davebender
1st Lieutenant
The F8F will be deployed on USN aircraft carriers. Unless the USN enters the Baltic I don't see much scope for it to engage the Luftwaffe.
Ad: This forum contains affiliate links to products on Amazon and eBay. More information in Terms and rules
The F8F will be deployed on USN aircraft carriers. Unless the USN enters the Baltic I don't see much scope for it to engage the Luftwaffe.Grumman F8F Bearcat and whip everyones' tail feathers!
Perhaps so. However if I have a speed advantage of 25 to 50 mph I would probably boom zoom. It's inheritly safer then entering an aerial furball. Erich Hartmann scored 352 kills this way and lived to write a book about it. 8)
The Ta-152H powered by the Jumo 213EB takes the prize IMHO. With 2500 hp and a top speed of over 500 mph there was no other piston engined fighter which could rival it.
davebender said:Kurt Tank, the designer of the Ta-152, when interviewed, claimed to have evaded siz Mustangs while flying the Ta-152, by virtue of its superior speed. He revealed that a planned version of the aircraft featuring a Jumo 222 engine would reach 500 mph.
CAC also built an advanced piston fighter named the "CA-15", powered by the Rolls-Royce Griffon engine, that clearly had Mustang influence though it could hardly be confused as a variant of the type. It looked something like a mutant Mustang on steroids.
The CA-15 began life in 1942 with studies for a follow-on to the Commonwealth Boomerang, a fighter that the Australians had put together hastily at the beginning of the war, using the North American T-6 Texan trainer as a starting point. The Boomerang was a much better machine than could have possibly been suggested by its humble origins and provided excellent service in the South Pacific theater, but there was no way to make much more of it than it was.
Further studies on a next-generation fighter continued through 1943, though as CAC was working towards Mustang production at the time, the company didn't have many resources to spare and the investigation didn't go anywhere in a hurry. The RAAF finally issued a specification in 1944, calling for a much more capable machine than the Mustang.
Commonwealth originally considered using a turbocharged Pratt Whitney R-2800 Double Wasp air-cooled double-row radial engine, but there were doubts that the Australians could get their hands on such engines in adequate numbers. CAC then turned to the Rolls-Royce Griffin water-cooled vee inline engine. In 1945, CAC decided to build a prototype of the "CA-15" with a turbosupercharged Griffin 61 engine with 2,035 horsepower at altitude, and obtained two Griffin 61s from Britain on loan. Production was to use the more powerful Griffin 125, then under development,
A general verbal description of the CA-15 matches that of the P-51D almost perfectly. The CA-15 was a low-wing, all-metal fighter with a vee inline engine driving a four-bladed prop; taildragger landing gear, with the main gear pivoting in the wings toward the fuselage and a retractable tailwheel; a cooling scoop under the fuselage; and a bubble canopy.
Armament fit was to be three 12.7 millimeter Browning machine guns in each wing, for a total of six guns, though other gun fits were considered; a single stores pylon under each wing for a 450 kilogram (1,000 pound) bomb or a drop tank, for a total of two stores pylons; or five rails under each wing for rocket projectiles, for a total of ten rails.
However, the CA-15's proportions were entirely distinct from those of the Mustang, and in fact the CA-15 also had a certain resemblance to the Republic XP-72 derivative of the P-47 Thunderbolt. One of the most noticeable oddities was the undersized bubble canopy, which looked like something that would be fitted to an air racer.
Initial flight of the CA-15 was on 4 March 1946, with test pilot Jim Schofield at the controls. Trials showed the machine, which was informally named the "Kangaroo", possessed excellent performance, though its controls were on the heavy side and it unsurprisingly demonstrated strong propeller torque on takeoff. Trying to get up into the cockpit to fly the thing in the first place was a bit of chore as well.
COMMONWEALTH CA-15 "KANGAROO":
_____________________ _________________ _______________________
spec metric english
_____________________ _________________ _______________________
wingspan 10.97 meters 36 feet
length 11.04 meters 36 feet 2 inches
height 4.32 meters 14 feet 2 inches
empty weight 3,420 kilograms 7,540 pounds
max takeoff weight 5,597 kilograms 12,340 pounds
max speed at altitude 720 KPH 450 MPH / 390 KT
service ceiling 11,900 meters 39,000 feet
range, internal fuel 1,850 kilometers 1,150 MI / 1,000 NMI
_____________________ _________________ _______________________
A mechanical failure led to a wheels-up landing on 10 December 1946. The pilot, Lee Archer, was unhurt, but the aircraft was badly damaged. By this time, jet fighters were clearly the way of the future, and CAC didn't get the CA-15 flying again until the spring of 1948. On 25 May, Archer dropped the Kangaroo into a dive and then leveled out, to set a speed record of 808.2 KPH (502.2 MPH) for the machine.
Performance would have been even better had the Double Wasp or Griffon 125 been fitted, but even at that any leading-edge jet fighter of the time could leave the Kangaroo in the dust. The CA-15 performed limited further test flights until the spring of 1950, when it was finally grounded due to lack of spares and then dismantled. The Griffon engines were returned to Britain.
as Tank did not fly an H model it is not known 100 % if he had MW-50 installed in his C-0 variant he was flying,, if so yes he would of sped away. but to confirm that he had 6 P-51's on his butt is a bit much. there is of course the possibility that this story is nothing but myth to help promote the qualities of the little know to be fighter
Right. I don't want this to be an "X" plane competition. THIS HAS BEEN EDITED. Lets keep all of these plane in the mix.
As I see it right now; Ta 152
F7f
F8f
P-51h
P-47N
Yak 9U
Spiteful
Sea Fury
Do 335
That is some serious hardware! Any would be a fine aircraft. I think the sleeper may well be the Yak, it was a real performer.
I daresay most WW2 kills were done this way - very unsporting.
How long are you expecting the European war to last? After another year of fighting the entire continent will be rubble and no longer worth fighting over.