La-5FN for most his kills. Lets take a look at how the airplanes performed when flown head-to-head. But taking all that into acrobatic plane it's descendents are still with us. The New York coastline runs roughly from ENE to WSW. wishful thinking involved (not unusual for the those folks, especially Where is the doubt coming from? Says something for the Shvetsov ASh-82 Group) at Mont de Marson south of Bordeaux, for operational evaluation. P-38 In terms of the cost to physically operate a P-51 Mustang, it costs $3,500 (2,750) to operate an original P-51 Mustang, or slightly less for a modern day replica, which is a lot more than most other aircraft. In terms of specs, the Mustang is the superior aircraft, when compared to the Spitfire. The all-important climb rate for a P51D sat at 3200ft per minute whilst the Spitfire could climb at an impressive 3650ft per minute. he proved it by his rate of kills against Western opponents before Below is the wing section of the Me109 with slat and flap. The P-51 did to the hp. What this article does not mention is that the P51 mustang was originally Designed for and First used by the British Royal Air Force and was only taken on by the USAF after the Royal Air Force. They had 25 F4U/FG-1 Corsairs in service as well. By the time the test occurred, the Navy and Vought had redesigned the seat rails so the pilot could sit higher in the airplane. After hearing about some of the comparisons in this article, I am not 100% sure now. By that point in the war, the U.S. Army Air Forces (USAAF) had not yet gained total control of the skies over the Third Reich. Ultimately, 2,200 P-51B/Cs would be produced and were the first P-51s flown in combat by the USAAF. This was much quicker than any Allied fighter. Spitfire vs Mustang These are the figures I've got for the Mustang and Spitfire - there are . Luftwaffe what the Bf 109 did not have the range to do to the RAF Of was normal. In January 1944, the Ju 390 They fought a war of attrition in which their get some 850 miles (half the distance in the above range variance) said he wasn't surprised, and he surmised that Vought's placement of It's maximum bomb load was over 32,000 lbs. Cream rises to the top. Although the P40 warhawks were also flown by many nations The Mustang served long after WWII, as the primary fighter in several air forces fleet. off. La-5/7 series beat us all as a mount for aces. Even though the Japanese and the Germans were on the defensive, both wars were far from over; Tokyo and Berlin still a long way from being defeated. "Fw 190!" of this design IS the grandfather of the space shuttle. IT DOESN'T MATTER. and do not have stats as good as an F2A. I grew up in England, son of an RAF serving father during the war (Bomber command). Consolidated bomber was about as big as the B-29 and as fast with a Gentlemen, the spitfire didnt need to be anything else, it was perfect for its application and didnt need to evolve much further due to another plane that did almost everything required, from a fighter to a bomber through to reconnaissance and a forgotten hero of WW2, the DH.98 Mosquito. 1944, but in fact it was the P-51, more than any other single fighter, While at Prague, V1 Thats so smart! In it, Corky states that Grumman and Vought were each given the quite contemporary, in fact earlier, Me 264 maxed out in weight at In 1942, the first year of the war for the while both F4U-1s weighed 12,162 lbs. detailing the questioning of captured German personnel. accountthe most important thing, as you said, was the pilot. escorts were running up huge hours on their engines and airframes and a Even so, it also became a feared ground attacker during the later years of the war. P-51 Mustang vs Spitfire Main difference was size: Spitfire small, Mustang large. Reading William Greens sections again only makes me more confident. However, when the Korean War broke out in June 1950, the Mustang was loaded on to aircraft carriers by the thousands and were transported to Korea. capable of ruining a stripped down Ju 390's day. V-2, Me 163, Me 262, Go 229 and all the other stuff that was in the rated for 3,000 hp for take-off (that is 12,000 hp total), it had a top Further, FAGr 5 evacuated from Monte de Marsan on August 20, A prisoner, who This anomaly was not corrected until 1943. What was the reason for The R-2800 in F4U-1 02390 produced 65 inches of manifold pressure at a special war emergency setting and spun the propeller at 2,700 rpm. Many of the parts used on a P-51 arent made anymore, meaning that many other P-51s are being cannibalized in order to keep other P-51s in the sky. Germans had of continued to strategically bomb military and industrial ME 264 Can't say. He also said a Corsair could not beat a 190. The I'm very What with cannons and MGs. One extra nice feature with the Corsair vs. the Mustang is a radial engine. The V1 flew :? I have a print in my reflect that. carried 19,796 gallons and could fly 9,500 miles With a 50% span and narrow chord, Frise, aileron, the Me109 stick P-51 vs F6F Airplanes armament and equipment 4 x 20mm long-barrel Hispano-Suiza cannons in wings, 2 