P-80 v Me 262 v Gloster Meteor....

[Lucky13]

Can't remember seeing this.. Which would come out on top in a fighter v fighter test?

[Konigstiger205]

I know the Me262 was excellent against bombers, but how would it fair agains other jet fighters? That is a very good question. The thing is, that the Me262 did saw combat action in the war, although it was plagued by a lack of trained pilots, fuel and reliability issues. I know that the Meteor and the P-80, did not saw action in WW2, of course I may be wrong here. But in a fight during WW2, I would put my money on the Me262 .

[Watanbe]

I'm sure had the Germans not been in such a desperate situation they would have been able to iron out the faults like the British and US did. They didn't have to rush the P80 and Meteor as much.

[wheelsup_cavu]

Great topic Lucky.
I am going to be watching this thread for answers too.


Wheels

[Milosh]

A post war American test had the Me262 slightly superior to the P-80.

[davebender]

P-80 Shooting Star - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The initial production order was for 344 P-80As after USAAF acceptance in February 1945. Eighty-three (83) had been delivered by the end of July 1945

Are we freezing aircraft development as of early May 1945? If so we need to pull out all the stops just to get a handful of early model P-80As into combat before the end of the war.

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

Originally Posted by davebender

P-80 Shooting Star - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Are we freezing aircraft development as of early May 1945? If so we need to pull out all the stops just to get a handful of early model P-80As into combat before the end of the war.

2 flew combat air patrols out of Italy, but the P-80 did not see combat in WW2.

[davebender]

Good enough for the purposes of this discussion. Let's have these early model P-80s bump heads with a Rotte of Me-262s.

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

They did not however...

As others pointed out, I believe that post war flight tests showed that the Me 262 was slightly superior to the P-80.

[davebender]

The mysterious and secret YP-80 Shooting Star at Foggia during WW2

Two Lockheed YP-80A Shooting Star, jet fighters were shipped to the MTO under Project Extraversion on December 26, 1944, arriving in Italy in late December '44 / early January '45. They became the first, true jet planes to have flown in Italy (and the MTO), beating to it the Luftwaffe's Arado 234B recon jets, which did not begin flight operations until March 1945 and are almost universally quoted as the first true jet planes to have flown in Italy, instead.

The two aircraft 44-83028 and 44-83029, Lockheed cn 1007 and 1008, respectively, were flown by Wright Field personnel who received general support from some of the units stationed in Italy, and ended up with the 1st FG, sometime in April 1945. According to An Escort of P-38s, The 1st Fighter Group in World War II, by John D. Mullins, the aircraft were '...brought over in early April by a Wright Field contingent, "for testing under combat conditions in a remote location" ' and were quickly dubbed the "33rd Air Force".

One of the 1st FG pilots, Major Ed LaClare, logged two flights on the YP-80A.

--- Late April 1945. Somewhere over Italy.
Maj LaClare and his wingman flew into a strange looking cloud. They are unaware the cloud is actually a small wormhole. We are all Star Trek fans, right?

----- A few seconds later. Somewhere over Central Germany.
Maj LaClare and his wingman fly out of the cloud. The terrain below appears to have changed. The wormhole has spit them out over Central Germany. However they don't have time to consider the issue. A pair of JV-44 Me-262s are closing from head on and at a similiiar altitude.

[Nikademus]

I asked a similar question in this thread a month or so back

http://www.ww2aircraft.net/forum/avi...2-a-20946.html (USAAF eval of Me-262)


Interesting replies. The P-80 on paper appears superior (though i noted that in some past arguments, people tend to quote the later refined P-80C!), yet USAAF test reports indicated the 262 was slightly better in actual flight.

[renrich]

Wasn't the Meteor used in WW2 to shoot down V1s? It would have interesting if the ME262 had met Meteors. I suppose that neither of them had the range to get into proximity to one another.

[Erich]

we covered this at least two years ago until it got way off topic and totally what-if ............sorry Lucky but I find these types of comparisons and what-if's tedious, this as the other comparisons to prove point will be covered with graphics, graphs, bogus internet information and so on from books

dam() whatever every happened to my jet vs piston engine killer thread of moons ago......... ! I shoudl go ahead and add to that when time permits.

the 262 was already a proven machine lacking, the Metoero and P-80 is a would of, could of

ok sorry for the hi-jack Jan.

[fastmongrel]

The victor would be the guy with the advantage of surprise and the altitude just like probably 90% of air combat victories

[Soren]

The Me-262 takes the prize, no doubt about it. It had problems with its' engines in the beginning, but these issues were being gradually solved. And by wars end the improved Jumo 004C engine was ready for use in German a/c, and this engine had a 20% higher thrust output than the B series, while fuel consumption was improved considerably as-well, greatly increasing both the performance and range of the Me262. Had the Jumo 004C been ready for production in mid 44 I fear what would've happened in Europe, the war might very well have taken a very different turn.

The best answer the Allies had for the Me262 was the DeHavilland Vampire, but it also arrived too late.