What Is Your All Time Favorite Fighter Airplane?

[Texas Star]

And Bf109s and MS406s.

I know the ME-109, of course. Will have to look up that MS-406.

Sweden (not talking Swiss now) impounded some P-51's that had to land there in WWII and interned the pilots. They then operated the planes and bought more after the war, I think. Their insignia is three gold crowns in a round blue field, if you see a photo of a Swedish Mustang.

 

[Texas Star]

As a former soldier it has to be the A10 Thunderbolt II:

And for my father's generation, it would be the P47 Thunderbolt:

Especially the "razorback"

Is that a Lancaster bomber behind the P-47?

 

[BUFF]

Is that a Lancaster bomber behind the P-47?

Looks like two engines, mebbe an Avro Manchester?

 

[cmort666]

Avia B-534. Almost as fast as the first Bf-109s:

 

[Will Carry]

The 56th fighter group actually got to choose between a P-51D and the red hot P-47M. They choose the P-47M with a Pratt and Whitney R-2800, double wasp, 18 cylinder two row radial with a turbo-supercharger, water injection and the new paddle blade propellers, with 2800 HP and a top speed of 470+ mph at 30,000ft. The engine was so hot on the prototypes that it would melt the ignition wiring and had a few other bugs that needed to be worked out. It flew in the closing weeks of the war in Europe. It was costly to make and maintain.

 

[muddocktor]

The 56th Fighter Group always was partial to the P-47 Thunderbolt and they were extremely successful with it too. Their main "competition" was the 4th Fighter Group, which much preferred the P-51 Mustang. Both groups were extremely effective and I think their preferences were more to the history of their leaders and leading pilots. Many of the pilots in the 4th came from the Eagle Squadron of the RAF and were used to fighting in Spits (another great WW II aircraft) and didn't like the Jugs they were transitioned to because they were heavy and large and didn't have the maneuverability of the Spit. So when the P-51 B's and C's came available, Don Blaskelee re-equipped them with Mustangs and that aircraft suited their flying style much better. Meanwhile, the 56th and their leader, Gabby Gabreski, learned to use the strengths of the Jug to their advantage such as high roll rate and superior diving ability and speed and started kicking much butt. When the later Jugs came along with more power, and improved prop and bubble canopy they improved even more. It ended up with both groups essentially tied in kills at the end of the war in Europe, with many aces in both groups.

BTW, Gabby Gabreski went on to become a jet ace in Korea also and ended up with a total confirmed kill count of 34 1/2 kills between the 2 wars.

Interesting history to read about if you are interested in the air war in WW II.

 

[tlawler]

Ok. Here's a question about piston engines that were in the WWII era fighters: did radials(like the P&W Wasp) have advantages over V arrangement(like the Merlin or Packard)or vice versa?

 

[muddocktor]

Ok. Here's a question about piston engines that were in the WWII era fighters: did radials(like the P&W Wasp) have advantages over V arrangement(like the Merlin or Packard)or vice versa?

The main advantage I can think of with the radial is that they were air cooled versus water cooled and 1 lucky bullet couldn't take out the cooling system. That was a big disadvantage for the Mustang pilots when doing ground sweeps as compared to the P-47. And the radials could take more punishment without stopping I believe too. The radials were harder to streamline into the plane though since they had much more frontal area.

 

[Cardboard_killer]

Not my favorite, but I am surprised no one's mentioned the IL-2, just for the game reference if nothing else. It was a very good ground-attack fighter. Kind of boxy, but otherwise a good looking plane, too.

 

[cmort666]

Ok. Here's a question about piston engines that were in the WWII era fighters: did radials(like the P&W Wasp) have advantages over V arrangement(like the Merlin or Packard)or vice versa?

1. The USN considered radials more reliable, and used them almost exclusively.
2. Radials are far less vulnerable to ground fire and in fact may continue to operate with entire cylinder heads shot away.
3. Reliable radials seem to have been much easier to produce in quantity. The Japanese never managed to produce a reliable, modern, high power inline engine in any quantities. Their QC was awful, and the reject and failure rates high. The Kawasaki Ki-100 fighter was created SPECIFICALLY due to a shortage of usable inline engines for the Kawasaki Ki-61 that left large numbers of engineless airframes sitting idle for want of powerplants. The Ki-61 was adapted to take an available radial engine.
   
   The Italians had similar, albeit far less drastic issues.

 

[M E Morrison]

Ok. Here's a question about piston engines that were in the WWII era fighters: did radials(like the P&W Wasp) have advantages over V arrangement(like the Merlin or Packard)or vice versa?

One big advantage of the radials, especially in ground attack, was being air cooled. No fragile cooling system to spring a leak & down the aircraft.

 

[tlawler]

Did the Germans have any radials, or were all of their power plants the inverted V design?

 

[M E Morrison]

Did the Germans have any radials, or were all of their power plants the inverted V design?

The FW-190 was a radial.

 

[muddocktor]

Did the Germans have any radials, or were all of their power plants the inverted V design?

A bunch of the Focke Wulf Fw-190's and Junkers JU-88's were powered by the BMW 801.

 

[cmort666]

Did the Germans have any radials, or were all of their power plants the inverted V design?

The Do-215 and the Ar-196 floatplane to name two.

 

[Cardboard_killer]

For the most part, the development of engines was the choke point for new fighter designs during WW2. I may be mis-remembering, but I'm not sure any of the combatants developed a completely new engine during the war?

 

[comtedeloach]

For the most part, the development of engines was the choke point for new fighter designs during WW2. I may be mis-remembering, but I'm not sure any of the combatants developed a completely new engine during the war?

Propeller and engine technology had pretty much reached their zenith , so a whole different type of engine was designed. Jet power was the new frontier.



Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[cmort666]

For the most part, the development of engines was the choke point for new fighter designs during WW2. I may be mis-remembering, but I'm not sure any of the combatants developed a completely new engine during the war?

1. The Germans developed a fixation with conjoined engines, either in series or side by side driving a common shaft. None of these worked out, and were the major cause of the failure of the He-177 heavy bomber. The joined engines were so hot, they literally caused the fuel to boil in its tanks.
2. The Japanese didn't have the industrial technology to properly build the Daimler-Benz engines they tried to license build. They simply couldn't maintain the required tolerances or material standards.
3. The Italians could build good aircraft engines. They just couldn't build powerful ones. By the time they switched to German engines they'd been knocked out of the war.
4. Both we and the Brits had a number of failed engine projects. Fortunately, they didn't torpedo many important aircraft projects as happened with the Germans and Japanese.

 

[muddocktor]

One engine that was developed during WW II was the P&W R-4360 Wasp Major "Corncob" engine, but it wasn't finished development until after the war was over. It went on to power several aircraft such as the B-36 and B-50, and several cargo type aircraft immediately after the war and into the 50's. I remember seeing C-119 Flying Boxcars flying out of Alvin Callender Naval Reserve Base in Belle Chasse, LA in the 60's and 70's and they were using 2 of those monster 28 cylinder engines. They would rattle Grandma's house when they were taking off because her house was almost directly under the flight path of the main runway.

 

[Gulfecho]

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