Greatest Fighter Aircraft of All Time (1 Viewer)

[CurzonDax]

Here is the entry from www.naval-history.net. They had, according to this, Corsairs and Hellcats too.

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"MARCH 1945

Okinawa 1945 - Royal Navy Campaign Honour

British Pacific Fleet - On the 15th, Adm Rawlings signals from Manus to Adm Nimitz that the British Pacific Fleet is ready to join Adm Spruance's Fifth Fleet. Now known as Task Force 57, battleships "King George V" and "Howe", carriers "Illustrious", "Indefatigable", "Indomitable" and "Victorious", five cruisers including the New Zealand "Gambia" and 11 destroyers, two Australian sail for Ulithi to refuel. On the 26th they are on station off the Sakishima Islands in the Ryukyu group. Their mission is to prevent the islands being used as staging posts for Japanese reinforcements flying from Formosa to Okinawa. BPF's main weapon is of course not the battleships, but the Seafires and American-made Avengers, Hellcats and Corsairs of the carriers' strike squadrons. They start their attacks that day."

I also agree Gnomey, the RN used Corsairs on carriers before the USN and USMC did and proved thier feasability.

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[evangilder]

Yep, as a matter of fact, it was the Brits who taught the Americans how to land a Corsair on a carrier. Not something that I would want to do!

 

[syscom3]

I should have phrased my response "why use the seafires at all if they had Hellcats and Corsairs".

The Seafire was definatley not a carrier aircraft.

 

[Gnomey]

Neither was the Corsair until the Brits showed the Yanks how to use it as one

 

[CurzonDax]

So here is the choice, land on a pitching deck with the Spit's narrow gear or the Corsair's loooong nose. I think I would prefer to have Scotty transport me.

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[syscom3]

The Brits get kudo's in figuring out how to land the Corsair on the deck of a carrier.

Its also too bad the Seafury was not ready untill after the war.

 

[loomaluftwaffe]

indeed the earlier corsairs did look impossible to land on carriers, not to mention its huge propeller

 

[the lancaster kicks ass]

the large propeller was the reason for the gull wing, it was the best way of keeping the prop from eating up the deck and still keep what would otherwise have to be long fragile gear short and stronger...........

 

[loomaluftwaffe]

correct, hadnt that wing been bent the Japs wouldnt have that many nightmares about US planes

 

[CurzonDax]

So having to come at a almost 90 degree angle to the deck and then have to turn to land on the deck and still try to hit the 2 wire is too much fun for me. Add to that battle damage, weather, pilot exhaustion, and just plain having a bad monday, these pilots have my respect.

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[syscom3]

correct, hadnt that wing been bent the Japs wouldnt have that many nightmares about US planes

The F6F gave them plenty of nightmares.

 

[loomaluftwaffe]

ya, but you still would have more nightmares if there were 2 evil bunnies trying 2 kill you rather than 1 right?

 

[lonestarman63]

needs little support and can handle many roles, yet can be anywhere where as the others need to have a base or field

 

[loomaluftwaffe]

needs little support? dude havent u heard of heat-seeking SAMs?
others need to have a base, so u mean the harrier doesnt need a base?

a harrier without fuel or weapon's only use is something to use for cover if ur being shot at

 

[the lancaster kicks ass]

i believe he was refering to the corsair and it's ability to operate off carriers..............

 

[loomaluftwaffe]

look at his post carefully... it says "post subject: harrier"

 

[the lancaster kicks ass]

oh yeah... no one ever actually looks at though cos very few people use it......

but he means that not only can the harrier operate from carriers, she doesn't need a prepared runway to operate, she proberly has the best rough feild abilities of any front line aircraft, that being said sometimes she doesn't even need a field, 100ft of any ground and she's away, she can land on the spot and her remarkable ability to operate from forests even! means she can be placed close to the front and the enemy wont even know they're there, whereas they spot all the planes sitting by the runway with their satalites..........

and heat seaking SAMs are a threat to any aircraft, i'm willing to guess that due to no big exausts at the rear with afterburners she has less heat signature than most planes, admitedly more speed would be helpful in evading them but in saying that the on;y plane that could really outrun missiles on a regular basis was the SR-71...........

having said all this however i feel that we should discuss the sea harriers and not the RAF harriers as they're used in the Ground attack role, the sea harriers being used as fighters and ground attack............

 

[loomaluftwaffe]

a list of greatest ever fighters isnt complete with the harrier

 

[loomaluftwaffe]

So having to come at a almost 90 degree angle to the deck and then have to turn to land on the deck and still try to hit the 2 wire is too much fun for me. Add to that battle damage, weather, pilot exhaustion, and just plain having a bad monday, these pilots have my respect.

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what was the standard procedure to land a corsair?

 

[johnny]

No Defiant there either!!!