Best Fleet Air Arm (Royal Navy) Aircraft of WW2

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that's because we had that option, if we had needed longer range fighters and america couldn't supply any, we would have developed our own....................
 
It's hard for everyone and anyone to design a fighter. In times of war though, things happen quickly.
 
I'm not disagreeing that things come about quickly during wartime, but things rarely work perfectly well the first time and maturing a weapon-system takes time. I would say about the quickest that could be excpected would be a year to actually develop a brand new aircraft and get it into action.
 
117 days for design to first flight. Include time to test the aircraft, train aircrews, deploy them overseas, and get squadrons/groups opperational, and you are talking closer to a year.
 
I still think the Seafire wasn't as '2nd rate' as all that...they had external fuel tanks afterall, later in the conflict, and the Griffoned Mk.XV entered service in 1944, although it didn't make a noticeable impact as the enemy was on the run by then...The Seafire's contribution was large, as far as the FAA went, coming on stream in 1942. They weren't 'ideal', but they played a significant role in all Allied amphibious landings, in fact they were the first onto the hastily-made landing strips on D-Day, only a few kms from the German positions...I think Britain 'made a silk purse out of a sour's ear' with them.....
 
They did make an impact and they were a good fighter . . . but I think it's significant, that when they were available, the FAA prefered to equip its squadrons with purpose built types like the Hellcat and Corsair.
 
Well, the Corsair had an advantage in carrier landing that the Seafire didn't and that was the high-blown canopy. Forward visibility for both types was pretty poor but I would guess that extra head room probably made things a little easier on the Corsair pilot. And in multi-role ability, the Seafire was a poor match for either American type.
 
Well, it was a fine interceptor. It was probably the finest ship-borne interceptor of the war (only competition being the -4 Corsair). It lacked, however, the durability and the versatility really needed on a ship.
 
Well it's liquid-cooled Merlin or Griffon wasn't nearly as resistant to groundfire as the R-2800 used in the Hellcat or Corsair.
 

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