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Type Sorties Bombs Dropped Tons Combat losses Kills in air Kills on ground
P-39 30547 121 107 14 18
A-36 23373 8014 177 84 17
P-40 67059 11014 553 481 40
P-47 42343 113963 3077 3082 3202
P-61 3637 141 25 58 0
P-38 129849 20139 1758 1771 749
P-51 213873 5668 2520 4950 4131
Loss Rate Kill Rate Kill/Loss
P-39 0.4 0.0 13.1
A-36 0.8 0.4 47.5
P-40 0.8 0.7 87.0
P-47 0.7 0.7 100.2
P-61 0.7 1.6 232.0
P-38 1.4 1.4 100.7
P-51 1.2 2.3 196.4
Code:Type Sorties Bombs Dropped Tons Combat losses Kills in air Kills on ground P-39 30547 121 107 14 18 A-36 23373 8014 177 84 17 P-40 67059 11014 553 481 40 P-47 42343 113963 3077 3082 3202 P-61 3637 141 25 58 0 P-38 129849 20139 1758 1771 749 P-51 213873 5668 2520 4950 4131
Code:Loss Rate Kill Rate Kill/Loss P-39 0.4 0.0 13.1 A-36 0.8 0.4 47.5 P-40 0.8 0.7 87.0 P-47 0.7 0.7 100.2 P-61 0.7 1.6 232.0 P-38 1.4 1.4 100.7 P-51 1.2 2.3 196.4
From Francis Dean's America's 100,000
i should ask it in one of the p-61 topics,but you might know it- what caused the combat loss of 25 black widows? combat means to me ,flak,or enemy a/c ,not operational like crashes or accidents. since it was introduced very late and faced almost no opposition at all, it been told on many places/sources that only a single one been shot down (or a few but not 25). was it nightfighters,or flak? its just a random question,thanks again,great link
I spent some time compiling statistics for US aircraft types used in WWII. I used the report entitled Naval Aviation Combat Statistics – World War II compiled by the US Navy in the winter of 1945 – 1946 as one source and the US Army Air Forces Statistical Digest as the other source. Both are US Government documents detailing combat statistics for the USA in WWII.
The Navy broke out combat losses into losses on action sorties and losses not on action sorties. Further, they broke out action losses as losses to A/A, to enemy aircraft, and to operational losses on action sorties. That's where they get the 19 : 1 kill to loss ratio for the Hellcat. The Hellcat shot down 5,163 enemy aircraft and had only 270 losses to enemy aircraft. That is, in fact, 19 : 1. But if you add in losses to A/A (553) and to operations on action sorties (340), the losses in combat were 1,163, not 270.
The US Army Air Forces listed combat losses only with no breakout.
To make things equal, I decided to compile the combat sorties, combat losses to all causes, and kills in the air for USAAC and US Navy/Marine aircraft. I decided not to include kills on the ground. The list came out as shown below.
View attachment 229198
Note the Hellcat has the top air kill to combat loss ratio at 4.4. For fighters, the Wildcat is next followed by the Corsair, Black Widow, and then the Mustang.
For Combat Loss Percent per Sortie, the safest was the P-39, followed by the P-61 and P-47. The most dangerous was the Wildcat followed by the Hellcat and the Lightning. The Mustang is about in the middle. No surprise that Navy fighters were more dangerous … can't glide in for a safe landing on the ocean, can you? The Thunderbolt flew about twice the sorties of the Mustang and was safer by 40% or so.
Please note that these are for COMBAT sorties. Non-action sorties and non-combat-related flights of all kinds are excluded … just performance in combat.
Looks like if you wanted to be safe, fly a P-39 and if you wanted to make ace, fly a Hellcat.