best fighter of ww II

[the lancaster kicks ass]

and i stand by my answer................

 

[lesofprimus]

I dont really think the Mossie belongs in this group... I think the best fighter in WW II should be a plane that was air to air...

How was the Mossie in air to air combat??? (Not Nighttime)
If a Fw-190D and a Mossie got into it at 25,000 or 5,000, the only thing the Mossie could try to do is run away....

 

[Gemhorse]

Absolutely the DH Mosquito !!! - What a crying shame the DH Hornet, our Mossie's 'hot-rod' version wasn't quite ready in time, because that would've set it in concrete....Primarily the Mosquito was a PR aircraft, then a Fighter, then a Bomber and ultimately a Fighter/Bomber, which certainly gives it an 'all-rounder' appeal, but it was fast, manoevrable and deadly, didn't use up a lot of valuable material and wood is more easily repairable...imagine a Griffon-engined version !...

 

[lesofprimus]

The Mossie is not catagorized as a "Fighter" in any book I have ever read, or even looked through...

This is quoted from The Complete Book of WW II Aircraft...

"The DH 98 project was launched privatly by de Havilland in 1938. The aim was to construct a bomber-reconnaissance plane flying at such a high altitude and at such great speed, that it would need no defensive armament."

Quotes from The Great Book of WW II Airplanes....

"The Mosquito had a high wing loading and landing speed, coupled with a very steep approach path. The elevators were particularly light, and it was possible to overstress the airframe in pulling out of a dive without too much difficulty. The Mosquito was generally sensitive to pitch."

"The de Havilland Mosquito of the Second World War was a truly successful multi-role combat aircraft. Following the initial skepticism that greeted the concept, the Mosquito was adopted as high-speed bomber, reconnaissaince aircraft, and night fighter, going on to pioneer one of todays most important warplane catagories, that of the heavy, long range interdiction/strike aircraft."

A fighter is plane that fights other fighters..... A fighter bomber is just that.... A night fighter is just that...

I'm sorry but I dont follow u guys on the Mossie and the title Best Fighter in WW II....

Best Night Fighter??? Possibly...

Best Fighter Bomber??? Maybe...

Best Fighter??? Nope...

 

[Maestro]

I agree with Les.

The Mossie wasn't designed for fighter missions, but for bomber/reconnaissance missions.

 

[Lightning Guy]

I would have to say ditto to all that Les has mentioned. In general, when people saw 'fighter' (at least when discussing WWII) they mean day fighter. That is why aircraft that were flown at night were known as night fighters. There was NO version of the Mossie designed to fly fighter missions during the day. To the best of my knowledge. no Mossie ever flew a daylight fighter mission (such as CAP, escort, or a fighter sweep). Some FB.VIs may have scored daylight kills but those would have been when they were some other type of mission. But all of that asside, the Mossie didn't have the kind of air-to-air capability (and certainly not the record) to be considered the best fighter.

 

[the lancaster kicks ass]

best alround day fighter would be the spit Mk.XIV....................

 

[Gemhorse]

Well, I can see your points, although when the Mossie first flew, it was faster than the then current Allied single-seat fighters...So, if we subtract the Mossie and P-38 from this, although the Spitfire was a true fighter, I feel the Mk.IX was probably a hot contender for the ETO...the Mk.VIII in the PTO...Everyone seems very keen on the Mk.XIV, but as Alex Henshaw, Test Pilot of Spitfires, stated that the more modified the Spitfire became, something would be in penalty for these improvements...in other words, the faster they were, the heavier and less manoevrable they became....Ginger Lacey nearly flew a new Mk.XIV into the ground when based in the Far East, trying to do a roll like he used to in the Mk.VIII, simply because they suffered the penalty of being heavier and less manoevrable. - All things considered, that being range, armament, performance and historically-proven capability, I feel the P-51D was the 'Best Fighter'...it's also the most prolific of restored Warbirds flying today, and it's combat service went way beyond the end of WWII....In my reading, the exploits of 'Bud' Anderson and Chuck Yeager illustrated to me how formidable the variants of Mustangs were, and the task of establishing Air Superiority over the Germans was...Aviation Artist Zoenig did this terrific painting 'Can't talk - Gotta shoot' that I use as a screensaver, which pretty well sums-up the fighting Mustang........

 

[Maestro]

All things considered, that being range, armament, performance and historically-proven capability, I feel the P-51D was the 'Best Fighter'...it's also the most prolific of restored Warbirds flying today, and it's combat service went way beyond the end of WWII....In my reading, the exploits of 'Bud' Anderson and Chuck Yeager illustrated to me how formidable the variants of Mustangs were, and the task of establishing Air Superiority over the Germans was...Aviation Artist Zoenig did this terrific painting 'Can't talk - Gotta shoot' that I use as a screensaver, which pretty well sums-up the fighting Mustang........