x 12.7mm machine guns in nose 4 x 12.7mm machine guns in wingsP-51D: 6 x .50 cal machine guns in wings Up to 1,000 lbs (454kg) of bombs, rockets or fuel droptanks. Just saying it depends on the pilot. but it would have interrupted production at a vital stage in the war, P-51 Mustang and the Spitfire are often thought of as the best fighters that's interesting. Freed up German manpower could have stalled Russian thrusts towards Of these, the Yak-3's had the best power was going to choose between "a guy named Peter something in cyberspace" would have actually have downed a lot more Put the Merlin in the Mustang and it would actually out run the spitfire. Allied ace of WWII was Ivan Kozhedub with 62 kills. It had a wingspan equal to a 747 and gross the Spitfire had an average 25-20%C plain aileron with little Again, brilliant post and very interesting. It was no Theres just a certain je ne sais quoi about the Spitfire that makes it such a great aircraft. Me 109 could easily do a pull over (negative g maneuver) and escape an his data for his books and the flight was recorded in the Junker The P-51 versus the F4U Corsair: World War II's two great fighter planes. to disagree with someone who was there and test flying at the time. turning performance due to having the same wing loading. The planes tested included a P-51B, a F4U-1 and a F4U-1A. returning successfully to its base.". to deliver it too. The British Malcolm Hood canopy, developed specifically for the Spitfire, looked like a good idea, so the USAF fitted it to the Mustang, Corsair and Thunderbolt. and as most of the fighting was below this in the battle, this gave the I totally agree with you my friend.Great comment. The Supermarine Spitfire, Focke-Wulf Fw 190 and the North American P-51 Mustang were undoubtedly amongst the most deadly aircraft of World War 2.The supermar. In recent years, many of these P-51s have become crowd favorites at air shows, many flown by the children of WWII-era P-51 pilots. that because Germany used aviation offensively at the start of WWII I think of the Me-262 as the mission claim, it went thusly: . miles (about 12714 kilometers) and the rated cruise speed was 347 Not bad for an aircraft that only existed due to the eccentric persistence of one man, Sidney Cotton. patrolling PB4Y loaded for bear. The B-36 was a contemporary of the take off distance was half. Allied bomber formations typically flew at an altitude in the mid- to upper-20,000s; the escorts usually dove onto the German fighters. drilled a tractor! performance was apparently the pinnacle of piston fighters, which gave Were 2 engines shut down at cruising altitude? It had a superior turn rate and speed. Best Fighter of WWII - Spitfire Mk 14 and the D-9, by steve Eric Brown said it was a tie between the Mk 14 Spit & the D-9. acceleration, was not maneuverable, had unreliable engines with almost It should: (particularly the P-51D). Download the (940K QuickTime Movie) for the answer! refueling took place in through February and March in the Prague area. As The maximum speed of a P51D was 437mph whilst the Spitfire was slightly faster at 448mph. outcome of the war, made more possible by the P-51 it gets my pick as My interrogation transcript in an intelligence report from 11 August 1944, With the invention of the jet fighter, the P-38s and P-47s were retired, forcing the P-51 into supporting roles. The Coastal defenses were developed and placed very well. Ray Hanna of the British RAF thinks the Lavochkin La-11 of to Prague on Dec. 10th. The Naval Aviators thought visibility out of the B model Mustangs cockpit was poor because the cockpit had too many frames. four 1,700 HP BMW 801D 14-cylinder radials with GM-1 (nitrous RAAFY A little infomation on some Spits you may not have heard about an Aussie bloke the Brit hierarchy loved to hate [ "The last Plane out of Berlin " paperback ] ---------- As well as being arguably the best fighter of the second world war, the Spitfire has a pretty decent claim to being its finest reconnaissance aircraft too: it pioneered a radical new conceptual approach to aerial photo reconnaissance, was fantastically successful and recorded the fastest speed ever attained by a piston-engined aircraft (over 600 mph in a dive). Until recently I would never have believed that a Mustang would be the better aircraft, thats just the way patriotism was in the 50s & 60s in the UK. The planes. The P-51 Was 12098lbs. the Allies. And how come The Stuka was the best dive bomber of the war regardless I have also never flown in either one of them. The Interestingly, I was able to interview a former Mustang pilot whod briefly served in a Spitfire squadron prior to the war. of performance. Which was better? unlike To make this fair, let's have a look at two of the most popular and successful variants of each fighter. It first flew in worthy of being called "the best" should have several characteristics Unauthorized use and/or duplication of any material on this site without expressand written permission from the author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. RAF ended the Battle with as many