If It Ain't A Mustang It Ain't A Fighter

[drgondog]

Bill - from my POV the most important air activities of the war was BoB and in 1943 and 1944, was the destruction of a. The Luftwaffe and b. German petroleum production - both of which required to invade (and stay) Europe in 1944 (forget Italy - we would never have gotten past the Alps).. therefore my judgement is guided by those believe and views.

The heavies were 'the bait' for a.) and the executioner for b.) - if they survived a.)

I move the airwar over Britain to a lower importance on Best Fighter judgement simply because the 109 was as good as the Spit - couldn't quite turn with a Spit but was faster, dove much better and could initial climb and zoom climb with it. The Spit won out because the 109's couldn't stick around to escort the bombers when the Battle hund in the balance.

The key distinction separating the 51 in comparison with the other fighters in WWII is that it not only had the legs to go with the heavy bombers all the way to the target (and beyond) but also have better performance over the target than the interceptors brought into the fight (obviously excluding the 262).


The P-38 could have been that a/c (at more than 2x the cost and more complexity to maintain) but the original prototype crash set the 38 two years behind and the problems with compressibility and high altitude allison blow ups weren't solved before Spaatz and Doolitle gave up on them.

The F7F coulda been something like that and the F8F might have been the best fighter-fighter dogfight ship of them all - but too late in the war.

So, if you change the question to Best Interceptor you have a different cast with 51 perhaps lagging behind the P-38, Spit and Fw 190 because they could a.) climb to altitude, b.) could turn as well as or better than a 51 and c.) in the case of Fw 190 also out roll it... but the tactical situation of long range interception brings the 51 back into consideration with the 38 even in that role... and in that role even with all the new breed problems the Me 262 was CLEARLY the best possible in that role as long as it didn't slow down to dogfight.

If you look for Best All Around you get complicated because perhaps so many other intangibles come into play including length of service as high performance (109), best dog fighter (Spit and F6F and Fw 190 and even Zero or George or Yak 9 or F4U) , best mud fighter in Ground Support (47 and F4U).

The only reason the F4U doesn't land heavily in this 'discussion' is that it wasn't in the highest intensity crucible that was either the BoB or the ETO... a large chunk of the high quality JNAF pilots were whacked by the time the F4U was in position to weigh in...so hard to judge performance against the 'best of the best' - but it was one helluva airplane.

All of these ramblings are certainly OPINION based on MY framework of Best Criteria so others have to weigh their own criteria.

Regards,

Bill