If a country can build whatever fighter they want, what would be the ideal medium altitude fighter plane during WW2?
WW2 AHC: Fighter Plane
- Thread starter Panzerlied
- Start date
Riain
Banned
Welcome, obviously this beast would go well in WW2!
Actually in 1940 either the Bf109 or Spitfire with a bit more fuel would do the trick, later in the war the Hawker Tempest is quite the beast.
Just medium altitude? P-63 Kingcobra, with that nose cannon it can just remove anything that it gets a bead on.
edit: OP has specified that this is strictly for dogfighting with other fighters, so I think I'll change my answer to a Fiat G.55 Serie I, but fitted with a bubble canopy, non-Italian radios, maybe replace the 3 MG-151s with Hispanos (could a Hispano be fired though the nose?), and if the SAFATs can't be replaced with 20mms then either replaced them with M2s in .50BMG or remove them all together to save weight.
Last edited:
If you say Bf109 or spitfire with more fuel, he100D model would do the trick as is.
Its a rare case were the Germans went with good enough in Bf109.
Probably a bad Call, even considering the succes’s of the Bf109, with the better undercarriage, range and above all an air-frame designed for mass production from the onset.
What year - 1939, 1942, 1945? What would be the 'medium altitude' in exact terms?
Ramontxo
Donor
Well I would take an American airframe an British engine and a German weapon. An Griffon P-51 with the German 30mm guns... (or if too early for them the 20mm RAF Hispanos)..
maybe a Yak-9 with griffon engine and armed with nose-Hispanos and four 50. cal mgs???
What about double-engine, heavy-fighters like the Mosquito?
I like to would have a P-38 air frame with Griffon engines and 2 Hispanos and 2 .50 cal mgs located in the nose...
I like to would have a P-38 air frame with Griffon engines and 2 Hispanos and 2 .50 cal mgs located in the nose...
Okay. I'll opt for the Merlin 66, with almost 1600 HP at 16000 ft. Wing - roughly from the Nakajima Saiun, but smaller, 200 sq ft. Fuselage - plenty to choose from, like Spitfire, Fw 190, P-51 etc. Four MG 151/20, in the wing roots, synchronised. Cockpit canopy from late Typhoon versions.
Griffon engine does not allow for prop gun/cannon, and that engine might be a bit too big & heavy for the Yaks. .50 cal guns are good, but for the same weight allowance cannons offer better firepower, and again the Yaks are a bit too small for 5 guns?
Perhaps pair the DB 605 on the Yak?
The P-38 have had plenty of it's problems that were unrelated to the engine choice. Low Mach number due to several factors (= can't dive as well as the other fighters of the day), high drag, it was much bigger than most of 1-engined fighters powered with V12 engines (= easier to spot and hit), blind spots due to being 2-engined and twin boom, low rate of roll before the boosted ailerons were fitted, awkward layout of controls and gauges, cockpit heating and just one generator before 1944 etc.
Already by 1942, it was feasible to combine speed, range and armament on just one engine, especially for the UK and USA, with benefits to the rate of roll, as small the size as possible thus no problems of offering the enemy the chance to act & fire 1st, no problems with blind spots, no need to train fighter pilots for a twin. All along with obvoius lower cost to buy and operate.