Recent content by DAVIDICUS

Thanks for posting that.

Interesting that the switch from P-47's to P-51's was not a welcome event. Nor was the switch from P-38's to P-47's.

In the Korean war, our pilots would enter Mig Alley in successive four aircraft flights spaced five minutes apart. These flights would enter the airspace staggered between 30,000 and 35,000 ft. Migs, with their higher operational ceiling, would usually bounce from high above, often approaching...

Flak nearly ruined Lt. Charles Harris' day. His mount, Joyce's Joy II, managed to get hit multiple times during a dive bombing and strafing attack. This, from an encounter on May 12, 1944, is not the story behind the above picture. (The above picture depicts flak damage.) "After...

Flak. Different plane.

Flak damage.

Other angles of Lt. Richard Sulzbach's mount, "Buzzin Cuzzin," after colliding with trees.

Then it was more common than I thought. I also noticed that ME-109's would fly top cover for FW-190's.

While not a rule of thumb, it was not rare at all to have enemy aircraft approaching at 28,000ft and higher. I pulled these in about 15 minutes. P-51's http://www.spitfireperformance.com/mustang/combat-reports/4-fiedler-29march44.jpg...

"The interesting thing about the 1944 fighter conference which Davidicus mentioned is that the F4U4 was at that conference and was included in some of the voting but not all. In some of the votes the F4U4 came in BEHIND the F4U1D. I don't get that because the F4U4 was a much better performer...

* CORRECTION * I think I was mistaken in asserting that the late war P-47D could hold it's power up to about 24,000ft. I believe it is actually about 26,000ft.

"I was trying to show a basis for comparison" I know. I'm interested in figuring out the maximum HP of the other types at WEP regardless of whether they have water injection. "The navy planes are going to be 350hp or more behind the P-47 from about 22,000ft on up even with water injection"...

"[T]he altitudes at which they would maintain "military power" are rather informative." The late war P-47D could pull its maximum 2,600hp in WEP up to close to 26,000ft. * EDITED to correct from 24,000ft to 26,000ft

"If you could figure some measurement scale that people would agree to, you could find support for the idea that the Corsair may have been the best/most effective fighter in all of WW2-until you factored in how many Corsairs were wrecked operationally by their own pilots. Oh well, nobody's...

Paddle Blade, Water Injection and 150 octane fuel: P 47D Performance Test Looks like about 2,375fpm at 25,000ft and 1,650fpm at 30,000ft.