Best Fighter

[Erich]

Lanc the Go229 and the Meteor are almost irrelvent. The Go never flew in action and the Metero was involved in V-1 shoot
downs.............oooooooooooh how impressive is that ? not very bud. If the little jet would of been transferred to the mainland and taken on 109's, Fw 190's and even Me 262's then we could feasibly talk, but there are no comparisons. The Meteor was fast drawn up a/c but there was not enough time to furhter the development as there were other drawing board projects taking precedence such as the Vampire.........

there is no combat record of note and it had no ability so lets let the thread lie............dead

[the lancaster kicks ass]

the Meteor saw the action but its usefulness was limited by its ability

it was limited by it's range, the main use for fighters in '44/'45 was for flying escort missions, which the meteor couldn't do, the 262 was sucessfull becuase it was primarily a interceptor, which the meteor coul;d do................

[Lightning Guy]

So then the Meteor wasn't even needed in '44/'45 while the Germans desparately needed the 262, yet another reason the 262 should be considered the better jet.

[Erich]

and because of these limitations the Meteor should not even be considered anywhere even close with any variant of the Me 262 of Ar 234.

[Erich]

different approach. The top prop job in the ETO

Ta 152H-1 flown by Willi Reschke and profiled by Claes Sundin

[Lightning Guy]

Did the Ta 152 do enough in the war to be considered? I think some guidelines need to be laid down for what we are talking about when discussing best. Is it performance only? What part does impact play? Should expiremental types be included? For my part, the Ta 152 was a great fighter with amazing performance, but I don't consider it because it's role was far too limited.

[Erich]

I would consider the operative issues of the a/c, performance yes but not necessairly number # 1. Adversaries included;

sure we could consider the what if had the Tank been issued to other units but it wasn't and this is one of the reasons it was special. It could take a simple pilot with very few missions and make him accomplish much.

but in any case I thought I would just throw this out............geez

please no c mments about the P-38 and Mossie ok ? how about some other a/c guyz > !

[the lancaster kicks ass]

what about a veteran hurricane Vs. a rookie/medium Fw-190??

[Lightning Guy]

Pilot quality was (within reason) the most important thing in a dogfight. I imagine the Hurricane should have little trouble turning inside the 190 but that is about its only advantage. Still, a good pilot will be sure to use his plane's advantages are keep away from his opponent's strengths.

[the lancaster kicks ass]

i thoguht you would mention pilot quality that's why i was carefull to put in their skill..................

[Lightning Guy]

Well it was crucial. In terms of performance, an A6M5 was a good match for a Hellcat. The Japanese were simply out of capable pilots and so the USN cut them out of the sky.

[David m Card]

Originally Posted by Lightning Guy

Well it was crucial. In terms of performance, an A6M5 was a good match for a Hellcat. The Japanese were simply out of capable pilots and so the USN cut them out of the sky.

Referring back to the best and badest looking fighter and or single& twin engine aircraft i think it would be the Hawker Typhoon and a P-51.I also like the Jug and a avid fork tailed deviled fan as well.

[Lightning Guy]

Typhoon was great for ground attack and handled itself well at low level, but I haven't seen much info about it as an air-to-air fighter.

[the lancaster kicks ass]

it was designed as a high performance fighter but they were dissapointed with it's capabilities, it was almost abandond but they tried it as a ground attack aircraft, and were pleasantly suprised, it was also used as a low level interceptor.....................

[Lightning Guy]

Yeah, I've heard it was the only thing the British had at the time that could catch the 190s on their low-level raids.