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I could agree with that!Why not Meteor Mk III? 616 Sqn got its first Mk IIIs in Dec 44, so its clearly a WWII fighter, not that would change the result of the comparation because at least on paper Me 262 was still better but the performance gap was substantially narrower against derwent powered Mk III. But also Mk III was handicapped with snaking and heavy ailerons.
I believe the DO 335 had reverse thrust, a highly sophisticated production aircraft that might have seen limited action at the end of the war.Sometimes, but your enemy sees airbrakes deploying. Reverse thrust or even thrust vectoring in flight is rather faster.
In WW2?
The Meteor mk IIIs that were delivered in December 44 were supposedly only a few mph faster due to the more aerodynamic canopy, remember, the first 15 were still equipped with two wellend jets, Meteor mk Is could do about 410 mph, from memory, the operational mkIIIs could do 420 mph.
some have suggested that they were able to get derwent engines of a reduced thrust(1800 pounds)into service before the war ended, I have no independent knowledge of this.
The MkIII as tested in 1946,with 2000 pnd thrust Derwents... was 90 mph slower than the 262 at 20000ft(its best altitude) and between 120 and 150 mph at 30000ft...
The cannon troubles were solved fast but otherwise I agree the Meteor points.British Jet aircraft development does seem to have been very slack. Gloster with its admittedly small team spent 4 years and came up with the Meteor III that snaked, had gun troubles and after several versions still needed a new tail and engine nacselles. DeHavilland seem to have developed the Spider Crab/Vampire almost as an after work hobby project at one point just 2 men were working on it in the drawing office.
I wonder what other companies could have come up with if given plenty of resources to design and build a fighter. My favourite would be Miles aviation though as they were known for some pretty wacky designs its possible they would have turned out a Bat wing Canard or have the Pilot sat underneath the engines.
The cannon troubles were solved fast but otherwise I agree the Meteor points.
One explanation might be that British knew at least after July 44 that war will be won with the planes in production or in pipeline, so no need to put too much scare resources on jet development, jets would not change anything and probably would not be ready in significant numbers before VE-day. Japan was a different matter and that's why they put effort in DH 103 Hornet and Arvo Lincoln. Meteor and Vampire might well have seen as intermin a/c and more effort were put to more refined Supermarine and Hawker projects. And after the war GB was broke and Labour gov wanted to put resources available to built up a welfare state, not military equipment.
I... Without being too harsh on Glosters they were small compared to Hawkers, Supermarine and others and probably got the design job as they had no other orders.
The MiG-15 had the same ability, however, it's the pilot that makes or breaks an encounter.
If the aggressor doesn't anticipate his quarry's moves, then his ass will get handed to him.
By the way, the air brakes aboard a MiG-15:
View attachment 303163
We don't know what the MiG's airspeed was, if he had built up too much speed for the attack as the Meteor was decelerating, then an overshoot was inevitable...regardless of the airbrake configuration. And I have read elsewhere that the MiG-15's airbrakes were actually quite effective, so it certainly appears that the attacking MiG had built up too much speed in the attack.The Meteor airbrakes were evidently more effective than the MiG...
The Me 262 didn't have airbrakes...
and six MiG 15s.
The Meteor airbrakes were evidently more effective than the MiG
Korean War MiG Claims
During the time that the "Honchos" (the nickname given by the Sabre pilots to excellent MiG pilots) were in Korea, between April 1951 and January 1952, they shot down or damaged beyond repair 158 UN aircraft against 68 losses, an overall 2:1 kill ratio. Their most successful month was October 1951, when the Soviet MiG-15s bagged 8 F-86s, 6 F-84Es, 2 RF-80As and one F-80C, one Meteor and 10 B-29As -25 victories- and suffered only 8 MiGs lost, achieving a 3:1 kill-to-losses ratio. During that period over 30 Soviet MiG-15 pilots became aces, among them Nikolai Sutyagin (21 kills); and also Yevgeni Pepelyayev (19), Lev Shchukin (17), the already mentioned Sergei Kramarenko (13), Mikhail Ponomaryev (11), Dmitri Samoylov (10), etc.
Korean War Aces - Axis History Forum
…However, most of the claims of the four top scoring aces -Sutyagin, Pepelyayev, Shchukin and Kramarenko- proved to be very reliable, as did the claims of several other aces, e.g. Aleksandr Smorchkov, Stepan Bahayev and Dmitri Samoylov. Further, the overall 2:1 kill ratio of the "Honcho Period" clearly shows that the Russian Aces at that time gained at least a slight edge against their skillful American counterparts.
So, why did the Russian pilots in Korea score so high? It is an interesting question, and it has more than a possible answer. One of them is because - at least in 1951- they were using better tactics:
• The Soviet fighters were guided to the air battlefield by good ground control, which directed them to the most advantageous position.
• The MiG-15s always operated in pairs, as part of a team called "the sword and the shield," with an attacking leader ("the sword") covered by a wingman ("the shield").
• The squadrons operated in 6-plane groups, divided in 3 pairs, each composed of a leader and a wingman:
1. The first pair ("the sword pair") of MiG-15s attacked the enemy Sabres.
2. The second pair ("the shield pair") protected the first pair.
3. The third pair remained above, with a panoramic view of how the battle evolved, supporting the "sword pair" or the "shield pair" depending the situation. This pair had more freedom than the others, because it could also attack targets of opportunity, such as lone Sabres that had lost their wingmen.
Experience was also a key factor, and the Russian pilots had a great deal of it. Most of the regimental and squadron commanders in 1951 were WW2 aces, e.g. Georgii Lobov (19 victories), Aleksandr Vasko (15 kills), Aleksandr Kumanichkin (30), Grigorii Ohay (6). So, the Russian pilots were as experienced as the best American WW2 Aces of the 4th and 51st Wings, like Francis Gabreski, Glenn Eagleston, Walker Mahurin, Robert Thyng, George Davis and many others...
Russian Aces of the Korean War - MiG-15 Pilots versus USAF F-86s
There's been several post about this subject through out this forum. These authors fail to mention that many of the Soviet pilots were withdrawn later in the war and at least one squadron received heavy losses, this was mentioned by No Kum-sok after his 1953 defection. Although there were overclaims on both sides it is more likely the Soviets did more of it because not only was failure not on option (remember Joe Stalin was still in charge and lack of results could result in a midnight visit by the KGB) but the Soviet pilots were compensated well for their time in Korea. The rand Corporation did a study about this subject in 2008 and came up with a ratio of slightly below 2 to 1 for USAF F-86s vs MiG-15s or all types and about a 1 to 1 ratio against the Soviets. As you point out the Soviets probably did have a 3 to 1 ratio during the beginning of the war and that was probably accurate against all types.
Based on the more credible data available IMO the F-86 "probably" had an actual kill ratio between 4-6 to 1 against the MiG-15 and between 1 to 2 to 1 against the Soviets by the time the crease fire was put in place. I seen at least one Soviet claim of something like 500 to 700 F-80s shot down when at any given time there were never more than 175 F-80 in country at one time!