Best U.S night fighter

[wmaxt]

Belive it or not Kelly Johnson rode their many times, in pictures he looks to be around 6ft and 200lbs in his P-38 years.

Does anybody have figures on the F6F and F4Us They flew fairly extensively in the theaters against Japan.

wmaxt

 

[Marshall_Stack]

Did they give any reasons why they wanted the P61?

It sounded like the mousie was better than the P61.

I have a book on the P-61 and it stated that a U.S. nightfighter squadron was going to receive the Mosquito because of negative reports on the P-61. A contest was held between the two aircraft and it was shown that the P-61 was more maneuverable.

I also believe that they would prefer U.S. aircraft. With a British aircraft, you would be flying on the wrong side of the sky!

P.S. sorry for the lame joke..

 

[mosquitoman]

The only 2 purpose-built nightfighters were the Beau and the Black Widow, of these the Beau was better.

For night ground attack the P-61 was better but IMO the Mossie was better

 

[Burmese Bandit]

The US did very little night fighting in WW II...

For the design strengths alone, the P-61 wins hands down.

The only 2 purpose-built nightfighters were the Beau and the Black Widow, of these the Beau was better.

For night ground attack the P-61 was better but IMO the Mossie was better

The Beau was better? How can U say that? Look at the vision fields of the crew members in the P-61 versus the Beau! The Radar systems! And the Beau did not the the option of a belly attack...wheras the top turret of the P-51 gave that option, though it wasn't AFAIK actually used in War Two.

 

[Glider]

The top turret was often removed which wouldn't have helped.

 

[Burmese Bandit]

Not in the later versions! They had the buffeting problem solved by then....