Piston engine epitome?

[comiso90]

Which single engine, piston aircraft deserves the mantle of "Damn too bad it wasn't available in WW2?" A1 sky raider? Sea Fury? Bearcat? My vote is for the Skyraider.

[the lancaster kicks ass]

there are generally considdered two possible aircraft for this title, as you rightly say, the F8F Bearcat and the Hawker Sea Fury, I would of course give it to the Sea Fury, a much better combat record and i believe service life.......

[mkloby]

Which single engine, piston aircraft deserves the mantle of "Damn too bad it wasn't available in WW2?" A1 sky raider? Sea Fury? Bearcat? My vote is for the Skyraider.

I've vote skyraider too. Damn fine A/C. Served in Vietnam. What a beast! Very impressive if you get a chance to see one. Could lug 6000lb of ordnance.

[Gnomey]

I would agree with all three as they were the pinnacle of piston engine development.

[comiso90]

Did they ever try to mount antitank gun/cannon pods on the sky raider? I suspect that the brass would prefer to reley on rockets.

[syscom3]

Can I vote for the C-119 "Flying Boxcar"?

[syscom3]

Did they ever try to mount antitank gun/cannon pods on the sky raider? I suspect that the brass would prefer to reley on rockets.

I believe the Skyraiders in Vietnam had 20mm external gunpods

[Matt308]

Good thread idea. My vote is the Sea Fury. Rather impressive record in Korea and post war duty.

[comiso90]

20mm gunpods yes but those aren't really tank busters.

I intentionally mentioned single engine but the Tigercat would have done some damage.

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

I go for the Sea Fury as well and then the Skyraider as a very very close second.

[Matt308]

Sea Fury for pure adrenalin. Skyraider for late WWII effectiveness. Who really needed a thoroughbred fighter in 1945 anyway. Skyraider would have been very needed in PTO if Japan had not capitulated.

[JoeB]

Perhaps worthy of mention also would be the postwar Lavochkins. The La-11 didn't have super speed by postwar prop fighter standards but excellent power to weight, and heavy armament of 3*23mm synchronized guns.

It was used in action in the Korean War, most successfully as "wild boar" type night fighter by the Soviets, downing a few B-26's and damaging a few B-29's. In daylight a couple were shot down by F-86's, but one, Chinese piloted, managed to put holes in an F-86 in return, so almost matched the Sea Fury/Corsair/Skyraider benchmark of props which claimed swept wing jets (and of those the latter two also had losing records v. swept wing jets, Sea Fury tied at 1:1, as would only be expected, though usually only their successes are mentioned).

Joe

[FLYBOYJ]

Perhaps worthy of mention also would be the postwar Lavochkins. The La-11 didn't have super speed by postwar prop fighter standards but excellent power to weight, and heavy armament of 3*23mm synchronized guns.

It was used in action in the Korean War, most successfully as "wild boar" type night fighter by the Soviets, downing a few B-26's and damaging a few B-29's. In daylight a couple were shot down by F-86's, but one, Chinese piloted, managed to put holes in an F-86 in return, so almost matched the Sea Fury/Corsair/Skyraider benchmark of props which claimed swept wing jets (and of those the latter two also had losing records v. swept wing jets, Sea Fury tied at 1:1, as would only be expected, though usually only their successes are mentioned).

Joe

I dont know where you got this information from but La-11s NEVER damaged B-29s, the only recip to shoot down a B-29 was a Chinese Yak-9D.

During the Korean War the Chinese made no claims while flying the LA-11. The only air to air recip kills claimed by the Chinese was in the Yak-9D. LA-11s were encountered 3 times and a total 8 were shot down by USAF aircraft.

I have doubts the Soviet ever flew LA-11s againist B-26. That would of put them in a proximity of UN troops and risked capture.

This information comes from ACIG a very accurate and unbiased database that tracks air to air combat since the WW2.

Here's the Korean War database...

Korean War Database

[comiso90]

Perhaps worthy of mention also would be the postwar Lavochkins. The La-11 didn't have super speed by postwar prop fighter standards but excellent power to weight, and heavy armament of 3*23mm synchronized guns.

What does it mean to have syched guns? They shoot at the same time for greater stability?

[Gnomey]

What does it mean to have syched guns? They shoot at the same time for greater stability?

Synched means that the guns fire through the propellor arc and so they need to be synched so that they don't hit the blades of the propellor.