Greatest aircrat of WWII?

[Zincwarrior]

The bombers were drones and the fighters were designed for a specific mission. The Army's P-38's were the most versatile air weapons available when Intelligence determined that Yamamoto would be visiting a Japanese base which was about 500 miles from Guadalcanal. It was the P-38 that was the only plane that could make the attack and have a reasonable expectation of returning.

Also at that point, they USAAC in the Pacific had perfected the art of boom and zoom with it on Japanese aircraft. The great Ace Race was in full swing at that time.

 

[Zincwarrior]

The Me-262 was a waste of effort. It was a jump in tech that the Germans couldn't quite pull off. The mean time between failure for its engines was twenty hours. That means a complete replacement of BOTH engines every three sorties or so. It was anything but a great aircraft.

The Brits had the meteor with more reliable engines at that point, and the Americans were developing two different fighters from the same engine.

Now you want to see real German crazy - the ME 163 Komet. A literal rocket plane with four cannon to blow up bombers, with the pilot flying it from the prone position. Only 7.5 minutes powered flight.

 

[toobfreak]

Best airplane of WWII was the Polish-built LWS-6 Żubr!

Originally designed as a 12-passenger airliner during the early 1930s, it was reconfigured to produce a bomber instead. The prototype crashed on its first demonstrative flight in 1936, killing the crew. But this wasn't enough to stop it being pushed into service where it was found to be hard to fly and useless in its bombing role. Almost all were destroyed on the ground by the invading German army during the invasion of Poland in 1939.

 

[Deadstick]

Then there was the American P 51 Mustang long range fighter, the US 8th airforce had taken a lot of casualties in daylight bomber raids over Germany before this aircraft was put into service as fighter escort.

 

[Zincwarrior]

Then there was the American P 51 Mustang long range fighter, the US 8th airforce had taken a lot of casualties in daylight bomber raids over Germany before this aircraft was put into service as fighter escort.

So pretty. Its just a beautiful aircraft.

 

[Vrenn]

Let's not forget the P-63. They did a flyoff with the P-51D and it was inched out. While it climbed a bit slower and only had a top speed of 410mph, The King was one tough bird. If you brought less than a 20mm you probably just pissed it off. And it turned inside the P-51D. With the 37mm gun along with the 50s and 20mms, it made one hell of a tough ground attack which could outfly and outfight a ME-109 and equal a FW-190.

 

[AZrailwhale]

The Brits had the meteor with more reliable engines at that point, and the Americans were developing two different fighters from the same engine.

Now you want to see real German crazy - the ME 163 Komet. A literal rocket plane with four cannon to blow up bombers, with the pilot flying it from the prone position. Only 7.5 minutes powered flight.

You've got your details wrong. The Komet only carried TWO cannon, either 30mm MK108s or 20mm MG151/20s. The pilot sat upright. The prone pilot was in the Arado Ar-234 bomber.

 

[Zincwarrior]

You've got your details wrong. The Komet only carried TWO cannon, either 30mm MK108s or 20mm MG151/20s. The pilot sat upright. The prone pilot was in the Arado Ar-234 bomber.

Well shit. I stand corrected!

 

[AZrailwhale]

Well shit. I stand corrected!

The Germans had so many aircraft its easy to misremember things.

 

[Zincwarrior]

The Germans had so many aircraft its easy to misremember things.

I have a book from Jr High age, that was from a British test pilot who tested a bunch of them. Lots of design sketches and pictures. He actually broke his back in the Komet.

Yes, then of course you have the really out there theoretical designs like the flying wing and such...

 

[mamooth]

Interesting factoid: While the B-24 was much more fragile than the B-17, the B-24 ended up being safer to fly. Losses were 1.26% per sortie for the B-24, 1.66% for the B-17.

Why? Speed, speed, speed. If a bomber can get in and out before the enemy reacts, it won't face fighters, and it won't get shot down.

 

[Zincwarrior]

Consolidated also had a B29 comparable as a backup in case the B29 development duffed it. Appropriately named "the Dominator".

Consolidated B-32 Dominator - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Stryder50]

Yeah, yeah, thousands of strange reasons why the list is led by German pilots, except good pilots and good planes. The Soviet pilots are still above the other allied pilots, so their planes can´t be that bad. Plus, there was world war, all soldiers, except for the US-Pilots, were in missions constantly. All the lame excuses cannot undo that the Germans were simply the very best in all fields. Leave us that in the face of the pitiful condition our army is in today.

