Best Fighter

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Well there were a lot of great fighters however the one that stands out the most for me is the Messerschmitt Me-109 series. No other aircraft was built in such large numbers and no other aircraft made such an impact on a nations airforce. The Me-109 basically made up the Lutwaffe. If you want to go by just performance I would have to say though the Messerschmitt Me-262. No other aircraft could outfly it. It was unfortunate for the Germans that it entered service to late and not in the role best suited for it. Plus it was just a magnificant looking aircraft.
 

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I can see where you are coming from on all points there, The 109 was a great plane, as was the 262. However you are wrong in saying that the 109 was the must numerous plane of the war - There were considerably more Ilyushin IL-2 Sturmoviks built, as is the case with the Fiesler FI-103 (Although not strictly a plane).
 
Again you are true, however the Il-2 was not a fighter it was a ground attack aircraft and neither was the Fi-103. There were many great fighters though. The FW-190, P-51, Spitfire. And what about the Do-335 Pfeil, it was too late but was remarkable.
 

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Contrary to popular belief, the Pfeil actually DID enter service...


Not with the Luftwaffe, but rather as a form of defense over Dornier's main factory, flown by test and combat pilots...


They saw no little or no combat, but were reported to be seen in flight on various occasions over the factory by Mustang pilots...
 
Well either way I truely think that it is hard to determine the best fighter, because each great fighter has its own qualities that could qualify it as the best. I believe that it was not the plane but the man behind the controls that made the aircraft the best. Anyhow this is a great discussion.
 

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The Pfeil is an amazing plane, and I agree wih you on the pilot business. But if Hartmann had been consigned to a Heinkel He-51 or something, im not so sure that he would have got 352 kills. You do need a good plane for the pilot to be most effective.

Here's a question, did the Heinkel He-100 ever enter service? Because I think it was the coolest looking fighter ever made
 
I dont think it ever did, I think they only built like 12 of them and they were sold to easter european countries like Bulgaria and Romania after they were dont testing it. I believe it lost out to the Messerschmitt Bf-109.
Actually I just found the story about it, I just read it in one of my books and it says this: This pleasant looking fighter was another failed attempt by Ernst Heikel AG to compete against the Bf 109. Disappointed by the loss of the Luftwaffe's fighter orders to BFW and it's Bf 109 and the failure of the He 112, Heinkel set out to build a lighter and faster fighter that was also cheaper and easier to build. The resulting Projekt 1035 was completed on May 25, 1937 and by the end 1937 the RLM had sanctioned a prototype and ten pre-production machines. The prototype flew on January 22, 1938 was very fast but was disliked due to high wing loading. The He 100 achieved some of it's speed by doing away with the anti-aerodynamic radiatoer and using a surface evaporative system for cooling. Even though the He 100 broke several world speed records, the RLM was solidly supportive of the Bf 109 and failed to order the He 100 into production. Six prototypes were eventually sold to the Soviet Union and three He 100D-0 went to Japan. The three He 100D-0's being armed with two MG 17 and a 20mm MG/FF. The remaining 12 He 100D-1 fighters were used to form a Heinkel-Rostock factory defense unit, flown by Heinkel pilots. However, in 1940, Goebbels publicised the He 100 to the extent that British intelligence reported the He 100 in large scale service as the He 113.
 

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S'far as I know, it did the same thing as the Do-335 - Factory protection...


Hey, adler, Ironically Rudel did become an ace, he got 11 kills in a Fw-190D-9 - WITH ONE REAL LEG!
 
Well atleast at the beginning of the war it was a hell of a dive bomber probably the best in its class. It was just outclassed to quickly and was too easy of a target for allied fighters. I dont even want to imagine what it must have been like to be a polish soldier and hearing the high pitched whine of the Stuka diving down on your position.
 

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Yup, in the right environment the Stuka could be devastating. But it lacked the outright defenses to be the best, which is why I say the IL-2 was better.
 
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