WWII Fighter Weights

[GregP]

I have not seen it written anywhere on fighters, but have never seen a Macchi fighter live in front of me. The 202 and 205 are very good looking aircraft. Seeing one makes me want to fly it.

 

[Mangrove]

I am guessing that your 100 Kilogram Finnish pilot was specified at that weight because all the (German) documentation for the Messerschmitt 109 they were flying had that particular number.

I never said the number was for any particular type of an aeroplane. The weight range I quoted was for a typical Finnish test pilot who wore a fur or leather flying suit, a parachute, goggles etc. For future reference, here are some empty weights (i.e. the fuselage, the engine and the fixed equipment without armament, fuel or a radio) of various aeroplanes test flown by the Finnish Air Force and quoted from the Finnish or original flight manuals:

Brewster B-239: 3741 lbs or 1697 kg.
Curtiss Hawk 75A: 4483/4509 lbs or 2033/2045 kg. ("Guaranteed within a tolerance of 3 %".)
Hawker Hurricane (Mk. I): 2285 kg or 5038 lbs.
LaGG-3 (series 35): 2536 kg or 5591 lbs.
Messerschmitt Bf 109 (G-2): 2520 kg or 5556 lbs.

 

[Aozora]

Weighted Finnish pilot wearing equivalent of combat gear weighted often around 95-100 kg (210-220 lbs), according to the copies of Finnish test reports I have. For comparison, a 200 round belt of 12.7 mm (.50, with ammunition boxes included) to the Berezin UB weighted 36 kg or 80 lbs.

The Ilmavoimat did experiment with ways of cutting down on all that weight...

...worked best in a pressurised, heated cockpit.