Greatest Fighter Pilot in World War II..... UPDATED

[GermansRGeniuses]

Russian planes may not have been the best, granted, but they werent too bad. I think their pilots were amazing though, managing to get the best out of poor machinery (Kozhedub and Pokryshin for example).

Nah, just Pokryshin...


The La-5/7's were amazing, they were a bit like the Zero down low, due to their great turning...


Except for one thing, the La series was actually fast throughout the war, unlike the bloody Zero, which they only started revamping it at the end!

Also, the La-7's optional three B20 20mm cannons are powerful, as well as concentrated to make kills come a lot easier...

 

[lesofprimus]

Good point's GrG... Kozhedub never flew a P-39 CC.....

I do believe tho that the Russian Aircraft were inferior to the Germans on the ETO, but, thats not saying that the La-5/7 and the Yak-3/9 were crap..... They were good fighters....

Just that there were many inexperienced Russian pilots flying those fighters that never knew what hit em when Bar or Rall come sweeping outta the sky and burst ur fuel tank with 85 rounds......

Boom...... Your dead... Another tally for Hartmanns rudder.....

There were a handful of solid pilots in Russia that stayed alive for more than 20 sorties.... These guys became their top aces.....There are not alot of Russian aces compared to the # of German Aces on the ETO..... #'s dont lie in this case....

 

[Anonymous]

Also, the La-7's optional three B20 20mm cannons are powerful, as well as concentrated to make kills come a lot easier...

The B-20 armament was not "optional". These guns came into operations only very late in the war, and were in short supply. The La7-FNV was armed with them in about Feb. 1945 IIRC, and there were about 377 of these planes, almost all (if not all) of them assigned to Stalin's gaurd protecting Stalingrad and Moscow (which were no longer subject to Luftwaffe' attack). It is questionable if any saw combat action in WWII, and if they did, it was probably only a few used for combat evaluation.

Realistically, the La7-FN was the WWII La7, and it was armed with 2 x ShVAK 20mm cannon with 200 rpg (as opposed to 150 rpg on the B20's) and a slightly weaker engine (1 min of WEP used for takeoff). It was still an excellent fighter.

=S=

Lunatic

 

[BigEd]

Eino Juutilainen should be nominated as the best pilot of WWI. Why? He had 94 ariel victories, 34 of them in the Brewester Buffalo (export model, which was worse that the one the US Navy used). The rest of his victories was in the German Bf109. Throught his career, his aircraft was never touched by a bullet or fragment in any air-to-air engagement. This is a very remarkable feat, considering the conditions under which he was flying. 8)

http://www.au.af.mil/au/goe/eaglebios/84bios/juutil84.htm

 

[the lancaster kicks ass]

it had to engage the WEP for take off??

 

[Anonymous]

it had to engage the WEP for take off??

I don't know if "had to" is apporporiate, but that was the only place the -FN version is listed as having used its max power setting. It was limited to 1 minute at takeoff.

Remember, Soviets took off from short fields of poor quality, so a short takeoff was very important.

=S=

Lunatic

 

[the lancaster kicks ass]

the lyslander didn't have to engage WEP (ok so it didn't have any...) for take off over short distances, muct be because it's british..............

 

[plan_D]

You'd at least spell it right, Lysander. Did you know they used them as bombers in Burma?

 

[Lightning Guy]

Bomb load was rather light though, wasn't it?

 

[plan_D]

In the region of 600 lbs, extremely light bombers. They achieved some minor successes, and those 4 squadrons during Fall Gelb achieved some amazing success. Amazing success to say they were in Lysanders, one shot down a Hs 126 while his gunner shot down a Stuka. Some were credited with 109 kills.

http://www.wwiitechpubs.info/hangar...d-lysander/ac-uk-ac-westland-lysander-br.html

 

[Anonymous]

the lyslander didn't have to engage WEP (ok so it didn't have any...) for take off over short distances, muct be because it's british..............

That's just a silly comment. Make the runway short enough and it would... or w/o WEP it would not take off.

Most planes did not use WEP to take off. But most planes of a similar weight could not take off from fields as short as those the La7 could.

