P-38 or Mosquito?

[cheddar cheese]

ill say it again

[the lancaster kicks ass]

that's nothing, now if he'd landed with his undercarage down, that would be impressive..................

[cheddar cheese]

i think otherwise

[ahanswurst]

I vote for the P-38 because of what it did and could do during the war. Granted the Mosquito had it's place and mission. But compared side by side I think the P-38 has no equals as far as a piston driven aircraft.

[GermansRGeniuses]

I, however, do. The Corsair. Same-ish bombload in weight, although the sizes of their ordanance varied, I prefer the Corsair. Although few were produced, I believe the version with 4x 20mm cannons was the definitive dogfighter, and the ones used by the USMC in Korea the definitive attack variant.

[Lightning Guy]

The Corsair, heh? Where were you on the "Best Naval Fighter" thread? The Corsair was a great plane, but not the point of this thread, and not as versatile as the Lightning.

[bader]

how could anyone not like the mosquito? it was the most versatile plane of the war

[plan_D]

The Mosquito was the better bomber, the Lightning was the better fighter. And you'd be surprised how durable the Mosquito was.

[bader]

the mossie definetly

[plan_D]

Thank you.

[Andrew]

There are photgraphs in Chaz Bower's book "The Mosquito at War" that show a Mosquito that came back from a mission with half the starboard Wing Missing, the Port Engine very badly damaged and half the Tailplane missing and it still made it back to the Airfield, also there are records of a Mosquito that ended up with a chimney pot in the cockpit, also there was another Mosquito which returned froma Mission with several hundred feet of telegraph wire wraped round it. And the Mosquito as far as I know is the only Aircraft to have a loss rate of less than 1 Aircraft a mission.

There were 2 types of Rockets that the Allied Aircraft used during the war, these were 25lbs and 60lbs warheads, the 25lb Warhead Rockets were originally designed for Tank busting, and the 60lb Warhead Rockets were desinged for Ship and Submerine Busting, strange as it may seem the Rockets performed better when their roles were reveresed, the 25lb Rockets were used for Submerine Busting, and the 60lb Rockets were used for Tank Busting, both The Mossie and the P38 were capable of carrying 8 Rockets, 4 on each wing using the Standard wing mounted pods.

[plan_D]

The Mosquito would have also been the better bomber destroyer, simply because of its more powerful armament.

[Lightning Guy]

Ok, were to begin. First of all, I had never seen anything on the durability of the Mossie and that is very impressive. Secondly, the P-38L carried 10 rockets on 1 "inverted Christmas tree" launchers. They were tested with as many as 14 zero-length launchers (like on the P-47 or P-51) but the structural changes involved were too great. Plus the Christmas tree launcher could be removed when not needed producing a cleaner plane. Thirdly, the Lightning's armament was more concentrated than even the Mossie and I think it's high rate of climb and high altitude performance would have given it the edge in interception missions.

[plan_D]

The rate of climb and ceiling on the Mosquito were good enough to reach the bombers in time, and its 4 20mm cannons were very close together and packed a harder punch than the Lightnings armament.

[Lightning Guy]

They were packed tightly, but not as closely as the Lightning's guns. Question: how much ammo did the Mossie carry for it's cannons?