The Mustang was a good plane. But concerning the "lifetime", the Spitfire Mk. IX had a longer life. Created in 1942, it served until the end of the British decolonisation wars.

 

[the lancaster kicks ass]

i believe the last spitfire sortie flown by "the last" was in 1954...............

 

[Maestro]

It's possible, I don't have the exact date.

 

[Gemhorse]

That may have been the FR-47 Seafire...My research indicates the Mustang was still flying in 1978 with the USAF, 'F-51's' being used as chase planes....They built some interesting versions post-WWII, such as the 'Cavalier' model, then a turbo-prop model which was good for 540mph and then the 'Enforcer' model with a Lycoming T-55-L-9 turbine engine....The USAF released the majority of their Mustangs in 1957 though, and that's not bad considering the Jet Age was well and truly the thing then... But don't mistake me, I have a GREAT love for the Spitfire, and I love the lines of the Mk.XIV the best...- the Mk.'s VIII and IX were, I feel, the best 'combatant' versions...One could also acknowledge the superb work done throughout the War by the PR Spitfires, their contribution to the Allied victory in Europe and the Med. was supreme, particuarly to the pilots who flew them, unarmed....- Really, the Mustang had 'the range', which was what set it apart from all others...We could argue 'armament' till 'the cow's come home'- If the Spits flew the long-range escort missions the Mustang did, well, that was fundamentally the difference between them...Our Kiwis flew Spitfires throughout the War and I recently got a book about their exploits, most impressive...Aviation Artist Ron Fulstow captured their essence in 'Spitfire Strikes - 485 Sqn.'....

 

[the lancaster kicks ass]

20 years of service was a long time back then...................

 

[lesofprimus]

The toss up between an Fw-190D and a P-51D is a tough one....

I like the 190D alittle bit more, because quite honestly, it made such a huge gap between the Axis most advanced plane, and the Allies top plane....

The Dora so outlclassed the competition when it first came out.. The P-51D, while a truly remarkable aircraft, did not mark such a decisive difference between combatants...

 

[Lightning Guy]

I don't remember where it was on this site, but I believe I gave a pretty thorough review of the P-38L taking the P-51D in just about every perfromance category. The P-38L could handily outclimb or outdive it. Above 15,000ft the P-38L was faster (though the speed of the two was never separated by more than about 10mph). The P-38L also had range, payload, and firepower over the P-51. It could turn with or even inside of the P-51 (depending on alitude) and outroll it at speeds above 325mph or so.

 

[lesofprimus]

I would never knock the 38 in any sort of competition... It was also the aircraft that the Top 2 Leading American Aces, Bong and McGuire, flew....

But I dont think the 38 had quite the impact in aerial combat as did the 190D and the 51D...

 

[Lightning Guy]

It definitely had more impact than the 190D. There were over 10,000 Lightnings produced and they were in service for the entire period of American involvement in WWII. They shot down more Japanese aircraft than any other fighter. And (as an interesting note) it was June of '44 before the number of P-51Ds in the ETO matched the number of P-38s. By that time, the quality of the Luftwaffe was definitely on the decline.

 

[Gemhorse]

Yeah, but the turning point for the Allies was when the Spitfire Mk.IX took on the Fw-190....that balanced the fighter conflict initially, but the escort work was in serious jeopardy until the P-51D arrived...the P-38J was a quite advanced model and didn't arrive on the scene till mid-1943. Lightnings weren't as easy to fly, being twin-engined, they were bloody freezing flying over Europe,[no cockpit-heating] and were prone to frustrating engine-failures, a point that is associated with Lightning losses in combat. Please don't misunderstand me, it was a VERY fine aircraft, awesome firepower and agile with it, and the L model was the 'Lightning in maturity'; - the Pacific was really their best theatre; - but virtually everyone that I've read about that flew Mustangs loved them, they were the best thing since 'sliced-bread' when the D model came onto the escort role.
Alan Deere, the NZ Ace, flew Spitfires during the period of the Fw-190 ascendancy, stated that of the two main Mk.IX models, the IXB's [officially known as LF IXC's] were powered by Merlin 66's and attained their best performance at 21,000 ft., roughly the same as the Fw-190...the Spits were 30 mph faster, better in the climb and vastly more manoevrable...He felt that as an all-round fighter, the IXB was supreme and undoubtably the best mark of Spitfire....and this model was still in combat over Europe at the end of the War, although other later models were being used by various Squadrons. As a matter of interest, the Spitfire Mk.XVI [16] was a Mk.IX with an US [Packard]-made Merlin 66 engine, with a few modifications including extra fuel tanks, and had greater range....

 

[Lightning Guy]

All I was trying to state is that the IMPACT of the P-51D has been vastly over rated.

 

[the lancaster kicks ass]

it was over-rated but not by as much as you really think, it wasn't until they had the 'stang that they could continue the daylight raids.............