Was the Bearcat as good as the Late War Japanese fighters?

[davparlr]

Originally Posted by Soundbreaker Welch?

So we Americans just took our own design back.

Pretty interesting.

I just saw a Military Channel story on the FW190. It said that Kurt Tank was very impressed by the H-1. The Fw190 does take some design features from the H-1. Most noticable is the landing gear and the radial engine and general layout. The H-1 was an amazing aircraft and could do 353 mph in 1935. Compare that to contempory military aircraft. I believe it surpassed the previous airspeed record by 40 mph or so.

[lesofprimus]

Tanks use of the radial was because of the non-availability of the inline DB's that were being sucked up by the Bf 109 production lines...

[davparlr]

Originally Posted by lesofprimus

Tanks use of the radial was because of the non-availability of the inline DB's that were being sucked up by the Bf 109 production lines...

That's true, but I think the success with H-1 gave him confidence that the radial would work for a fighter. That was an unpopular configuration in the Luftwaffe. He tried to improve the NACA design for engine enclosure, but his design was unsuccessful and resorted to a common design. Also of note, the BMW engine was a Pratt and Witney built under license, probably modifed by BMW.

[lesofprimus]

but I think the success with H-1 gave him confidence that the radial would work for a fighter.

I agree...

[bogy]

I am not sure that the Bearcat was more good then a Nakajima Ki 84 Hayate "Frank". Ki 84 was the bestes aircraft in a final part of ww2.

[syscom3]

Originally Posted by bogy

I am not sure that the Bearcat was more good then a Nakajima Ki 84 Hayate "Frank". Ki 84 was the bestes aircraft in a final part of ww2.

The Ki-84 was equivelant to what the allies had in mid 1944.

The Japanese were always one generation behind the allies in designs and it got worse thoughout 1945.

[R Leonard]

Originally Posted by bogy

I am not sure that the Bearcat was more good then a Nakajima Ki 84 Hayate "Frank". Ki 84 was the bestes aircraft in a final part of ww2.

You’re kidding, right? Don’t get me wrong, I think the Ki-84 series was one of the best the Japanese produced, certainly the most elegant in looks and its performance statistics weren’t too shabby either, but out performing an F8F? No, sorry. Syscom3 has accurately identified the problem for the Japanese. For a variety of reasons they were behind the curve on development from late 1942 on.

Rich

[timshatz]

Think Rlenord and SYS got it right. The Japanese never really had the industrial base to develop a full range of aircraft in a timely fashion. They could and did design great aircraft (A6M, Ki100 and Ki84 were excellent examples of that ability) but lacked the resources and production capacity to flood the skies with these aircraft. A step behind in design due to lack of assets to allocate to the design and just way behind in producing adequate numbers of those they did design. Add to that problems with fit and finish, shortage of maintainence personel and equipment when in the field and you see them slipping farther and farther behind in their ability to affect the course of a battle and finally, the outcome of the war.

Add to all that the B29s bombing their factories and it is one seriously losing proposition.