Which airplanes weren't given a fighting chance

[FLYBOYJ]

The Bell P-63 King Cobra. Sure, it saw Russain use, but why did we only use it as a target tug?

By the time she came into the game the P-38, and -47 were on scene and there was a lot of bad press about the P-39, some warrented, other just folklore - it was decided to just sell the -63 to Russia, the same thing happened to the Martin Baltimore and Maryland (They went to the Brits, some were supposed to go to the French). The P-63D had a sliding canopy and in my opinion was one of the best looking WW2 fighters.

Apparently the P-63 offered little improvement (although the D model was as fast as a Mustang), so some in the AAF thought....

 

[lesofprimus]

The Russians and their tactics are what made the P-39 and P-63 so effective over the Russian countryside...

Read up on Alexandr Pokryshkin... The man was a genius, as well as a killer...
http://www.elknet.pl/acestory/pokri/pokri.htm

 

[102first_hussars]

Many many many planes


But I am Only going to give you guys a vague list

 

[MacArther]

We are talking about WW2

 

[FLYBOYJ]

The Russians and their tactics are what made the P-39 and P-63 so effective over the Russian countryside...

Read up on Alexandr Pokryshkin... The man was a genius, as well as a killer...
http://www.elknet.pl/acestory/pokri/pokri.htm

Yep - again I think he and many other Russians who flew the P-39 showed that tactics made everything - so many "Bad Stories" and folklore about the P-39 in the Pacific and look what this guy did with it....

 

[102first_hussars]

We are talking about WW2

Oh, I should learn to read the fine print.

 

[the lancaster kicks ass]

well it wasn't particularly fine, it was rather obvious

 

[MacArther]

Yes, PAINFULLY OBVIOUS

 

[102first_hussars]

Rub it in why dont ya, anyway I dont think the Me-262 was given such a good chance but then again thats a good thing for us.

 

[MacArther]

Welllll, if you insist........ naw just kidding. Yeah, supposedly the 262 (or was it the volksjager) was far ahead of the thundercomet or whatever jet we used early on in Korea before the F-86s arrived.

 

[book1182]

I would say the He-100 from Germany, the Wirlwind for England, and the P-39 from America. These all could have been the best fighters ever produced.

I have read accounts of the He-100 being faster and having an equal if not better turn radius of the Me-109.

Like said earlier the Wirlwind just needed better engines. It had the speed, range and armament of other twin engine fighters but lacked the reliabilty in the engines.

And we all know of the P-39 and it's fire power!!! I think it's fault was it radical design with the engine in the middle of the airplane. That gave it different spin qualities than what the pilots of that time were used to.

 

[delcyros]

Some of the late italien fighter planes should be mentioned, also.
A very bad thing that the soviets didn´t give a chance to their radial engine modified Mig-3 variant ( a few performed in late 42 excellently).
The P-80 and the He-162 shouldn´t bee forgotten, too. (just a mind)

 

[the lancaster kicks ass]

i do like the He-162 and perhaps with more capable pilots and better construction it would've worked........

 

[cheddar cheese]

As well as more fuel and ammo for them to fly...the projected production figures for the Volksjager were incredible, around 3000 a month.

 

[delcyros]

Who knows? The A-6 subtype with V-tail (prototype M 49) looks fine. Get a BMW-003 D instead of a BMW-003 E and you increase the poweroutput by 30% with almost the same weight (and reduced specific fuel consumption). 580-585 mp/h may be possible. You may also attend drop tanks or a stronger (3-4*MG151/20?) weaponry.
I would like the design. The problems with bad production quality and low pilot training would render the plane to a lower possible efficiency.
The production lists shows the "whishes", not the facts. Around 1200-1800 units may be possible, not more (think of the engines).

 

[102first_hussars]

i do like the He-162 and perhaps with more capable pilots and better construction it would've worked........

yeah thats just like the Me-163, it was so fast and manouvreable and didnt have the acceleration problems that the ME-262 had, but it killed more of its pilots than it did ours, and the plane had a tendancy to explode if sitting idle for too long.

 

[cheddar cheese]

It wasnt so much the engine that was the problem, it was the fuel, far too volatile to be practical. I can only imagine what it was like for the few pilots who them airborne, climbing at a ferocious rate, spedding around out manoevering everything, and then just exploding. Quite funny I should think It was a potentially good plane though.

 

[P38 Pilot]

And it was a good aircraft. It was extremly fast and could climb to the height of Allied bombers in less than a few minutes. But like mentioned, it just had "suicide" spelled on the side of it!

 

[102first_hussars]

And it was a good aircraft. It was extremly fast and could climb to the height of Allied bombers in less than a few minutes. But like mentioned, it just had "suicide" spelled on the side of it!

Actually it could climb higher,

The idea was to load the planes up with rockets then they would get as high above the bombers as posible, go into a ferocius dive halfway towards the bombers and let the rockets go, that would cause the formation to break up and the Fw-109's could attack the bombers individually without having to endure consintrated firepower, and to cause mass confusion so the bombs were misdropped.

I dont know if that was tested at all, but I can say that it probably would have worked, and a nice thing for the 163 pilots to know that they dont have to stick around once the rockets were launched

 

[P38 Pilot]

could attack the bombers individually without having to endure consintrated firepower, and to cause mass confusion so the bombs were misdropped.

Wow. That seemed like a really good plan for the pilots to use! Causing confusion in bombing and then shooting down the bombers. Again, wow!