Catch22
Major
As Dan put it, the old one's soggy and the results are bogus. Plus it's missing the best Japanese planes, so time for a new one. Hope I didn't mess this one up. I think I got the major ones, but if I missed anything, let me know.
Best Pacific Fighter II
- Thread starter Catch22
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- Thread starter
- #2
Catch22
Major
The Corsair. It had better performance values than anything in theater, indeed, almost anything in existence (other than jets of course) plus was an excellent ground attack plane. Basically a near perfect all in one plane, and it's not a "jack of all trades, master of none", as it was superb at both and WAS the master (in the PTO and in my mind anyway) in regards to fighters.
Doughboy
Staff Sergeant
Corsair.... It had manueverability, speed,and firepower....In fact, It was pretty much good for everything.
diddyriddick
Staff Sergeant
I'll go with the Corsair. Not to take anything away from the P-38, but since the F4U was carrier capable, it has a huge leg up.
syscom3
Pacific Historian
But the P38 had the range to go where the F4U's couldnt go when there were no carriers.
Vassili Zaitzev
Master Sergeant
The Hellcat, not as good as the F4U, but it was used on a carrier before the corsair.
renrich
Chief Master Sergeant
But the P38 could not land or take off from a carrier. The Corsair also took less fuel, less maintenance, was easier for a low time pilot to get proficient in combat in, was a better dive bomber and was a much smaller target for groundfire or enemy AC fire. I don't know what the loss rate of the P38 was but doubt it was as good as the Corsair's.
Vassili Zaitzev
Master Sergeant
P-38 could take off a carrier? Interesting.
DBII
Senior Master Sergeant
I have seen, P-40s, P-47, P-51s, Spitefires and Hurricanes. I think that I read about the Bf-109 being design for capapult launching. I don't remember see the P-38 on a carrier.
DBII
DBII
- Thread starter
- #10
Catch22
Major
How does that make it a better plane though?
The British seemed to do just fine with it before the US, it was just in landing doctrine. Performance-wise, the Corsair beats the Hellcat in every area (except maybe climb rate and turn rate, I'm not up on those stats, but certainly speed, range, and payload).As for P-38s taking off from a carrier, it's certainly possible. Taking off isn't the problem, it's landing that's the issue.
renrich
Chief Master Sergeant
It is not productive to spend time saying this or that landbased plane could takeoff or land on a carrier. What is important was whether an AC could successfully conduct operations from a carrier. P47s were launched from a carrier, Hurricanes(not Sea Hurricanes) landed on a carrier without arresting gear, a P51 was launched and recovered from a carrier. That did not make any of those land based planes a carrier borne fighter.
vikingBerserker
Lieutenant General
I believe it was the Bf-109N designed for the Graf Zepplin
vikingBerserker
Lieutenant General
Overall I would have to say Hellcat simply because of it's combat record.
syscom3
Pacific Historian
But a majority of those kills were against poorly trained Japanese pilots.
It was the Corsair, Wildcat and the P40 that really gutted the best pilots the Japanese had.
Vassili Zaitzev
Master Sergeant
How does that make it a better plane though?
As for P-38s taking off from a carrier, it's certainly possible. Taking off isn't the problem, it's landing that's the issue.
Perhaps I jumped the gun, I'm more of a hellcat then corsair fan. I'll admit, the F4U had the better performance.
Besides, I have a tendency to root for the underdog.
snafud1
Senior Airman
The Hellcat entered combat service before the Corsair did(by 3 months) so they had plenty of experienced pilots to fight. Cosair had a 11:1 kill ratio but the Hellcat had more kills. The only real advantage the Helcat had over the Corsair was ruggedness. The Hellcat could take more punishment.l
snafud1
Senior Airman
I guess what I'm saying is the Cosair was the best all around fighter in the Pacific. JMO.
vikingBerserker
Lieutenant General
I have to disagree, even after Midway the IJN was still a formidable force, and it certainly did not effect the IJ Army's combat aircraft.
I thought the Corsair went into action around the same time the Hellcat did.
While I think the Corsair, Wildcat, and P-40 were great planes, I just don't see any data where they shot down a massive amount of enemy planes, even trained ones.
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- Thread starter
- #20
Catch22
Major
The Corsair entered service before the Hellcat, but only by a few months. The reason the Hellcat has such a high kill ratio too is because the Navy didn't use the Corsair, as only the Marines did, until '45 (minus VF-17, but they were basically a Marine unit in function as they flew off of land bases). Swap places and I think the ratio would have been higher towards the Corsair instead.
Performance wise, nothing in the PTO beats the F4U.
I'm probably a little biased, I admit that, but I'm not delusional or anything haha.
