sydney Camm
Hurricane, Typhoon, Tempest.
Kurt Tank
Geoffrey de Havilland
For the Mosquito.
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