Best Bomber Killing Aircraft......

[Guns'n'Props]

I've finally done a bit of reading on the 262. I admit the 262 is not one of my favourite WW2 aircraft hence I know next to nothing other than the obvious. Rummaging thru' my book shelves I came across
"WW2 Fighting Jets" - Jeff Ethell and Alfred Price, Airlife 1994. It seems the 262 even had an Automatic Throttle Control as stated in pg54:

"On the Me 262s in service the throttles had to be advanced slowly up to 6,000 rpm to avoid burning out the jet units. Above 6,000 rpm the throttles could be pushed all the way forward at once, because an automatic fuel flow and pressure regulator prevented a too sudden increase in the amount of fuel entering the jets and a resultant overheating. By the end of the war a new regulator had been developed to control the fuel flow so that the throttles could be set at any point and the new regulator would ensure a safe and gradual acceleration of the engine to the rpm selected. Just before the war ended the new regulator had been tested and found satisfactory".

If the 6,000 rpm = 80% thrust this fits with what FLYBOYJ said earlier but it also highlights the possibility of damaging the engine if power was increase too suddenly below 6,000rpm. The fact that the Germans took precious time and resources to develop a new regulator may also imply that this was a common problem.

What are your thoughts / explanations ?

 

[FLYBOYJ]

In early jets from engine idle to 80% one had to be careful when moving the power levers, what the Germans were experiencing was evident on all turbine engines at the time, even those built with better nickel steels. In 2nd and 3rd generation engines there was a matter of acceleration where the engine just won't accelerate that quickly if you slam the power lever to 100% when sitting at engine idle.

This regulator you speak about was probably part of the fuel control.

 

[phatzo]

really anything with the tater chucker was devastating against bombers. bf109g-14 bf109k4 me163 me262
fw190 a8 its hard to say which is better because the all excelled in different areas. 163 ability to get quickly to alt 262 for speed a8 for lots 'o' guns. But lets spend a minute or two reflecting on the mossie. I would not like to be in a He 111 that gets spotted by a mossie.

 

[FW190D-9]

FW-190A-8s were probable the most effective. The A-8/R-2 versions were probably the most devestating. The D-9s had the pedigree of an outstanding higher altitude killer than the A-8s, but came a bit too late in small numbers. Cheers, TF.

 

[gepp]

Two come to mind for me FW-190A-8 and The Bf 110 i know ill probably get laughed at for saying the 110 but at night they made a mess of bomber formations.by day it was the A-8's turn.

 

[Civettone]

Bf 109G-14/U4/R4 had two heavy MGs and three 30mm cannons. This was to me the ultimate Kanonenboot!

Kris

 

[thor]

if you take the night war into account the 110 must get much respect ...

 

[stona]

The BoB WAS over Europe!

Apocryphal headline, "Fog in channel. Europe cut off"

And yes,I knew what you meant.

 

[b0ned0me]

I really had an apparently mistaken impression that by late Sep'44 the P-51s had Jadgwaffe sorted out. Was this a singular incident or were such losses still occurring from time to time ? Is it possible that these units were the lowest or last in the bomber formation thus the most vulnerable ?

From Kassel Mission , interview with one of the survivors

We were approaching the I.P. in a southeasterly direction, where we were supposed to make a slight left turn in an east-southeasterly direction toward Kassel, but for some reason the lead ship turned almost directly east, a mistake which would take us past the target city of Kassel, too far to the north. The only explanation was that the radar man had made a grievous error.

Practically every navigator in our group picked up on this mistake almost instantly, but it was too late for the lead ship to correct to the right, as he would have run into the stream of bombers coming up from the rear. In hindsight we can say that the correct thing to do would have been to make a 360° turn to the left and come in on the rear of the second division, but Major McCoy decided to continue on east and bomb the city of Gottin-gen, about 50 miles away. As a result we lost our fighter escort, and flew alone to our own destruction.

That last sentence sums it up perfectly - Sept 1944 was no time to be pootling about over central germany in broad daylight with no escorts. One navigational error compunded by one command error, and a very bad day resulted. It shows just how finely balanced things were, as well as how often the little friends saved the day.

 

[Brant]

Can't argue with the ME262.

 

[luftwaffemesserschmitt]

The best Bomber killling Aircraft ?

Every aircraft that was equipt with the lethal R4M rocket was the NR1 Bomberkiller
With every Dayfighter in the Luftwaffe equipt with R4ms the losses would be horrible....

 

[Erich]

would you say and that is it, until the rocket could become more guided it still was in it's infancy. no doubt the Fw 190A-8/R8 and the 262 A-1a ar ethe supreme masters

 

[Clay_Allison]

Gotta go with the Jazz Music Ju-88G night fighters.

 

[r puckett]

i think the me262 is the best.

 

[vinnye]

It would have to be one of the LW fighterrs - either day or night - as they had much more opportunity due to the scale of the bomber formations used daily / nightly against targets in Axis controlled areas.
The Allies did not face the same size raids on a daily / nightly basis - so their success rate would never match that of their LW counterparts.

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

You also have to remember that the LW aircraft were armed better for combating heavy bombers. If you compare the evolution of the allied fighter armament and the LW fighter armament, you will see the progression to heavier cannons on the LW aircraft. This is only natural because they had to combat the large bomber formations.

 

[Will_Derby]

I would have to say the British Hurricanes.

 

[lesofprimus]

What!!??

Hurricanes with their .30 cals??? Comeon man, read through the thread and get educated some..

 

[phatzo]

the 2c had 4 hispanos, nothing to sneeze at. Just a bit slow to catch any later bombers.

 

[lesofprimus]

The IIc didnt come around till April or so of 1941, which means it missed out on the BoB, where it could have proved itself....

Not even in the top ten....