Best Fighter (1 Viewer)

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GregP

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Jul 28, 2003
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Has anyone seen the August 2003 edition of Flight Jourmal?

In it, Corky Meyer was asked to pick the best fighter in both the European (ETO) and Pacific (PTO) Theaters. He elected to use the following criteria:

1) Must have been built in numbers of 10,000 or more and must have seen constant production improvement in combat capability

2) Must have been capable of 4 missions: a) fighter vs. fighter, b) air-to-ground, 3) bomber protection, and 4) Photorecon.

3) Must have been friendly to pilots with 200 hours of training.

4) Service record.

Based on the above criteria, he concluded the best ETO fighter was the Republic P-47 Thunderbolt, and the best PTO fighter was the Grumman Hellcat.

I must say, he defended his choices very well with clear numbers and logic. He DID state that the overall winner may well have been the Russian Yak-1 / Yak-9 series of aircraft, but that the combat records of things like sorties, victories, losses, and bomb tonnage dropped were unavailable ... so he placed it 5th, just behind the North American Mustang.

If you haven't seen the article, you might be able to find it at http://www.flightjournal.com . Check it out.

Corky was there at the time and flew most of the planes in question. The ones he didn't fly were clearly identified.
 
well, it doesn't look like "corkey meyer" knows a great deal about the subject, a truely great fighter isn't defined by criteria, a great fighter will be in a field of it's own, standing out above the rest....... and as for the "200 hours training" comment, most pilots managed nine hours beofre getting thrown into combat.......... :scratch:
 
Nah.....the Bf was good, but I really think that the 110 was better. The supermarine was also a pretty good fighter, along with the B-42 Corsair
 
cheddar cheese said:
i never heard of the 110 - im stupid you see. but i know nowt about planes, i just like em. i do like the bf-109 though

Gasp! Let us correct this!

me-110.jpg


me1103.jpg


re4341.jpg


Learn all about the 110 here
 
Only one stand above all....Bf 109 (by the way P-51 only had numerical strenght )
 
True lud, the Bf-109 had a lifespan from before the war began to the final defense of Berlin. Not bad for a German plane ;)

(BTW, u an IL-2 FB person? I recognize your name from VOW)
 
hurricane was not so good , but spitfire on the other very good althroug matched through war by german planes.Only mkXIV are a bit ahead of germans but on the other hand 109k-4 could hold on against all allied fighters, not to mention fw190d9 (considerd by many the best german piston fighter not by me ) and me 262. But again TOO LITLE TOO LATE
 
i think it unfair to say best fighter should be built in over 10000 planes.
just because a lot wer built doesn't mean they wer the best,some wer cancelled due to end of war-had the war continued it woulda been the best...means nothing better was worth producing.
there wer some really good prototypes...mb5 f2g2 xp72 to name a few
but for my pennies worth-the criteria are how well in dog fight at medium
or how good at high altitude?
for medium alts...my money is on the f8f or yak3/107
above 25000 feet i would go for ta152h or p-51h
 

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