Fastest WW2 Fighter plane

Here's some good primary documents on the Tempest.

Tempest V Performance

 

Thanks for the link
The reference book I quoted from was Yellow 10: The Story of the Ultra-Rare Fw 190 D-13 & think a Luft pilot flue the Fw 190

 

The P-38 only went around 414mph

 

Well actually the P-38 J probably hit 430 MPH maybe a little faster and the P-38L upwards of 440 MPH more if 44-1 fuel was used.
edit...
it seems the P-38J whoose engines put out 1600 HP each on WEP could hit 421 MPH at 25,800'. They could be modified to pull 75' enabling each engine to put out 2000 HP. The P-38L's had uprated engines putting out 1725 HP each on WEP ,it wieghed about the same as the P-38J so should be faster because of the uprated engines . I'm thinking they developed about 2200 HP each with pulling 75".

 

Thats not really the point. Do you think the P-38 was the fastest piston engine fighter?

 

No I don't think it was the fastest fighter in the war I was just pointing out it was faster then most give it credit for.

 

Different versions have different speeds. I'm sure for almost every plane you could say "well this version produced on August 13, 1945 using WEP can actually go faster than such and such"

 

The Dora-13 wasn't run with ny form of boost during the mock dogfight with the Tempest, and even then it was found to be a match for the Tempest and the Dora-13 actually won the fight.

If MW-50 had been used the Tempest would've been badly embarrased.

Of all the piston engined fighters that the Allies put into service during WW2 not one could even approach the 770 km/h top speed of the Dora-13.

 

Nonsense I posted earlier several types that were just as fast including two production models ,the P-47M & P-51H furthermore the P-47 was probably just as fast,i.e. 470-480 MPH.

 

Are the speeds over 414 mph for the P-38L just what the manufacturer claimed it was possible to do, or is there evidence the USAAF units in the field achieved this increase of speed as well, as there seems to be serious doubts about whether or not operational aircraft reached these speeds.

 

Joe Baugher's site seems to indicate that those were real speeds as tested by the USAAF, and in the production blocks listed.

See:

Lockheed P-38L Lightning

I might be reading that wrong, but Baugher is usually "dead on" in these things.

 

The problem I have is that the official USAAF figures, and the figure in all the books I have on the P-38 give its maximum speed in level flight as 414 mph with the L model, but I've heard reference to the fact that the L could achieve speeds up to 440 mph with certain modifications, I was just wondering if any operational aircraft were so modified, and if so where ?

 

The fastest piston engined aircraft to enter service in WW2 was the P-51H with a top speed of 487 MPH at 25,000ft, but it didn't see combat.

The fastest piston engined aircraft to both enter service and see combat was the P-47M with a top speed of 475mph at 32,000 feet.

 

No it's from primary documents nut just from some book.

 

Sounds very reasonable but if the US was having combat closer to it's shores the P-51H would have seen service meanwhile I brought up somer of those other test aircraft because they were madein numbers similar to what the Dora13 was produced in.

 

What primary documents ??
Are these just the manufacturers figures or did the USAAF give these figures.?????

 

The fastest Allied fighter to both see service and combat in WW2 was the Gloster Meteor Mk III which entered operational service in December 1944 with a top speed of 493 mph.

ps; just as an aside , In November, 1945, a standard Meteor Mark IV, piloted by Group Captain H J Wilson broke the then world speed record with a top speed in level flight of 606 mph (so much for Luft 46 )

 

On the Spitfire Performance website they are given but you also must look at the wieghts of the aircraft involved in the test. In the article on 150 fuel it talks about equipping squdrons of various aircraft to use upgraded fuel/overboost.

 

Sorry but you're the only one posting nonesense here as first of all the P-51H never made it into frontline service before the war in Europe ended, and secondly the P-47M was slower.

Furthermore actual flight testing of the P-51H proved it to perform a lot worse than expected, achieving a top speed closer to 450 mph. Check out the site one of you referenced earlier, it is also mentioned there.

Also 770+ km/h translates into 478+ mph, and no piston engined aircraft to see service with the Allies during WW2 ever flew that fast.

 

I think A. Gardner make a very good point about what was a operational & what is not
Is you go by operational fighter then the Spitfire Mk21 is up there