Which US WWII fighter shot down the most enemy aircraft?

[GrauGeist]

To try and find which actual airframe had the highest tally of victories may be nearly impossible.

A person would have to weed through all the Aces (of all nations) and identify which aircraft they were flying at the time of each victory awarded. Then they'd have to check through all the non-Ace victories to see if they were flying a certain aircraft that had been shared with an Ace at one point or another. This alone is going to require literally thousands of pilots' records from all Allied and Axis nations.

Then they're going to need to build a database to start confirming each airframe's victory and weed through the tens of thousands of airframes that were involved in victories that match the pilot's logs.

I honestly think that there isn't enough time in a person's lifetime to be able to find which single airframe had the highest victory count of the war.

There are several aircraft that were known to have high victories via their pilots, but many of those were either destroyed during the course of the war or shortly afterward.

 

[DarrenW]

To try and find which actual airframe had the highest tally of victories may be nearly impossible.

A person would have to weed through all the Aces (of all nations) and identify which aircraft they were flying at the time of each victory awarded. Then they'd have to check through all the non-Ace victories to see if they were flying a certain aircraft that had been shared with an Ace at one point or another. This alone is going to require literally thousands of pilots' records from all Allied and Axis nations.

Then they're going to need to build a database to start confirming each airframe's victory and weed through the tens of thousands of airframes that were involved in victories that match the pilot's logs.

I honestly think that there isn't enough time in a person's lifetime to be able to find which single airframe had the highest victory count of the war.

There are several aircraft that were known to have high victories via their pilots, but many of those were either destroyed during the course of the war or shortly afterward.

I totally agree. I guess the best we can do is look at cases of particular airframes that have "careers" which are well documented and leave it at that. It's certainly not a definitive answer to the question at hand for obvious reasons (too many unknowns), but what we learn along the way may still be interesting nevertheless....

 

[David Fred]

This popped into my head over my lunch hour today. Which US aircraft piloted by American pillots is credited with shooting down the most enemy aircraft? I'm not talking which model aircraft, but which specific airframe/serial number is credited with the most kills during the Second World War.

I watch and read a LOT about WW2. And I have seen 5 planes claimed as being the first to reach 400 mph in level flight (Corsair, P-38, Tempest, and a couple of others) Same with most kills. Hellcat, Mustang, P-38 and Tempest (counting the doodlebugs).

I wish I could get my hands on the official report. I found one on allied tank losses, and performance of anti-tank Guns, all in one final,post war report. But only the documentary film makers version of statistics on aircraft.

I'm sure one exists, but the documentary film guys are THE worst repeaters of myth and rumor ever created.

 

[Shortround6]

I watch and read a LOT about WW2. And I have seen 5 planes claimed as being the first to reach 400 mph in level flight (Corsair, P-38, Tempest, and a couple of others)

It was the Hawker Hurricane
rolls-royce merlin | northolt | fighter | 1938 | 0911 | Flight Archive




Strength of tailwinds not recorded for many of the early 400mph flights by several aircraft.

 

[michael rauls]

I watch and read a LOT about WW2. And I have seen 5 planes claimed as being the first to reach 400 mph in level flight (Corsair, P-38, Tempest, and a couple of others) Same with most kills. Hellcat, Mustang, P-38 and Tempest (counting the doodlebugs).

I wish I could get my hands on the official report. I found one on allied tank losses, and performance of anti-tank Guns, all in one final,post war report. But only the documentary film makers version of statistics on aircraft.

I'm sure one exists, but the documentary film guys are THE worst repeaters of myth and rumor ever created.

Well there are certainly guys here that know alot more than I do but I'll take a somewhat educated guess( although some may take issue with the educated part.) Of the aircraft you listed the p38 flew first to the best of my knowledge and broke 400 pretty quickly after that so I would think it would have to be the p38. I could be wrong( and if that's the case im sure well both find that out in short order)

 

[Dan Fahey]

Interesting comment that did not get fully answered.
US Fighters that Russia used during WW2, what were their shootdown records?

Most dominate Allied fighters were the P40, P39, Hurricane, Spitfire.
The vaunted Spitfire ended up being used in a secondary roll as they were not as rugged.
They did receive a handful of Mustang, Thunderbolts and Lightnings and large batch of P63.
Finns had the P36 and F2A, French the P36

My opinion the Warhawk series was quite a useful aircraft in WW2.
Used as fighter and bomber and everything else.
My guess is that every US pilot trained in it !
A decent 2 stage 2 speed supercharger would have improved performance envelop.
Instead of receiving incremental improvements.

Based on reading how the Russians used the P39 and P40.
Figure the overall shootdown record in WW2 for both would be more toward the top.
Especially the P39 that fit very well in Eastern Europe combat environment.

The P40 was a very versatile weapons platform.
Perform well enough in every combat area except England is impressive.
The Wildcat, Hellcat and Corsair would be in that same league had it been used in more theaters.
But it was the P40 that got distributed to the most combat areas.

D

 

[Schweik]

So far as I know nobody has (yet) compiled any list or total of victory claims by type (that includes Lend Lease aircraft) available for the whole war for either the Soviets or the UK, there are some stats for the Battle of Britain and I've seen numbers for both the Hurricane and the Spitfire which are presumably for the whole war, but I haven't seen it for other types especially Lend Lease. Nor for the Soviets.

