Saville wrote:
Dudley writes:
"In A2A, you will seldom if ever find two pilots with exactly equal stick, rudder, and ACM skill sets that can be reduced to a zero point for comparison purposes. "
Again, while true, it's irrelevant to the question. We often zero out the un-zero-able to focus on the question posed. For instance, others have mentioned octane levels, and still others mentioned axis vs allies training and experience when the F8F arrived. All those are pertinent factors as well.
But if a person wishes to simply compare aircraft performance under ideal conditions then you zero out pilot skill, octane levels (unless one a/c was limited in that sense), training levels, weather considerations, day of the week, what the pilots ate for breakfast, and how much they drank the night before.
It's fair to have conversations including those factors but, again, my suspicion is that when we see general questions such as:
"How would the F8F have done against the FW190?"
those considerations are assumed to be nulled out and the issue at hand is performance under ideal conditions. One such ideal condition is exactly equal pilots.
I would respectfully disagree with your premise. Although comparison format is indeed set up sans pilot data, and indeed that is exactly how it's set up these days (courtesy Boyd, Christie, Rutowski, et al), the "question" as asked here and as almost always is asked whenever it's brought up, is simply how one fighter would fare against another or which fighter was or is best.
Presented in this context, one must assume that in presenting ANY answer, one must as well assume that these aircraft must be flown by a pilot. One could conceivably attempt to answer without the pilot in the equation but then you have simply addressed the question of how the two aircraft being compared compare using the classic formats in play today. In other words there is really only one way to compare two fighters, or any two aircraft for that matter, and that way is as we both agree, without the pilot in the equation.
But the devil in THAT detail as they say, is that the classic comparison format is seldom what the questioner is asking about. You can have two dissimilar aircraft and show where each has advantage and disadvantage on the Ps basis and STILL have the open question remaining concerning the pilot engaged in the area of his positive Ps by an adversary with a negative energy situation but with superior piloting skills negating the plots and acquiring a firing solution. Happens all the time in the real world.
So when the question comes up on which fighter is or was best, one always has to take the pilot question into account.
The energy plots are simply a guideline. What determines the winner EVERY time when it gets down to the real world, is who's flying what and how well what is being flown.
I've been involved with fighter pilots directly for over 50 years. Some of these pilots were and are the finest fighter pilots in the world. Naturally this question has come up in our circle and been discussed openly on many occasions. It usually results in much laughter and an entire night of "attitude adjustment". But the single factor that every fighter pilot I've ever known agrees on is when it comes right down to who gets to keep all the marbles and go home regardless of what he's flying, it's the guy who flies and fights like the other guy is the best fighter pilot in the world up to the instant he proves he's not, then he kills him!.
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