P-38 or Mosquito?

[luca servitto]

Very incredible plane in fact! if you think different you must be

[cheddar cheese]

exactly

[the lancaster kicks ass]

that's not a great picture to chose to show how great a plane is though, is it

"yes, the good one's the one that's going up in flames"................

[cheddar cheese]

what are you on about?

[Stuka-99]

Mossie the best!!!!

[cheddar cheese]

P-38 is better that the best then!

and i see what you mean now lanc, that isnt fire from the mossies, its coming from the building

[the lancaster kicks ass]

oh yeah, so it is

P-38 is better that the best then!

it's impossible to be better than the best..............................

[ev0]

My vote goes to the p 38 because it could take really hard hits and still come home. I read the story of charles hoffman and he made a 300mile (or longer? don't remember) trip with a p38 on one engine....

[the lancaster kicks ass]

the mossie could fly just as wel on one engine aswell you know, one of it's test flights the pilot showed off by feathering one propellor and going into a rolling climb on one engine.............................

[Lightning Guy]

Lockheed test pilot did stunt flights post-war in which he feathered both engines and landed dead-stick. During the flight he would do all kinds of maneuvers on one engine including turns and rolls into the dead one.

[plan_D]

Hurricanes were landing dead stick a lot of the time. Pilot being injured turn off engine it'd come down, and still be able to taxi in.

[Lightning Guy]

My point was that lots of planes could be landed dead-stick and that the P-38 also handled very well on one engine. Often pilots would simply choose to shut-down a rough running engine rather than bother with it.

[the lancaster kicks ass]

but that offers the P-38 no advantage over the mossie as the mossie could do it too..........................

[Huckebein]

Jeez, this thread has not got very far - there's only a couple o' guys here trying to back up their arguments. I think it's very difficult to argue that the Mosquito truly rivalled the Lightning in a pure day-fighter role (not as a daylight intruder which some count as being a 'fighter'). Likewise it is next to impossible to argue the P-38's case when it comes to bombing.
For nightfighting the Mosquito's phenomenal actual war record has to overcome the 'promising' nature of late war Night-fighter Lightnings. Likewise I believe the Mosquito just about pips the P-38 to the post for photo-recce (about the only area where the two are very closely comparable, apart from durability and strike capability [rockets/ Molins cannon etc]). From there on the Mosquito wins hands down because the P-38 was not carrier-capable, was never successfully used as a high-speed transport, and was found to be surplus to requirements long before the Mossie bowed out in 1954 (I think - I'll go check).

Overall, I believe that, although the P-38 was an outstanding plane, the Mosquito was the more versatile and overall more capable aircraft (as well as being Goring's personal least favourite plane).

If anyone has any real arguments against these points, please post them - I'm tired and may well have erred.

[GermansRGeniuses]

Ah, so there you are Huck!