Best Fleet Air Arm (Royal Navy) Aircraft of WW2

[plan_D]

There was a Mosquito equipped with a 57mm cannon though. I can't remember its other armament though. .303s wouldn't do much against a ship apart from aim aid.

 

[the lancaster kicks ass]

remeber the beau was a fighter and ground attack aswell as ship strike, so that's why it needed them, but it would do allot of damage with the 90lb rockets............

 

[plan_D]

Well, I just don't know. The Mosquito was good though.

 

[the lancaster kicks ass]

the beau was better in a ship strike, and most ground attack, that's bout it.............

 

[plan_D]

Well there's nothing for the Mosquito designers to be ashamed of if it was beaten in a few things, since it excelled in most other things and could do almost everything tasked to a plane.

 

[the lancaster kicks ass]

very very true, it doesn't say much for us brtis that we nearly didn't order what became one of the best planes of the war at all!!!!

 

[plan_D]

Now that would have been a huge mistake. Have you seen the Mosquito in American markings, it looks really weird but they did use it.

 

[the lancaster kicks ass]

i've seen it, and i think whoever gave them to the americans deserves to be done for treason, it was massacerred by the americans, it looks stupid!!!!!

 

[plan_D]

Yes, yes it does.

 

[the lancaster kicks ass]

thank you for agreeing, again, it's the same with RAF mustangs however..........

 

[Gemhorse]

I always had the impression the Mosquito replaced the Beaufighter in alot of roles; Nightfighting for example...- While I have the utmost respect for the Beau and all it's Duties-performed, the Mosquito was capable of heavier armament...37 AND 57mm cannon, and the humble .303 was more than a flea in the ear, in a dogfight or ground-attack -[50 cal. would've been better, however...] - the American Mossies were mostly Reconnaissance variants although Canada sent them some Bomber ones too. - Although the Beau was heavier, they shared the 4 cannon and 60lb rocketry, .303's, torpedos, mines etc. but the speed manoevrability, range, altitude and bombing recce roles were Mosquito advantages...bloody shame they didn't have the DH.-103 Hornet up going , because they went FAA postwar too...

 

[plan_D]

.303s were good enough for dog fighting if you had enough of them, the Hurricane and Spitfire pulled it off with 8, and 12 in the Hurricane Mk. IV.

 

[Gemhorse]

Yeah, they sufficed, but the 50 cal. was heavier and came in greater variety, that say dogfighting Zeros in the Pacific that were a 'flammable' aircraft, incendiaries were belted in more quantity...or AP/HE/Tracer for ground-attacks...even today they're still very much in use....

 

[plan_D]

Yes, they are but then if you think about it the Zero wasn't very well armoured so a Hurricane Mk. IV with 12 .303s would do a lot of damage to the craft.
Of course more ideally you would put .50 cals in the aircraft put with that you have less ammo, or more weight which is less range.

 

[Gemhorse]

Well, in the case of Mosquitos, they left the .303's off anyway to make room for the radar in the Nightfighters, plus the gunflash destroyed night-vision. - 50 cal. is pretty-well 'light-cannon' anyway...couple of them in the Mossie would've been an improvement over 4x .303's...

 

[Lightning Guy]

The Mosquito with the 57mm cannon was the FB.XVIII. In addition it retained the 4 .303s in the nose. Although the weapon proved successful, Coastal Command (not the FAA) considered a standard FB.VI with rockets a better overall selection. In total, only 27 of them were built.

In the .50cal v .303 argument, with a .50cal you do carry less ammo, but with the slower rate of fire there probably won't be much difference in firing TIME and the .50cal definitely packed more range and more punch.

 

[Gemhorse]

The 'TSE-TSE' Mk.XVIII were specialist aircraft, and although they were Coastal Command, I'm pretty sure they came under Navy authority to a degree...I remember reading somewhere that Churchill, who was First Sea Lord also, saying the Admiralty wanted some too, once they were getting into serious production...[and the XVIII could also carry the 37mm Molins instead...]

 

[cheddar cheese]

in the film pearl harbour, a p-40 is chasing a zero and manages to tke off one of its wings with just 4 bullets from a .50 cal and it was all going so well till then

 

[plan_D]

You could destroy a plane with one hit from a 37mm, so why not use them all the time? It depends on the aircraft you are using, the .303 was perfectly suited to the Hurricane, and the Hurricane IV would have been a devestating hail of bullets especially with more chance of striking a fuel line or the pilot.
Personally I would rather be flying an aircraft with a mix of .50 cal and 20mm but it's the aircraft as I said.

C.C I would advise getting knowledge from movies, especially Pearl Harbour. Did you notice the ships had modern radars on them?

 

[cheddar cheese]

nope, do they really?