The Greatest Attack Aircraft of All Time...

The Greatest Attack Aircraft of All Time...

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You can not compare fighting on eastern front in WW2 with First and Second Gulf War.
There had been hundreds of german fighters but only a handfull of Luftwaffe Experten on eastern front and actually IL-2 was wery hard to shoot down becouse of heavy armor it had and rear gunner. (Not to mention effective sovyet fighter force in second half of the war.) It was capable to absorb a lot of battle damage due to its heavy armour and yet quite manouverable for attack aircraft. Threre has been several ocaisons when IL-2 were acting in fighter role and were reported to shoot down several german bombers. Sergey V. Iljusin even developed a prototipe of fighter aircraft based on IL-2 but project was canceled becouse it was not needed.
 
And yet there were still ground attack aircraft of WW2 that were better than the Il-2. I would take a Focke Wulf Fw 190F-8 or a Hawker Typhoon over an Il-2 anyday.

Why?

Because they could carry a great amount of ordinance and still fight like a fighter. Try doing that with Il-2...
 
Well, both Fw 190 and Typhoon were originally designed as fighters... And you are right they were superb aircraft, I just think that IL-2 was more effective in ground attack role.
 
If I had to make a compromise over "IL-2 or A-10" issue, then, even if the IL-2 is my favourite, the answer would be:
- IL-2 is the best piston-engined ground attack aircraft of all times.
- A-10 Warthog is the best jet powered ground attack aircraft of all times.

Coments?
 
DerAdlerIstGelandet said:
Yeah I should have noted the P-47 as well. For ground attack purposes however I would still take a Typhoon or a Fw 180F-8 over a P-47 though.
Click to expand...
No worries, I was just thinking that with the 47, you'd have a plane that could carry a pretty fair amount of ordinance, and then could do a great job as a fighter, too, so ya' a kind of got a "two-fer-one" deal, in that sense.
For pure ground attack purposes, though, I'd have to agree with you on the Typhoon.
BTW, wasn't the Typhoon some kind of influence on the design of the A-1 Skyraider?
I don't know about that version of the FW to comment on it.



Elvis
 
I'd include the P-47 too
it could deliver a big payload to the target area and could take a beating too.

The only thing with the Typhoon and the Thunderbolt was that you needed to be careful in them, that close to the ground. The Typhoon was notorious for 'mushing' and if you pointed the nose of the Thunderbolt at the ground while you were down there, there was a chance you wouldn't come up again.
 

You are absolutely correct. It is basically the US equivalent of the FW 190F-8 and the Typhoon. All of which I would take over an Il-2 or a Stuka any day.
 
Hey, glad you brought up the Stuka.

I ran across the following passage while checking out a link in another thread.
What do you think of this?

"H75 vs Ju87b: This is included here because many pilots don't know how to handle a Stuka properly. They think "Oh, it's a bomber, it can't turn" and promptly get shot down as the Ju87b outturns them. The Ju87b turns better than the H75. Now before you grab the pitchfork and head down to CRS, there are a few things to point out. The Ju87b has one of the lowest wing loadings in the game. It has huge thick wings, which generate a lot of lift (and a good amount of drag). It is designed to haul a big airframe, two crewmembers, armor, bombs, and lots of ammo on a relatively low amount of power. It also has to do this while being draggy as heck. It accomplishes this by having huge thick wings (remember how gliders fly with no power? big wings). What this means is that this airplane can turn. Just like a light biplane that has only 100hp, but can turn on a dime, the Ju87b can use its huge wings to turn well. It *will* outturn you if you flatturn it. The two biggest problems a Stuka has are speed and climbing ability. If you go vertical, the Stuka will die. If you fly fast, the Stuka will die. If you try to run away, you will get away. If you try to turn with it for an extended amount of time, it will get a nice canopy shot on you and you will die. It also flies so slowly that you will easily overshoot it if you are not careful. Most turnfighters used to beating 109s in turnfights don't know how to handle a better turning plane. Learn, or you will become very frustrated with the Stuka."

That is the first time I've EVER heard anyone write about the "accolades" of the Stuka in a dog fighting role and its got me scratchin' my head.
Not sure to call it BS or not.

...and now the appropriate linky's...

The site the quote came from - Curtiss Hawk 75A-3 (P36G) (the passage is at the bottom of the page)

The thread where the linky to the site came from - http://www.ww2aircraft.net/forum/aviation/p-40-warhawk-kittyhawk-17083-3.html


I don't know. The whole page almost reads like instructions to a video game, if you ask me.
I didn't investigate that aspect, though, as it doesn't interest me.


Anyway, whadaya think?




Elvis
 
Not claiming it to be the best or anything, but for packing a punch relative to it's size and weight, the A-37 probably deserves a mention. Some may argue it was the predecesor and inspiration for the A10 which replaced it, the highly manoueverable little 'Dragonfly' had 8 hardpoints and a multi-barelled mini-gun, could house a crew of two so an observer could provide a useful second pair of eyes (although some missions had one) and with drop tanks and refueling probe had an excellant loiter time.

The A-37 had an excellant combat record in Vietnam, they required a low level of maintenance compared to the high performance jets, and provided high number of combat sorties with relatively very few combat losses.



c/o flickr.com



c/o airplane-pictures.net[/img]
 
Seems the A-10 gets the vote.

But the reasons the USAF wanted rid is there.

I don't believe against a WarPac scenario with all them SAMs and MiGs and flak the A-10 could have survived.

Really don't. And ain't that the original plan?

If I was voting sheer firepower, loitering and combat persistence then AC-130...gets mine.

Can attack a combat zone all day long.
 
I would vote for the A-10 as the best all-rounder.

But I would like to mention the Hurricane MkIID, nicknamed the 'Flying Can Opener.' I'm not sure of it's combat history but I would think in it's day it would have been a formidable weapon. Two 40mm Vickers 'S' guns seemed pretty good to me.
 
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