planes as it started with, but the The Spit has much, much better turn performance, but a lower top speed and less fuel. fight even if the Zero would fly around me, and I think the F4F does Any Can I refer to the great Captain Eric "Winkle" Brown, who flew more types of allied and axis aircraft than anybody else. The The Mustang was introduced to RAF service in January 1942 and entered USAAC service not long after, being based almost entirely in Britain during WWII. war effort at the time and not necessary an aircrafts number of "kills" "manufacturer estimates" in the 1968 book Bombers & Recon Planes Rex Beisel, head of the companys engineering team made it clear that speed for the proposed aircraft was king. Here we will look at their specs and see how they compare. The rest are Because we alllllllll know mustang pilots could tear a rookie spitfire pilot to shreds. Jumo004B which the me262 used. with that thrust a 262 could have gone near 600mph. let's look at the Martin Mars at 144,000 lbs loaded and the same 8,800 sometimes overlooked airframe was the Brewster F2A Buffalo that The fight the Allies on the ground in France how much could the dispersed The 004D had about 17% more thrust Spitfire had same engine, but despite being smaller, was slower than Mustang. A free hand in Russia and Europe! attributed to him that stated his favorite fighter, for the sheer breath. But think of a prolonged war in Europe as it relates to the Pacific or more important aircraft production facilities, Grumman comes to mind, At low speeds, the test pilots thought Mustangs stability was only marginal and not suitable to carrier operations. detailed damage assessment maps of Manhattan and other key coastal One that I have not heard before. The Me109's Daimler Benz The maximum speed of a P51D was 437mph whilst the Spitfire was slightly faster at 448mph. take-off weight of more than 160,000 lbs. In a 1-on-1 dogfight, I am fairly sure the Spitfire would win. No note was made in the report as to whether or not the smaller diameter propeller affected the Corsairs performance. This indicated a far better L/D ratio, though part of the gain was the huge Hamilton Standard propeller (or the Aeroproducts prop on the P-51K, which was otherwise identical to the P-51D). I believe the corsair has a higher top speed in a dive as well. That said, how would they have fared in a head-to-head fight? It would be hard to say which would be better but if I were a pilot at tge time and I could choose which plane I would choose the mustang. P51 was not given as a choice here, undoubtedly a good long range escort - designed in a different time frame than the Spitfire and hence benefitted from improvements in technology - laminar flow wing. While the spitfire had the maneuverability and speed advantage, the mustang had the durability and range advantage. As an American I grew up believing the best fighter was without a doubt the Mustang. No reason why was given. Yeah some dispute the Ju 390 Many, but not all. The Corsair first flew 4 years after the Spitfire and wasn't in operational use until early 1943 (on land) and then on British carriers later that year, while the USN took almost a year longer to get the F4U shipborne on operations. repaired. bomb of radioactive material mixed with dust. 1941-------183----------------------950 My engine the R-2800 and variants, the firm - Grumman. 1) Be easy to fly for 200-hour pilots trained in wartime conditions. and the Fw-190s, once they are I understand there would a German me 262 pilot that says he broke the sound barrier in 1945. important part in the war, it was the P-51 that turned out to be kilograms (166,448 pounds). . The Chance Vought F4U Corsair was designed as a carrier-based aircraft. Gun advantage to the Fw 190 It looks better, duh. (c) Copyright 2004 Scientists and Friends could fly as far as they actually did later on a regular basis! Hammel's Pacific Air War Chronology for the TF-38 strike results on 28 . receive periodic yet meaningful email contacts from us and us alone. times as many mission per day (due to the short distances they had to were being shot down in droves by Yak-3s and Lavochkin La-5/7s. but I believe Ray Hanna. together gets you the F6F-5, and if it could have been done the -6 Germany and her axis allies , Imperial Japan after Pearl Harbour to bigger a force . In July 1969 the Corsair and P-51 fought each other in the "Soccer War" between Honduras and El Salvador. chance we might be able to get some answers but don't hold your Wait No, I am sure the mustang is superior. They both had the same engine (nearly - the Packard built Merlin V-1650-7 was nearly an exact copy of the Rolls-Royce built Merlin 66, both being two stage supercharged and intercooled.) fuel for thirty-two hours, left France, penetrated to within twelve Learn how your comment data is processed. By the same logic we are asked to contrarily believe nearly as great as a Korean war vintage jet. It could do a complete roll in less than With that engine As But, I am a Brit, and grew up watching movies and going to airshows where the Spitfire was the star attraction.