 

[GermansRGeniuses]

Eino Juutilainen should be nominated as the best pilot of WWI. Why? He had 94 ariel victories, 34 of them in the Brewester Buffalo (export model, which was worse that the one the US Navy used). The rest of his victories was in the German Bf109. Throught his career, his aircraft was never touched by a bullet or fragment in any air-to-air engagement. This is a very remarkable feat, considering the conditions under which he was flying. 8)

http://www.au.af.mil/au/goe/eaglebios/84bios/juutil84.htm

Actually, the B-239 was WORLDS better than the F2A-2...


Reflector sight, better armament, more range, more powerful engine.


Whats worse about it?

 

[Porco14]

Regarding Kozhedub's skirmish with P-51s.

Here is gun camera with two downed P-51s. The book I took it from tells that one of mustang pilots bailed out and later said that they mistook La-7 for "FW-190 with red nose" and opened fire from the long distance.

The second pic shows Kozhedub with fellow pilots in Andun, Korea, 1951. Left to right: B. Abakumov (5 kills), B. Bokach (8 kills), I. Kozhedub, F. Shebanov (6 kills), B. Nazarkin. Kozhedub did not fly himself in Korea, at least officially.

 

[the lancaster kicks ass]

the lyslander didn't have to engage WEP (ok so it didn't have any...) for take off over short distances, muct be because it's british..............

That's just a silly comment. Make the runway short enough and it would... or w/o WEP it would not take off.

Most planes did not use WEP to take off. But most planes of a similar weight could not take off from fields as short as those the La7 could.

dude learn to take a joke and some british humour.............

 

[plan_D]

Brilliant, Porco. There you go, America did wrong and got punished for it.

 

[lesofprimus]

Great shot Porco. I had seen that pic before, but have been unable to find a copy on the internet.. THX!!!!!!

 

[Anonymous]

Regarding Kozhedub's skirmish with P-51s.

Here is gun camera with two downed P-51s. The book I took it from tells that one of mustang pilots bailed out and later said that they mistook La-7 for "FW-190 with red nose" and opened fire from the long distance.

The second pic shows Kozhedub with fellow pilots in Andun, Korea, 1951. Left to right: B. Abakumov (5 kills), B. Bokach (8 kills), I. Kozhedub, F. Shebanov (6 kills), B. Nazarkin. Kozhedub did not fly himself in Korea, at least officially.

Hmm.. I'd read that both P-51 pilots were killed. Very interesting, I will have to research this a bit more. But you must admit the first shot looks like a classic bounce attack right out of the sun. Given this position and angle, surely the La7 pilot knew these were not German planes, so why didn't he just exit the fight?

Hell... both these P-51's still have their drop tanks on! As far as i'm concerned that totally confirms my suspsicion. The story that they pursued him and would not back off is a lie - P-51's with drop tanks could not possibly keep up with an La7!

 

[Porco14]

The story goes like that: Kozhedub saw FW-190 near lone B-17 and engaged. P-51 flew escort (?) and saw radial engine fighter near B-17 and decided that was FW-190 too and opened fire. La engaged.

As for why he didn't pull off - it's quite safe and easy to give such advise sitting in the soft chair 50 years after. That day he found himself with two guys shooting at him, and fought back.

He was not happy about this either. He never claimed these kills.

 

[Anonymous]

The story goes like that: Kozhedub saw FW-190 near lone B-17 and engaged. P-51 flew escort (?) and saw radial engine fighter near B-17 and decided that was FW-190 too and opened fire. La engaged.

As for why he didn't pull off - it's quite safe and easy to give such advise sitting in the soft chair 50 years after. That day he found himself with two guys shooting at him, and fought back.

He was not happy about this either. He never claimed these kills.

As I said, when I've read of this event before, it was stated neither P-51 pilot survived. So we only have the one side of the story.

I'm pretty sure that if one of the P-51 pilots had survived we'd have a record of his side of the story as well.

As far as I know, no side gave credit for friendly fire kills, so it was not something he could "claim" even if he wished to.

Edit: And I think it is very telling that the P-51's still have their drop tanks on in the guncam footage. This means they were not in combat mode, thus totally disputing the Russian pilots claims that they would not break off the engagement. I think it is damn clear from the footage that the Russian pilot simply bounced the two P-51's and shot them down - they may even have known he was there and not expected the attack.

=S=

Lunatic

 

[Porco14]

Does anybody knows what unit those planes were from? Who were the pilots? And when all this happened? The book states only "April 1945", no particular date.