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Hi AmselI agree with what your saying about performance but have to seriously question your logic concerning Honduras's choice in a/c being an F4U and not the F6F. That may be true but other factors may have been taken into consideration.
It would be interesting to find out about the fate of those Hellcats.Of course, without knowing the eventual fate of both types whilst in Argentine and Uruguayan service (eg maybe most of the F6Fs were written off accident/damaged/lack of maintenance spares/military action) it remains speculation as to why it was the F4U that showed up on the inventories of the poorer economies' airforces, rather than the F6F.
Both the F6F and the F4U were still active in various airforces until at least the early to mid-60s.
You're right Bill. I wasn't sure if all of McCampbell's kills were in the Hellcat. While I do love the Hellcat and it's record, against a P-51, I still think the P-51 would have the advantage, except off of a carrier deck, of course.The Hellcat is big and brutish while the Mustang is more sleek.
I've really enjoyed reading all these posts. It's funny that my two fav birds are the B-Stang and the hellcat. Both are absolutely drop dead beauts.That being said, even with only 4 50's , give me the Merlin any day.
You seem to imply that the P-51 only has four 50cals. This is only true with the P-51B. The P-51D had six, like the F6F.
Hellcat. Plain and simple. Their weapons are the same (I think), but the Hellcat has better armor (I think)if the two were to fight who do you think would win
I hope the right pilot is in the Hellcat, only because I can't stand the P-51 !
I don't like the P-51 either
The 6 gun P-51 had enough ammo for all six guns to fire about 20 seconds so how much of an advantage the extra 10 seconds of firing time the F6F has I don't know. In some cases very handy but how often?
Jimmy Thach is quoted as saying, "A pilot who cannot hit with four guns will miss with eight."
His point was more guns don't always make aerial combat more effective, before we could start talking about armament effectivness (in a day were the trend was to add more and more guns to fighters), the pilot has to be able to hit the target to begin with.Surely you could say the same for two or even one gun. The more guns you have firing a deflection shot the more chance of strikes on target. With a standard mg fitted to a US fighter what is the separation between each bullet? Mind you I think for example in the BoB the Spits and Hirricanes may have been better suited with 6 MGs and more ammunition.
His point was more guns don't always make aerial combat more effective, before we could start talking about armament effectivness (in a day were the trend was to add more and more guns to fighters), the pilot has to be able to hit the target to begin with.