Weaknesses in fighters.

[stona]

I understand that by pulling the "ensprechenden knopfes ",corresponding or relevant knobs,you could shut down either the left or right side of the cooling system.

Steve

 

[Juha]

Hello Krieghund
checked from one of my books, it had the same drawning you posted but it is the copy of the original German one and the flow direction is to opposite direction than in your drawning. Anyway, there are 4 Absperrventilen, the bulges forward, the port one is just forward from the arrow of "Port return line" in your drawning and the others are those of which one is just forward from the arrow of "Port feed line" in your drawning.

Juha

 

[tomo pauk]

Falling apart mid-air is a weakness. Both early P-39 Airacobras and Hawker Typhoons had structural failures - tail sections IIRC - in their early deployment.

Bell Aviation shipped out in-field "patches" to the Soviets, I seem to recall reading.

MM

It was the P-63 that was structurally weak, not P-39. Bell was issuing the 'patches' for the P-63.

 

[CobberKane]

It's worth remembering a characteristic is only ever a weakness relative to the merits of the opposition. In the ETO the dive performance of the P-38J was definitely a weakness as the aircraft would enter compressibility at lower speeds than the single engine fighters it typically faced. It was difficult for P-38 pilots to follow Fw190s 0r Bf109s into a high speed dive without losing control of their aircraft. On the other hand, in the Pacific the Lightning usually faced Oscars and Zeros which it could easily out-dive short of entering compressibility. In the ETO the P-38 was a lacklustre diver, in the PTO it was a good diver – relatively speaking. Likewise the firepower of the US or Soviet fighters could not be said to be a weakness because it was perfectly adequate for the task at hand; shooting down enemy fighters and medium bombers. If the Germans or Japanese had fielded a heavy bomber fleet the US and Soviet fighter's firepower would have been a shortcoming, but they didn't and it wasn't.
Still, for the sake of argument I'll list a few weaknesses of 'leading' fighters (IMO)
P-38J in the ETO – poor dive performance
P-47 (pre-paddlepop prop) Poor rate of climb
Pretty much any Soviet fighter – poor equipment levels
ME 262 – poor acceleration