Best Jet of the War?

[Anonymous]

And even if it did see him, it would be able to turn and evade very well because of the unstable flight characteristics.

That unstablity applies even more to the attacking prop plane than the jet it is attacking. At such high speeds, most prop planes (like the spitfire) were buffeting badly. Even the P-51 would be difficult to put the guns on target at over 500 mph.

 

[cheddar cheese]

Yes, but it was just said that Jets cruised at roughly the same speeds as the fighters, and at that stage the P-51/Spit/P-47 had the upper hand. The advantage could only be gained by the 162 if it could the speed in time, but with a surprise attack from the rear there is only one way to describe the Salamander pilot - mullered.

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

Yes but that does not take from the fact that the Salamander was a bad design with the engine being above the fueslage the way it was and overall was not a very good jet fighter. It was inovative and many good design features but was overall a poor jet fighter.

 

[cheddar cheese]

Yup.

 

[Anonymous]

Yes, but it was just said that Jets cruised at roughly the same speeds as the fighters, and at that stage the P-51/Spit/P-47 had the upper hand. The advantage could only be gained by the 162 if it could the speed in time, but with a surprise attack from the rear there is only one way to describe the Salamander pilot - mullered.

I think the jets (262 and 162) cruised at about the top speeds of the prop fighters. Combat cruise that is, not best-fuel economy cruise. (A combat cruise is to preserve the engine).

And I agree it was not a particularly great "fighter", but neither was the 262. The 162 had the advantage of being cheap and only needing one engine. For the job it was designed to do, intercept bombers, it was sufficient.

=S=

Lunatic

 

[cheddar cheese]

The 262 was MUCH better at intercepting bombers though.

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

The 262 may have had some problems but it was still the best jet fighter of the second world war. The 162 does not even come close.

 

[cheddar cheese]

It's behind all the other lpanes in the poll at least.

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

It just was the best, in all catagories.

 

[the lancaster kicks ass]

exept perhaps manouverability......................

 

[cheddar cheese]

Go on then, what jet was better than the 262 at manoevering... *sigh*

 

[the lancaster kicks ass]

the glostor meteor................

 

[cheddar cheese]

And what makes you say that?

 

[Anonymous]

the glostor meteor................

The P-80. Perhaps the Metor.

The 262 was not a plane that could roll well at all. The engines were so far apart and so heavy...

=S=

Lunatic

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

I really dont think the Meteor was all that great of an aircraft. Explain to me how it was please. From what I have read it lagged in all areas against other jet aircraft. Now maybe later varients of the Meteor were pretty good but they came in too late in the war so in my opionion they dont count. The P-80 the same way it may have been a good jet aircraft but certainly not the best. Every aircraft has areas that it is weak in but overall if you take all areas to be considered, the 262 was the best of them all.

 

[Anonymous]

I really dont think the Meteor was all that great of an aircraft. Explain to me how it was please. From what I have read it lagged in all areas against other jet aircraft. Now maybe later varients of the Meteor were pretty good but they came in too late in the war so in my opionion they dont count. The P-80 the same way it may have been a good jet aircraft but certainly not the best. Every aircraft has areas that it is weak in but overall if you take all areas to be considered, the 262 was the best of them all.

The Meteor was probably a better "dogfighter", but it was not as fast by a significant margin, and it was even more underpowered. But it could roll and this is a huge factor in fighter-vs-fighter combat.

The P-80 was more of a traditional fighter. It had an excellent roll rate and rate of climb, and was much more of a dogfighter than the 262, and of comparable speed. Its big drawback was a defective fuel cap which would come off in flight and result in disaster.

=S=

Lunatic

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

I agree with what you said there. The 262 was a far better interceptor than a "fighter" in that sense.

 

[the lancaster kicks ass]

you're right, the -262 was a better all round fighter than the meteor, but combat against V-1s proved the meteor to be very manouverable.............

 

[cheddar cheese]

Why would that prove it manoeverable, V1's are unmanned so they dont try and evade enemy aircraft.

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

V-1 were very slow targets and easy to shoot down.