Best Jet of WW2?

[plan_D]

So, it doesn't really matter if the plane had come in or not, because we'd have still won it when we did. There were many things that the Germans had that we stopped with ending the war, now if the Germans had got their A10 ICBM into action New York would have been having their own experiences of German rockets...

[brad]

meteor rules

[Lightning Guy]

There were several piston engined fighters that could have outrun the early versions of the Meteor. The speed of the Me-262 was decisive. A Post-war Meteor might have been a match for a 262, but what would the German jet have been like if it had an extra 3-4 years of development?

[cheddar cheese]

i reckon that if the 262 had continued after the war, it would have officially reached 600mph before the meteor did and could have been developed into a mightily effective fighter, once they had sorted out the stability problems

[Lightning Guy]

Exactly my point. The 262 was the best jet fighter of the war and would have held onto that title after the war if had received the same development time that the Meteor did.

[cheddar cheese]

then again, the germans had hundreds of planes that could have been great had development continued

[the lancaster kicks ass]

na, a post war meteor would still beat a post war 262 easily, remember, some countries did use 262s after the war...................

[Lightning Guy]

The 262 was used after the war. But they were flying what was basically a wartime fighter. If the engines, armament, and avionics of the 262 had continued to have been developed, it would have remained superior to the Meteor.

[cheddar cheese]

yup

[plan_D]

No, British engines were (and still are) the best in world, they would have beaten the 262 in the engine department, and that counts for a lot on the aircrafts performance.

[Lightning Guy]

I maybe wrong on this, but I was under the impression that post-war engine development of all the Allies (including the British) was heavily influenced by the examination of captured 262s.

[plan_D]

Of course they studied captured 262s and their engines but the British engines had more advantages than disadvantages to the German counter-parts. The main ideas gained off German technology was structure design, like swept back wings are much better for an aircraft at Mach 1.

[the lancaster kicks ass]

did you know the airframe of a spit could take the strain of mack 1.3 before breaking up, if you could power it to that speed.............

[plan_D]

Really? That's pretty good, but without specially designed props, prop aircraft cannot break the sound barrier.

[the lancaster kicks ass]

i know, that's why i said if you could power it to that speed, and did you know you can't break the sound barrier if you're not making any sound............