davebender
1st Lieutenant
Me-410 carried so much fuel (2,420 liters) that it has the range to strike strategic targets. Too bad for Germany they never had enough Me-410s to allow the aircraft to be employed that way.
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I'd approach that differently.
R1820 and R1830 engine production should have been largely replaced by R2600 engine by 1943. When powered by R2600 engines aircraft such as B-17, B-24 and PBY would remain competitive through the end of WWII.
I'd be tempted to include the Hurricane on this list. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE the Hurribus but there's no way it should have stayed in production as long as it did. It was the right aircraft to get us through the Battle of Britain but by late 1941 was pretty much outclassed. It did sterling work as a ground attack aircraft in the Far East but other aircraft could/should have been made available from 1942 onwards. Just my ever-so-humble opinion...
And, since this was anti-economical, the Luftwaffe, in 1943, became the last customer of the Cr.42, with which a German pilot, in February 1945, obtained the last aerial victory of a biplane in history.Hs 123 was out of production since 1940. However, it had such an excellent record on the eastern front that von Richtiven asked, in late 1943, if would be possible to restart its production
You're a bit wrong here, the Bf 110 was actually very succesful as long range fighter until they were forced to be dead ducks flying close bomber escort. They had shortcoming with acceleration and climb performance and this caused losses if used as fighter-bomber and caught in low alt without escorts. Despite it's limited range and cockpit space they were successful night fighters, shooting-down lots of enemy aircraft. They just couldn't produce enough Ju 88G to completely replace the 110 so it had to be kept in production until very early 45.The performances of the Bf 110 were from the beginning only average (as Zerstoerer obsolete after BoB, as long range fighter obsolete as the introduction) and it was not a successful nightfighter, it was an average nightfighter, many german nightfighter pilots prefered at the beginning the Do 215/Do17 and later the Ju 88.
Candidates from across the Pacific include the Ki-43, The Zero, The Ki-21 bomber, Ki-45, Ki-48, Ki-49...........
I think I am detecting a pattern here
Add G4M (plus the MXY7 Okha), D3A, B5N, F1M2. Then there's this, Mitsubishi Ki-51:
Similar in size and performance to the Dauntless, with a whopping 441 lb (200 kg) bomb load! Yet, according to Francillon, Japanese Aircraft of the Pacific War, it was so popular that a NEW production line was set up by Tachikawa in late 1944...
Um, a 6 year production run in the middle of World War 2, which was a infamous for cutting productions short left and right on all sides, is in no way an embarrassment. And by the way, they WERE in fact fighting in 1945, some groups preferred it to the P-51s and such.That is just a bit hard to swallow. The US was telling it's student pilots in 1943 in a manual for the P-40 that the P-40 would no longer be issued to new squadrons and that they would fly different fighters than the P-40 when they joined combat squadrons. It may have continued to provide ground support in 1944/45 but was no longer considered a front rank aircraft and it's continued production into late 1944 can onlynbe considered an embarrassment.
Um, a 6 year production run in the middle of World War 2, which was a infamous for cutting productions short left and right on all sides, is in no way an embarrassment. And by the way, they WERE in fact fighting in 1945, some groups preferred it to the P-51s and such.