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it starts at what alt?
Kris
16 Superfortresses were lost to Mig-15s during the Korean War. Their loss rate was 1 per 1000 sorties...
For the newbies, I have a thread called "All Things B29"
B-29 Engineering Flight book
Lots of interesting info there.
"According to Far East Air Force Bomber Command records, Superfort crewmen were credited with shooting down 33 enemy fighters, 16 of them MiGs. Another 17 MiGs were listed as probably destroyed, with 11 damaged."I'm looking for the source, but, I remember reading an interview with a Russian MiG-15 pilot stating that the gunners on B-29s were quite good and a definite danger for intercepting Migs..
Damn and only 80-100 were brought down by fighters in over 10,000 sorties. That sucks if you are Japanese.
Well for what its worth (since you all reopened the thread), Wikipedia lists
the Ki.61-II as having shot down the majority (a greater number than any
other fighter) of B-29s. .., but the Ki.61-II, when compared to other late
war Japanese fighters, does have one of the best high altitude performances.
Its speed and climbing ability easily exceeded the Ki.100 at very high
altitudes.
We are talking a bomber interceptor, not a 1-on-1 fighter vs. fighter.
1st step in intercepting high flying bomber.................reach the same altitude as the bomber if not higher.
The US Air Force conducted mock interception tests against the B29 at high altitude (above 30,000 feet) and found out even the P38 and P47 had great difficulty in intercepting the B29. Evidently both the P38 and P47 would go into a high speed stall when attempting to turn at high speed when aiming. If the P38 and P47 had great difficulty at that altitude, what chance did any Japanese fighter have?
The biggest problem with the Japanese was their technology, or lack thereof. Both the British and German forces in particular had well organised air defence systems from ground observers to low medium and high radar coverage with light medium and heavy AAA to match, not to mention aircraft far ahead of anything the Japanese air forces could field. The fact LeMay stripped the B29's of guns and had them fly at low altitudes speaks volumes of the quality of the japanese home defences.
Good points, but a thing or 2 to consider:Hello Pinsog,
Sounds to me like this is a different kind of issue. The "high speed" stalls are because the air is a lot less dense and stall speed increases because the wings need to go faster to generate the same lift.
If you have a Japanese fighter with a very light wing loading and low stall speed, its stall speed at high altitude also increases proportionally, but the absolute number isn't quite so high.
As an example:
The stall speed (clean) of a P-47D-25 is 115 MPH according to the manual.
At 30,000 feet, that works out to 188 MPH TAS just flying straight and level.
For a 2 G maneuver, minimum speed becomes 265 MPH.
For a 3 G maneuver, minimum speed becomes 326 MPH.
The Oscar we were discussing elsewhere has a stall speed barely over half that of the Thunderbolt, so its stall speeds at altitude would also be barely over half that of Thunderbolt. The only problem is that it may not have the engine power to get that high and maintain enough speed for an intercept.
- Ivan.
Good points, but a thing or 2 to consider:
The P47 could supposedly out turn a 109 at high altitude due to, as I understand it, a larger wing and more power.
Anything that is going to have the speed and firepower required to bring down a B29 above 30,000 feet is going to have a much higher wing loading than a Zero or KI43.