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Why?
RAF Mosquitos and Luftwaffe Me-110s got by just fine without a huge radome on their night fighter variants.
When I said the fuselage was thin, I mean really thin, thinner than the F6F/F4U, think P-51 thin. The Mosquito fuselage, which housed the same radar as the P-61, was much bigger than the F7F and I don't think the Bf-110 used a rotating dish antenna. The follow-on purpose built night fighters, the F-89 and F3D were large aircraft to accommodate better and bigger radars.Why?
RAF Mosquitos and Luftwaffe Me-110s got by just fine without a huge radome on their night fighter variants.
Readie, the P-51 was called "The Flying Cadillac", but I believe it was because it was so smooth to fly and didn't have much to do with comfort.
I agree that I would take the P-47N when it comes to room and comfort for extra long flights.
The P-47 turbo supercharger quietened the engine enormously was compared to the P-51. The P-51 engine noise was extremely exhausting on long pacific missions.
The P-47N 'wet wing' was at no range disadvantage to the P-51.
"Wet wing" makes me think of truly wet wings, such as the Seversky/Republic P35 P43.I think "wet wing" is a misnomer. It had wing tanks in addition to the fuselage tank.
Couldn't the same be said for the turbocharged P-38?The P-47 turbo supercharger quietened the engine enormously was compared to the P-51. The P-51 engine noise was extremely exhausting on long pacific missions.
P-51 deadly in ditching - SOP was to bail out.
IMO P-38 best choice because of T/E - no real high altitude issues with J/L models
Probably prefer P-82 if available - high performance escort/two pilots
With regard to the P-38 would the frequency of needing to limp home on one engine be a greater liability than the benefit of possibly being able too? Are there any accurate statistics about this? If two engines are so much better than one for flight over the sea, why has the USN from the beginning of the jet age adopted any single engine fighters?
Depends on the ability to operate with one or more engine gone also know as "Vmca"Intuitively two engines should be better for long oceanic flights. So should four be than three and three than two.