Best World War II Aircraft?

[Doughboy]

I dont base it of of a game, I just use the sim to get an idea of what it could be like.

How do you know its so awsome then?

It's considered to be the best plane of WWII and it was still in service in 1984!P-51 Mustang - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia



Here is what a vet said about it.

"Robert Goebel flew Mustangs with the 31st Fighter Group, based at San Severo, Italy, in the MTO (Mediterranean Theater of Operations). Like Bud Anderson, he had flown P-39s earlier on. At San Severo in Spring 1944, he got his first crack at the P-51:

We soon found out that the P-51 Mustang was indeed a different breed of airplane. It was fast, for one thing. ... The P-51 was redlined at 505 and, though it was no Spitfire, its turning ability wasn't bad at all - especially if you sneaked down 10 degrees of flaps. It was pretty good in the climbing department too, and accelerated very fast in a dive. But the thing that really set the Mustang apart from any other fighter, friend or foe, was its range. With a 75-gallon tank slung under each wing, it could perform the unheard-of: It could fly six-hour missions.

Physically, it was pleasing to the eye and looked fast, even sitting on the ground. Power was provided by a V-1650 Rolls-Royce Merlin engine built under license in the States by Packard, the luxury automobile company. The V-1650 was a fine engine and could be taken up to 61 inches of manifold pressure at 3,000 RPM for take-off or, if needed in combat, 67 inches for up to five minutes in Emergency Power. Normally aspirated engines tended to run out of power as altitude increased, usually between 15,000 and 20,000 feet.

The P-51 had a two-stage blower in the induction system that was controlled automatically with a barometric switch. Around 17,000 feet, when the throttle had been advanced almost all the way forward just to maintain normal cruise, the blower would kick into high, the manifold pressure would jump up, and the climb could be continued to 30,000 feet. The P-51 could be taken a lot higher than that, but above 30,000 feet the power was way down and the controls had to be handled gingerly. "

 

[Dark Matter]

Who considers it to be the best?

Thats their opinion.

 

[Doughboy]

Please, read this.

"The P-51 Mustang was the excellent long range fighter aircraft which since late 1943 was the first to provide US heavy bombers with the type of escort they needed in order to efficiently destroy Nazi Germany's war production. Unlike earlier shorter-range allied fighters used for bomber escort, like the Spitfire, the P-47 and the P-38, the new P-51 Mustang was the first fighter which:

Could escort the heavy bombers all the way to their targets very deep in Germany and back.
Was equal or better than the Luftwaffe's best fighters and could defeat them over their own territory.
With these two significant advantages, the P-51 Mustang dramatically reduced the losses of the heavy bombers, shot down an increasing number of German fighters, and eventually also attacked many ground targets, mostly small but important ground targets which were too small for the high flying heavy bomber formations.
It was a cycle which gradually and systematically eroded the Luftwaffe and achieved allied air superiority deep over Nazi Germany.

Many of the bombarded targets were directly related to the Luftwaffe's ability to keep fighting, for example aircraft factories, and the fuel industry, which was systematically decimated. So after each such massive bombardment the German industry could produce less new fighters to replace combat losses, and of the fewer fighters, even fewer were actually able to take off and intercept the heavy bombers and face their Mustang escorts, because they suffered an increasingly severe shortage of fuel, spare parts, etc.

As a result of that, fewer heavy bombers were shot down by the German fighters and so more and more bombers participated in those bombardments, further increasing their damage to the German industry and so on.

The ever smaller number of German fighters available for interception missions meant that the German fighters were increasingly outnumbered over their own territory. Instead of facing swarms of hundreds of Me-109s and Fw-190s, the heavy bombers and their Mustang escorts gradually met smaller numbers of German fighters and were able to shoot down more of them, literally decimating the Luftwaffe, and further reducing losses among the heavy bombers.

Once local air superiority around the bomber formations was achieved, the P-51 Mustang pilots were able to go to the next step, storming Luftwaffe airfields and other ground targets and ambushing the German fighters at takeoff and landing.

This tactic was especially efficient against the Luftwaffe's new "wonder weapons", the new jet and rocket fighters. At high altitude and at full speed, the Mustang could not chase the much faster Me-262 jet fighters, so instead the Mustang pilots followed the German jets to their airfields where they shot them down as they descended at low speed for landing.

Over all, it was a classic example of a strategic campaign to achieve air superiority by destroying the enemy Air Force's ground infrastructures and by massively engaging it in the air while doing so.

The presence of the Mustangs over the heart of Germany also pulled a significant part of the Luftwaffe's tactical fighter squadrons from the war fronts to the center of Germany, which meant that tactical aircraft of The Allies could smash German ground units, especially German armor, with much greater ease.