I can say that the RAF / Commonwealth fighter squadrons (including Australian, South African, and New Zealand air forces) had 46 aces who had 5 or more victory claims while flying the P-40, per Osprey. Plus another ~200 aces who scored one or more of their kills flying that type.

The Soviets had a similar number of aces purely on the P-40 but I can't remember the exact count. They had about 2000 P-40's but seemed to burn out the engines pretty fast and didn't make as wide a use of them as they did the P-39 (of which they had 4700).

But I suspect if you did have the total numbers, and combined US claims with UK / Commonwealth and Soviet, the P-40 would be in the top three of Allied fighters for total victory claims. Then there is another layer (and a new argument) where we get to try harder to figure out actual losses vs. claims.

Some Russians did claim the Spitfire was too fragile but the bottom line is, while they didn't have good luck with the Spit Vs they tried in the Crimea they used the Spit IX's for air defense (as they also did later with P-40s) and I think that is mainly because they had good high altitude performance unlike most of the Soviet fighters. I think they did value the Spitfires - they didn't see that much action because of being in PVO units but they desperately needed good air defense, if you look what happened to Russian industry in say, 1942 it's clear why.

Jean

 

[R Leonard]

My guess is that every US pilot trained in it !

Not in the US Navy and US Marine Corps

 

[Peter Gunn]

Not in the US Navy and US Marine Corps

I've heard the Navy and Marines used something a little more their speed...

 

[Vincenzo]

As i known the first airplane to broke the 400 mph was the Supermarine S.6B, the 13th september, 1931

 

[BiffF15]

I've heard the Navy and Marines used something a little more their speed...

View attachment 509893

All I can say in my best Forest Forest Gump draw is, "JennyA"!

Cheers,
Biff

 

[Dan Fahey]

So far as I know nobody has (yet) compiled any list or total of victory claims by type (that includes Lend Lease aircraft) available for the whole war for either the Soviets or the UK, there are some stats for the Battle of Britain and I've seen numbers for both the Hurricane and the Spitfire which are presumably for the whole war, but I haven't seen it for other types especially Lend Lease. Nor for the Soviets.

I can say that the RAF / Commonwealth fighter squadrons (including Australian, South African, and New Zealand air forces) had 46 aces who had 5 or more victory claims while flying the P-40, per Osprey. Plus another ~200 aces who scored one or more of their kills flying that type.

The Soviets had a similar number of aces purely on the P-40 but I can't remember the exact count. They had about 2000 P-40's but seemed to burn out the engines pretty fast and didn't make as wide a use of them as they did the P-39 (of which they had 4700).

But I suspect if you did have the total numbers, and combined US claims with UK / Commonwealth and Soviet, the P-40 would be in the top three of Allied fighters for total victory claims. Then there is another layer (and a new argument) where we get to try harder to figure out actual losses vs. claims.

Some Russians did claim the Spitfire was too fragile but the bottom line is, while they didn't have good luck with the Spit Vs they tried in the Crimea they used the Spit IX's for air defense (as they also did later with P-40s) and I think that is mainly because they had good high altitude performance unlike most of the Soviet fighters. I think they did value the Spitfires - they didn't see that much action because of being in PVO units but they desperately needed good air defense, if you look what happened to Russian industry in say, 1942 it's clear why.

Jean

I wonder if Diego Sampini has some information.
He and Cookie Sewell battled over details of Korean War shoot downs for almost a decade!

 

[Dan Fahey]

So far as I know nobody has (yet) compiled any list or total of victory claims by type (that includes Lend Lease aircraft) available for the whole war for either the Soviets or the UK, there are some stats for the Battle of Britain and I've seen numbers for both the Hurricane and the Spitfire which are presumably for the whole war, but I haven't seen it for other types especially Lend Lease. Nor for the Soviets.

I can say that the RAF / Commonwealth fighter squadrons (including Australian, South African, and New Zealand air forces) had 46 aces who had 5 or more victory claims while flying the P-40, per Osprey. Plus another ~200 aces who scored one or more of their kills flying that type.

The Soviets had a similar number of aces purely on the P-40 but I can't remember the exact count. They had about 2000 P-40's but seemed to burn out the engines pretty fast and didn't make as wide a use of them as they did the P-39 (of which they had 4700).

But I suspect if you did have the total numbers, and combined US claims with UK / Commonwealth and Soviet, the P-40 would be in the top three of Allied fighters for total victory claims. Then there is another layer (and a new argument) where we get to try harder to figure out actual losses vs. claims.

Some Russians did claim the Spitfire was too fragile but the bottom line is, while they didn't have good luck with the Spit Vs they tried in the Crimea they used the Spit IX's for air defense (as they also did later with P-40s) and I think that is mainly because they had good high altitude performance unlike most of the Soviet fighters. I think they did value the Spitfires - they didn't see that much action because of being in PVO units but they desperately needed good air defense, if you look what happened to Russian industry in say, 1942 it's clear why.

Jean

Hmmm..the P39 would also have had an interesting shoot down record !
Sure the Finns kept records of the kills per AC.
Considering the Brewster and P36 were the best they had until the Me109 was introduced.

 

[Schweik]

The Finns do have good records but their activity was small scale compared to the rest of the Russian Front.

I suspect the Russians have detailed records because you can find lists of Russian aces that show all the aircraft types they flew. Somebody just probably needs to translate it from Russian. Sadly cooperation with the Russians seems to have declined sharply in the last few years. We got a lot of really interesting data out of Russia for the first ten years or so after the fall of the Soviet Union.