IIRC they weren't kept out of Europe entirely but deployed to the continent in early 1945, albeit with the limitation of not being allowed to fly beyond the front lines so as to preclude any crashing in enemy held territory. If you can find some way to speed up their deployment that ups the likelihood of jet versus jet combat, the problem being that early models were rather thirsty and the logistical situation wasn't all that great.IOTL Meteors were kept out of Europe...
You could see the Dehaviland Vampire do quite well as well. Not sure how well it would fare against the ME-262 though.
I'm thinking the same way. Range may be the main reason preventing jet on jet battles. Allied jets versus bombers is a possibility.I thought range was something of an issue. The early jets were all notoriously short ranged fighters and thus really only useful for point defense missions.
IOTL meteors were kept out of Europe to stop the Germans getting ahold of tech, but what would it take to make them not be?
The Vampire was a pure fighter in the mould of a 109 or Spitfire the 262 was a bomber killer and if it caught a Vampire with one round from its 30mm the RAF pilot was going to get his Angels wings.
Out of the rest of Europe I suppose, was going to make an Brexit joke but am too saddened by the whole (IMHO) fiasco to do it.IOTL meteors were kept out of Europe to stop the Germans getting ahold of tech, but what would it take to make them not be?
Out of the rest of Europe I suppose, was going to make an Brexit joke but am too saddened by the whole (IMHO) fiasco to do it.![]()
If the war lasted longer (a situation most unwanted) it is highly likely that the USAAF in Europe would have several squadrons of P-80s in the ETO. These would have been outclassed by the Me-262 to some degree individually. But operationally I think tactics and number would have overcome that to a large degree. The same applies to the Meteor. Perhaps the biggest potential problem IMO is the .50 M2 Brownings vs the cannon armament. While P-51s were able to down 262's with .50s how many of these 262 shoot downs were a result of the tactical situation rather than the overall quality of the aircraft and or armament. This can most likely be applied to all 262 losses to RAF and Red Air Force fighters. At speed the 262 was pretty much untouchable by piston engined fighters.
In jet vs jet combat operations the common tactic is most likely to be high speed passes that minimize the chance for the target aircraft to engage if not destroyed or crippled. The prospect for jet vs jet dog fights needs better engines with more power and better throttling.
One thing I think we would see if P-80's engaged 262's during the closing months of WWII is the adoption of cannon as primary fighter armament instead of clinging to the .50 caliber as long as the USAF. The retention of .50 caliber on the F-86 rather than adopting 20mm seems to be in some ways an analog of the US Army's clinging to the full power cartridge for service rifles.
If I remember correctly, most ME-262s that were shot down, were shot down while landing as they had terrible low speed manoeuvrability and couldn't accelerate suddenly.
If or when the P80's and Meteors get outclassed by the ME 262 the Vampire will get an increased priority very quickly. In my opinion it was the best of the Allies first generation jets and the only true fighter.