USA pilots got pulled back, if they survived, so they could teach the next batches of pilots. Experience had it's value. Most other nations, especially Axis, tended to use their pilots until they were KIA. Part of why as the war went on the Axis pilot quality was dropping.

Many of those Russian/soviet aces did that in an aircraft from the USA. One that many USA & UK pilots considered "inferior" and weren't thrilled to fly/use, was the Bell P-39 Aircobra;

Bell P-39 Airacobra - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Superseded by the Bell P-63 KingCobra;

Bell P-63 Kingcobra - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Stryder50]

In the Pacific, the rugged Corsair needed the changes that the RAF did to theirs before it became a good carrier fighter. The biggest things that the RAF did was shorten the wings by 8 inches, raise the pilots seat 7 inches and added a hood similiar to the Malcolm Hood for the Spits.

The Corsair had the potential to be a better carrier fighter than the Hellcat but it didn't start enjoying that role until 1944 which, at that time, the Marines didn't have their Corsairs directly assigned to any Carriers. Plus, the Hellcats ended up outnumbering the Corsairs so the numbers are a bit jumbled when combat rates are figured in.

The biggest boost the Brits did to make the Corsair a better plane to operate from carriers was to develop curved landing approach. Coming in at a curved path~angle, the pilot only straightened out at last moment before dropping down on the deck.

The shortening of the wings were so the folded wing aircraft would clear the ceiling of the hanger deck.

Interestingly, as great as the Hellcat was, they were dropped from service soon after the war. The Corsair continued on for nearly a decade and then a couple more in the air forces of other nations.

 

[Stryder50]

There was no FAA back then. It was NACA. What the curved approach was, was keeping the LSO in the V of the inverted gull wing until the last second. NACA had nothing to do with either the wing or landing gear design. It was a decision to keep the landing gear as short and strong as possible with a fifteen foot propellor. The Japanese took the opposite track with the Shiden Kai and used telescoping landing gear which caused them endless problems and a lot of aircraft lost to landing failures.

IIRC, in this context FAA = Fleet Air Arm of the Royal Navy (carrier planes).

 

[Failzero]

The biggest boost the Brits did to make the Corsair a better plane to operate from carriers was to develop curved landing approach. Coming in at a curved path~angle, the pilot only straightened out at last moment before dropping down on the deck.

The shortening of the wings were so the folded wing aircraft would clear the ceiling of the hanger deck.

Interestingly, as great as the Hellcat was, they were dropped from service soon after the war. The Corsair continued on for nearly a decade and then a couple more in the air forces of other nations.

Were our first Carrier based Jets the ones used in “The Bridges of Toko Ri “ ?

 

[Stryder50]

Everything there looks like it was stolen from the Japanese, Germans, and the British.

There are some fundamental basics of aircraft design of that era, which were evolving.
The USA P-51 had close resemblance to the German Bf(Me)-109 appearance.
The USA P-47 had close resemblance to the German FW-190 appearance.
At quick glance, the Japanese Oscar looks a lot like the Zeke(Zero).

 

[Stryder50]

Were our first Carrier based Jets the ones used in “The Bridges of Toko Ri “ ?

Yeah, those were the F9F Panther

Grumman F9F Panther - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Zincwarrior]

USA pilots got pulled back, if they survived, so they could teach the next batches of pilots. Experience had it's value. Most other nations, especially Axis, tended to use their pilots until they were KIA. Part of why as the war went on the Axis pilot quality was dropping.

Many of those Russian/soviet aces did that in an aircraft from the USA. One that many USA & UK pilots considered "inferior" and weren't thrilled to fly/use, was the Bell P-39 Aircobra;

Bell P-39 Airacobra - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Superseded by the Bell P-63 KingCobra;

Bell P-63 Kingcobra - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Cobra was good at low altitudes which fit the Eastern Front better.

 

[Stryder50]

Yeah, those were the F9F Panther

Grumman F9F Panther - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

BTW, there was a close runner up, but not quite as good a fighter as the Panther(Cougar);

McDonnell F2H Banshee​

McDonnell F2H Banshee - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org