What 9 cy. radial engined fighter did better in WW2?

[Vincenzo]

Reading some replies on the top 3 engines of 1940 thread i came out with this question


i try to help with a list of 9 cylinders radial engined fighters, i hope have not miss many

PZL P.7 [Bristol Jupiter] (Polish Campaign '39)
PZL P.11 [Bristol Mercury, polish, Gnome Rhone 9k rumenian], (Polish Campaing '39, Russian Campaign '41)
Blackburn Skua [Bristol Mercury], (Naval dive bomber/fighter 39-41)
Blackburn Roc [Bristol Mercury],(Naval fighter 40)
Gloster Gauntlet [Bristol Mercury], (East Africa Campaign '40)
Gloster Gladiator [Bristol Mercury], (many in 39-41)
Fokker D.XXI [Bristol Mercury, finish built get also the P&W R-1535 but at time were recce/trainer plane], (West front '40, Winter War, Russian Campaign '41)
Grumman Wildcat (only Martlet I, IV and FM-2 variants) [Wright R-1820] (Naval fighter carrier or land based from Christmas '40 to war end)
Curtiss Hawk III [Wright R-1820], (China War -40, Thai -41)
Curtiss CW-21 [Wright R-1820], (China&South East Asia 41-42)
Curtiss Hawk 75 (only A-4, -5, -7, -9 variants, -4, 5, 9 also known as Mohawk IV) [Wright R-1820] (many in 40- war end)
Brewster Buffalo [Wright R-1820], (various 41-to end of war)
Boeing P-26 [P&W R-1340], (Philippines 41)
Polikarpov I-15 [Wright R-1820], (Russian Campaign 41-42)
Polikarpov I-153[Shvetsov M-62, Wright R-1820 deevelopment], (Russian Campaign 41-43, China -43)
Polikarpov I-16 [Wright R-1820, Shvetsov M-6263], (Russian campaign 41-?, China -42)
Type 96 carrier based fighter [Nakajima Kotobuki, Jupiter development], (East Asia 41-42, China -41)
Army Type 97 fighter [Nakajima Kotobuki, Jupiter development], (China -43, Manchuria 45, East Asia 41-43)

twin engined
Bristol Blenheim (IF&IVF variant) [Bristol Mercury], (-41?)
Fokker G.I [only Bristol Mercury variant], (Western front '40)

 

[fastmongrel]

Some models of Grumman Wildcat/Martlet had 9 cylinder Wright R1820s and I would put them No1 in the list.

 

[GregP]

Me too.

 

[Vincenzo]

Probably my preference is going to Hawk 75

 

[buffnut453]

How are we defining "did better"? I agree that the FM-2 variant of the Wildcat will certainly be up there. But the other contenders will largely depend on the metrics we use to define "better" - Combat ratio? Airframe performance? Operational impact? Duration of front-line use? Mission flexibility? etc etc etc.

 

[buffnut453]

Also, we're missing a few other fighter types from the list - Skua/Roc, NA-50/P-64, Blenheim MkIf/IVf, Fokker G1 (the latter 2 clearly don't count if the intent is only to compare single-engined fighters, but that criteria was explicitly mentioned in the OP).

 

[Vincenzo]

did better tell 66% combat ratio (with fighter vs fighter accent) (not claim) 33% operational impact, not a comparation within the 9 cy. engined fighters

i miss the types in your list, and i just not thinked to twin engined, but the P-64 afaik they not combat in WW2 (i know the NA-50 fight the Ecuador Peru war but it's not WW2, neither related to WW2)