Re: Best plane of WW2
 

I will have to research further but so far my data says little to none. The muzzle velocity was low enough that it had very poor penetration so was not very effective. Its low velocity also led to very poor trajectory which made it very hard to precisely hit ground targets or moving targets.

The USAAC used the P-39 mostly as a fighter and bomber interceptor, and when newer types came along it was pretty much dedicated to fighter bomber and strafing.

IIRC the last P-39's were retired at end of 1944 and the pilots were switched to P-47's.

Re: Best plane of WW2
 

I like the german Bf109, because it looked good, and had a good motor

Re: Best plane of WW2
 

True, the 109 was a great plane. But not the best. The German FW-190 was much better, so were the laterproduction Spits, the P39, the P51, etc....

Re: Best plane of WW2
 

So how can you explain why many aces prefered the '109 over the '190? http://forums.filefront.com/images/s...rcastic%29.gif

Re: Best plane of WW2
 

Most pilots spent years flying the Bf109 and probably knew the aircraft better than their wives and girlfriends. The later models were also faster than the FW-190's which made them better for boom and zoom attacks.

Erich Hartmann for example had IIRC over 1400 missions and preferred to boom and zoom and didnt want to stick around in a circle fight.

The Bf109 was small which made it harder to spot from head on or tail on view.

Re: Best plane of WW2
 

Japs used some of their best aces too. Saburo Sakai had to do a Kamikaze mission with his squadron but he and his wingman survived because they either couldnt find the target or it was too hard to get there. I read his book "Samurai" few years ago so i cant remember that well.

Re: Best plane of WW2
 

My point exactly...http://forums.filefront.com/images/smilies/winkx.gif
The only thing I would say was wrong with the Bf 109, was due to the thin wings it couldnt have any wing-armament (except for the Emil). But the Fw 190 had often 4 cannons in its wing, and therefore its firing was more spread out, than in the nose-concentrated Bf 109. Rookies often preferred to use planes with more spread in its fireing.

Re: Best plane of WW2
 

There were also a number of high scoring Fw-190 aces too.

The Fw-190 had the advantage in firepower, roll rate and was a very good turner as well. It was also highly prasied because it had very rugged construction. Fw-190's would come home sometimes with damage that would have knocked down multiple Bf109's.

And dispersion wasnt that great. The Fw-190 had two MG's in the cowling and two of the cannons were in the wing roots close to the fuselage where it would minimize the amount of convergence needed.

Only the two outer cannons would you probably have to set for convergance.

The major problem with the A models is that below 16,000ft the Fw-190A in general outperformed the Bf109 but over 16,000 the Bf109 came on very strong. At about 20,000-25,000ft the Bf109 was in its element.

Re: Best plane of WW2
 

i think either the Bf109, the me262 or The Focke Wulf 190

reliable fast both(butnot as fast as 262)

Re: Best plane of WW2
 

i really like ground attack aircraft and my fave is the henschel hs123
http://www.warbirdsresourcegroup.org...es/hs123-1.jpg

its main atribute was that it was very solid and took a lot of effort to stall . making it an excellent platform for ground attack. it was supposed to have been replaced by the ju87 and me 110 in this role, but the plane was so good that it was used until all of them has been worn out.

another of my faves is the polikarpov U2. simply because it exemplifies simplicity to the extreme and was a feared weapon.
http://www.hans-egebo.dk/images/po2-2.gif