Re: Fw190
 

Im a big fan of the Mustang but theres no way in hell a P-51D could do 472mph.

A late war P-51H yes because it had the better low drag section wing instead of the laminar flow wing and a V-1650-9 Packard-Merlin V12 combat rated at 2,238hp. and was clocked at 487mph at 25,000ft. So 472mph is very close to that spec.

A P-51D clocked about 437mph.

And I thought I saw where someone mentioned that combat took place at low altitude? Most combat in West was at 18,000-30,000ft. Unless it involved the 9th Air Force or the 1st Tactical Air Force.

Re: Fw190
 

top speed figures should probably be taken with a grain of salt. there don't seem to be any real rules regarding load, condition and other "cheats"(boosters etc.)

doubt an aicraft that could achieve X mph on paper would ever reach that in a real combat situation(unless in a dive).

Re: Fw190
 

True. Many times the "top speed" was for the prototype with no armament, minimum of equipment and 1/2 tank of fuel. It very rarely represented the battle weary and patched front line aircraft operating in combat conditions

Re: Fw190
 

Yeah, I did, and on the eastern front, You should read more thoroughly:p;)

It wasn't just the US airforce that flew planes into Europe:p. The RAF had as many planes, if not more in the UK flying into France and then later from France to Germany (1 of my grandfathers was a triage nurse with the RAF close air support/ground attack squadrons moving through Europe after DDay) and most if not all the 8000 Typhoons were used as ground attack...i'll leave you to imagine what they did with the Tempests, Hurricanes, Beaufighters and the other RAF ground attack planes.

Re: Fw190
 

True, I thought someone was referring to the bomber war, my bad.

And those 22,000 Spitfire was distributed through several marks.

Re: Fw190
 

Sorry, I chnaged my post a little right after I made it initally. It looked like I was implying the spit was used for ground attack lol. Oh yes, they were over several mk's. The most numerous was the IX although there were so many versions of that Mk and some are not even catalogued.

Re: Fw190
 

Actually my data says the Mk16 was primarily used for ground support. And it was so good at ground support that it was used more in that role than as a fighter. So saying Spits were used for ground support isnt really wrong.

Re: Fw190
 

No, its not wrong at all, they were adapted to carry 250Lbs bombs (It was never actually forseen that it would carry bombs and was a stop gap with the Hurricane 'Hurribomber' while the Typhoon was being developed). Many VB's were used like this on North Africa but Its like taking a Porsche 911 GT2 and putting a trailer on the back and giving it a roof rack. Doesn't quite fit.

Re: Fw190
 

FROM:

The Effect of the North American P-51 Mustang
On the Air War in Europe
by David Buckingham

"...But most important was its superiority over the German fighters, the best of which were the FW-190 and the Me-109. The Mustang was 50 mph faster than the Germans up to 28,000 ft., beyond which it was much faster than the FW-190 and still substantially faster than the Me-109.
The Mustang had between 3000 and 4000 lbs. more weight, and so was able to outdive either German plane. The tightness of its turns was much better than the Me-109 and slightly better than the FW-190. (Grant 31, Boyne 389-390, Bailey 153) The result of all of this was that the Allies now had a plane that could go with the bombers all the way to and from their targets, fight and defeat the bombers' German attackers, and not run out of fuel."

http://www.combatsim.com/htm/aug99/p51-3.htm#cont

The FW190A Was a great...the P51 was better.

Re: Fw190
 

:cheers:

Finally someone who shares my opinion of the P-51. There was a reason the Mustang is so highly regarded by the Pilots who flew it and there is a reason it was considered instrumental in helping gain air superiority over Western Europe. True it sucked at ground attack due to the vulnerable cooling system but air to air it rocked.