Best Fighter

[lesofprimus]

GrG, gotta choose one buddy....

Lanc, I knew which one u were referring to.... U think that was a better dogfighter than the Ta-152H or the P-51D, or Spit XIV?????

[the lancaster kicks ass]

it has the highest performance figures of any production piston engined plane, it's the only one that has any chance of winning the rino air races without any modification, the poll is for the best fighter, not the best dogfighter................

[lesofprimus]

Same thing to me.... Best fighter is best air to air fighter....

[cheddar cheese]

To me best fighter is one that was successful and good at air to air...

[the lancaster kicks ass]

to put the sea fury into perspective, since the end of the second world war the fleet air arm has shot down 25 planes, 24 of those were shot down by harriers over the Falklands, the other one was a Mig-15, shot down by a sea fury.................

[cheddar cheese]

How does that put the Sea Fury in to perspective

[lesofprimus]

Lanc this is for WWII aircraft, not POST WWII......

U have said numerous times that the Mossie was the best fighter..... Are u changing ur mind now????

[evangilder]

Are you talking the whole war and all theaters? I am asking because early in the Pacific war, the Zero ruled the skies. The the Hellcat and the Corsair came out and changed that dramatically.

In Europe, the Spitfire stands out as it was involved in the war before the US got involved and stayed in the thick of things throughout the war. The Mustang was also a key player. The FW-190 was also one major player.

[lesofprimus]

We are talking best Air to Air Fighter in any theatre... As Im sure u understand, there are many variables in this..... Performance, firepower, ability, usage, multirole ect ect.....

[evangilder]

I'd have to go with the Hellcat then. It performed a wide variety of roles and did them well. It was versatile and with lessons learned from the Wildcat, the Hellcat was easy to build and maintain. During the "Great Marianas Turkey Shoot", Hellcats downed more than 160 enemy aircraft in a single day!

David McCampbell shot down 7 himself. During the Battle of the Leyte Gulf, McCampbell and his wingman, Ensign Roy Rushing bagged 15 Japanese planes in one engagement, McCampbell got 9, Rushing 6.

To Navy pilots, the Hellcat was called the "Ace Maker".

[cheddar cheese]

The P-38 still gets my vote then. It could out dive and out climb Zero's, and while i do not have any current evidence, i have read a couple of pilot accounts where they have said the P-38 and turned inside the Zero. It was also extremly good at performing its many roles, and as far as I know it was the only American fighter in service throughout the whole of the time America were in the war

[evangilder]

Yes, CC, that is correct, The P-38 was the only American fighter in production before, and continually throughout the war. Later models of P-38 could turn inside the Zero. The earlier models probably would not have been able to. The J and L models introduced a host of modifications that made it manuever better. Alot of innovations were introduced with the P-38.

But it was not an easy plane to work on. I still stand by the Hellcat.
My $.02

[the lancaster kicks ass]

i was under the impression that it could only out turn the zero at high speeds when the zero wasn't as nimble, i doubt it could turn inside it at low speed..................

[cheddar cheese]

lanc, it wasnt long ago that you said:

"No plane in the war could turn inside a Zero"

Dont deny you said that, cos we had a heate debate about it, you challenged me to find evidence...




The P-38 was a great recce plane too

I can understand why you are going with the Hellcat though But I just think the P-38 has the edge...

[evangilder]

The P-38 was a great plane, I agree. I just think the Hellcat was a bit better. I will give you that with 2 engines, the P-38 had an edge with survivability. Nothing like redundancy for safety!