The other great benefit of the air campaign over Germany, which was its goal in the first place, was that the huge formations of heavy bombers, efficiently protected by the P-51 Mustang "Little friends", were able to efficiently bring the mighty German war machine to a standstill. German war production of all types was significantly damaged and just like the grounded German jets, the German tanks in the battlefield also suffered extreme shortage of fuel and spare parts. For example, many of Germany's new mighty King Tiger tanks were simply abandoned in the field for lack of fuel.

One of the most successful fighter projects ever, the P-51 Mustang was North American's first fighter project. It was initially ordered in 1940 by the Royal Air Force which used it as a ground attack aircraft thanks to its high speed at low altitude and its long range. In 1942 the British made an experiment. They installed their superb 1500hp Rolls-Royce Merlin fighter engine in four Mustangs and tested them. The result was spectacular, clearly an excellent fighter, with an unprecedented range of 2080 miles (3347km) with external fuel tanks. This was the aircraft which later dominated the sky over Germany.

It was produced in very large numbers in several successively improved types. A total of 15,586 Mustangs were produced, and almost 8000 of them were of the most popular D type, which had a tear-drop shaped cockpit canopy. It had a high altitude speed of 704 km/h (437mph). It was armed with six 0.5" machine guns. Not a heavy armament compared with other fighters, but definitely enough against enemy fighters, its main target, and for strafing unarmored ground targets. For ground attack missions it could also carry two 1000lb bombs instead of the external fuel tanks, or six 5" rockets.

After World War 2 the Mustang served in no less than 55 air forces worldwide, and although it was the supersonic jet age by then, small numbers were even produced in 1967 for various military purposes, another proof of how excellent this aircraft was.

The most famous Mustang pilot and ace is Chuck Yeager. Yeager was the ultimate fighter pilot. As a young Mustang pilot he once downed five German fighters in one mission. He downed two much faster Me-262 jet fighters, escaped captivity after being shot down over occupied France, and when the war ended, it was still just the beginning of his amazing career. After the war Yeager became a test pilot, and in 1947 he earned his place in the history books as the first man who "broke the sound barrier" in the daring first supersonic flight. "

 

[Dark Matter]

Opinions!!!

The person who decided to biuld it in 1967 had an opinion it was the best.

 

[Doughboy]

It (P-51) had an 11:1 kill-to-loss ratio.....That seems to prove it was a great fighter.

BTW,So how many of these planes have you flown? If you can't trust what the vets said about it, then you have a problem.

 

[Dark Matter]

Yea but who was the P-51 fighting?

Inexperienced germans and japanese?

 

[Doughboy]

Opinions!!!

The person who decided to biuld it in 1967 had an opinion it was the best.

Okay, so what evidence do you have that the P-51 wasn't a good plane?

 

[Doughboy]

Yea but who was the P-51 fighting?

Inexperienced Germans and Japanese?

No, the P-51 flew the first time in 1940....The Germans and Japanese had very good pilots up to about 1944-1945.

 

[Dark Matter]

Then why did the japanese do kamakazi attacks if they were so good?

 

[Doughboy]

Then why did the japanese do kamakazi attacks if they were so good?

I said up to about 1944-1945......


P.S You have yet to post a single bit of proof that the P-51 wasn't a good plane....and don't try to base the proof off a video game!

 

[Dark Matter]

Why dont you compare the P-51 to the F8F on wikipedia and find out.

I'l be back with some more facts.

 

[Waynos]

Then why did the japanese do kamakazi attacks if they were so good?

They didn't do it all the time, it wasn't a standard tactic of theirs. P-51's also faced hardened LW pilots defending their own country from US daylight bombing raids. No picnic there.

 

[vikingBerserker]

You do realize the F8F did not see in combat in WWII?

 

[Doughboy]

Why dont you compare the P-51 to the F8F on wikipedia and find out.

I'l be back with some more facts.

The F8F had little to no service in ww2........Let me guess....Next you are going to compare it to the F86- Sabre?

"You do realize the F8F did not see in combat in WWII? "

Exactly!

 

[Waynos]

Why dont you compare the P-51 to the F8F on wikipedia and find out.

I'l be back with some more facts.

The F8F missed the war, the P-51 fought in about two thirds of it. Why would you think thats a valid comparison? otherwise why not compare the P-51 with the Hawker Hunter to show it was bad?

Is there an echo in here

 

[Dark Matter]

"Heavy losses were suffered by American airmen in these raids due to the mustangs inability to withstand battle damage"

I'm getting some mor facts....

Heres some more:
http://www.wwiiaircraftperformance.org/

Go down to P-51 vs the F4U.

 

[Waynos]

No, you show something that says 'The P-51 was not one of WWII's greatest aircraft' for this is the point you are arguing with. All major combatant types suffered losses, thats what happens in war.

 

[vikingBerserker]

It compares the P-51B

 

[Dark Matter]

What about it?

 

[vikingBerserker]

It's an early version, IMHO if you are going to judge the P-51, you should start with at least the D version.