1946: Best piston engine fighter in the world?

[dedalos]

From the single engine fighters i would also take the hawker fury I with the sabre vii engine.
Overall the Hornet because of the longer range and two engine safety and almost indentical performance. In fact i feel that should be faster than the fury on max continius power.
I also like the spiteful.
It appears that england created the best all around fighters, a great mixture of all critical paramerers, with reasonable cost.

 

[fastmongrel]

3500 HP with water injection on = emergency.

I boobed with the engine model. The Sabre VII was a 3,050hp engine that could do 3,500hp with Water-Methanol. The engine I was thinking about was called the Sabre E122 which had all the tricks, 3 speed 2 stage blower, contra rotating prop, Water-Methanol, annular radiator and was supposed to be 4,000hp emergency power. It never got anywhere near a post war order so didnt get a mark number.

Napiers had a test rig Turbo charged Sabre run at 45 psi boost giving 5,500hp which must have shaken the test cell to its foundations.

 

[swampyankee]

My vote would be the Sea Fury, although I think the other aircraft are also great. There was a lot of improvements in aerodynamics technology between 1940 and 1945, and the variants of pre-war designs, a category some of these fell into, would not make the first tier.

All of them, however, suffered from the very simple fact that, in 1946, the sell-by date for front-line piston-engine fighters had probably passed. To some extent, the best piston-engine fighter of 1946 was beginning to look like the best biplane fighter of 1938: well-designed, still useful, but definitely tending towards obsolescence.

 

[GreenKnight121]

I chose F4U-5, as to me if it cannot cover all the planet (requires carrier operability) it isn't the best.

Sea Fury would be a very close #2 (losing only because of ground-attack/CAS capability issues), with Sea Hornet #3.

F7F Tigercat is very tempting, as it is technically carrier-capable - but in reality the USN did not approve it for normal deployment aboard ship, and it was used as purely land-based aircraft.

F8F loses out because it was not as capable in a large portion of the missions a prop fighter would be called on to perform in 1946 - ground attack, interdiction, etc. (1,000lb external payload vs 4,000lb for the F4U). Spiteful shares the Bearcat's weaknesses. Both of these are primarily task force protection aircraft.

 

[spicmart]

Weird. Until a while ago the Ta 152 would have been on any of those lists. But not any more?

 

[grampi]

Problem is that other planes on that list will be able to get to height quicker. Certainly the F8F could, and the Spitfire.

And if you're not at the higher altitudes (30,000ft or so) you probably won't have much of a speed advantage. If at all.

I believe the Spitfire could, but not the Bearcat...it was no good for high altitudes...there are several planes on this list that would outclimb it above 20K feet...

 

[grampi]

I had a really hard time deciding, there are a lot of considerations.

If the priority was long range escort fighter, the P-51H and P-47N would take it, with a nod to the P-38L as well. I prefer the good ol' Jug out of this trio but the Mustang was no slouch by any means. Was considering the P-82B on here as well but I don't think that was in operation by '46.

If you want a fighter with excellent multirole capability it would be a real scuffle between the F4U-5, Sea Hornet, Sea Fury, F7F, P-47N (again) and maybe the Tempest as well. Out of that lot I give it to the Sea Fury after the bombs are dropped but the Corsair is REALLY close, and was the better attack aircraft. Both managed to take down at LEAST one MiG-15 during Korea, a testament to good design (and good pilots).

Best dogfighters? Spitfire, F8F, Yak, La-9, the latter two being almost unmatched under 14,000 feet (typical Eastern front conditions). Yak-9U being mostly hamstrung by its crappy armament.

I settled on Grumman's hot rod out of sheer raw performance and (I'm a superficial bastard) brutish good looks. While a good pilot in any of these planes would be able to give the Bearcat a run--some had better agility, some had better top speed, a lot had better range, better firepower/payload etc. etc.--the F8F with its explosive climb rate (in excess of some early jets) and acceleration gives it a huge advantage in most flight regimes. Couple it with four 20mm cannon in later marks and you had the ultimate piston-powered interceptor--and quite fittingly the ultimate Reno racer, though Sea Fury pilots I'm sure have something to say about that.

The problem with the Bearcat was its poor high altitude performance...below 20K feet it was probably the best performer of this group...above 20K feet however, many others on this list would outperform it considerably...

 

[swampyankee]

Weird. Until a while ago the Ta 152 would have been on any of those lists. But not any more?

1946 ==> no Luftwaffe. The Ta152 would be grounded, at best.