The first weeks of Battle of Britain, before the Germans switched from fighting for air superiority to bombing civilian targets, almost wore down the RAF. At the start the Germans had c1000 Bf109 and 300Bf110. (about 80% of wich avaiable for missions) If the 110 had never existed, that would mean a force of 1500 single seat fighters (a bf 110 cost a lot more than a 109) with a trainning program adjusted for that number. No twins means more singles, but also more single seater pilots!
A lot of Bf 109 were lost on the return trip, short on fuel. It's a lot easier to dogfight if you don't have to keep an eye on the fuel gauge all the time.
Even if we're just talking about He112s, anything would have been better than the Bf110.
This of course assuming that the RAF really was in trouble before the Germans switched to city bombing...
Of course, that would, latter, if they lost anyway, made getting a nightfigther force operational much harder.
1. Fine program, plenty of pilots from late 40 onwards, not producing combat trained spitfire pilots in August 1940...
2. Teaching people to fly is easy. The OCU have the hard job of turning them into combat pilots, and it was that job the germans could not do in later war years.
3. The RAF could allways retreat northwards, preserve strengh, and came back in force later. Would that later be quick enough to prevent an invasion? Maybe yes, maybe not...
CalBear;4592397 It has always puzzled me why the USAAF didn't just break down and grab the F4U in early 1943. It was having trouble with deck qualification so it wasn't going to cripple the fleet if it was diverted said:Probably because the war between the USAAF andthe USN was prosecuted with only slightly less priority than that against the Luftwaffe, the Japanese and the RAF....![]()
Probably because the war between the USAAF andthe USN was prosecuted with only slightly less priority than that against the Luftwaffe, the Japanese and the RAF....![]()
One of the reasons the P-47 was replaced by the P-51 was cost.
The P-47 wasn't much cheaper then the P-38, which was twice the cost of the P-51. IIRC the Corsair wasn't much cheaper then the P-47.
Might also have something to do with production capabilities and maybe R-2800 shortages.
Cost might make sense except for that the cost of a B-17 far exceeded that of a F4U. Production shouldn't be that much of an issue since Goodyear was building F4Us (as the FG-1) in addtion to Vought and Curtiss was building P-47s. Seems that having Curtiss build Corsairs instead wouldn't have been that much of a stretch.
Since both the Corsair and the 'Bolt used the same engine and the Corsair was at least the equal of the P-47 in the ground attack role with the bonus of the Corsair having an extra 400 miles in range with tanks (which = escort as deep as Berlin) the engine issue seems to be moot.
You're not making much sense to me regarding the comparison of a strategic bomber to a fighter.![]()
You're not making much sense to me regarding the comparison of a strategic bomber to a fighter.![]()
The P-47 was the most-produced fighter in US service. It was faster than the F4U, particularly at altitude. The question of range is variable with the Corsair, depending on wing tank fitment and number of drop tanks. The P-47 was only cleared at one time for 75 gallon tanks, but 108 gallon paper tanks were used anyway. The Corsair suffered more operational non-combat losses than combat losses. They solved the terrible stall problem on one wing by making the good wing stall badly also. "Winkle" Brown test flew the Corsair and noted that it was not as fast as reported, and handled poorly.
In addition, the Jug sounds kinda neat,as did the P-38, what with running the exhaust through the turbo.
Wiki lists the price of an F6F Hellcat at $35,000 in 1945 dollars. That makes it cheaper than the P-40 which was just about the cheapest. How come Navy aircraft costs so much less than USAAF aircraft? Is it because they don't include GFE like engines, guns and radio's?
In the Pacific, Corsairs often had P-38's flying top cover. The Corsair was optimized for 20,000 feet. The P-47 was set for 10,000 feet higher. Germans liked to attack with altitude advantage.
What's this got to do with German Zekes?