The Best Fighter Aircraft of World War 2

Guys, i know that the Allied countries enjoyed air supremacy throughout the whole war, but the German Luftwaffe also did come up with some good designs banging even the mighty B-17 with a few shots, some info?

 

read here..
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dasreich

http://www.chuckhawks.com/best_fighter_planes.htm

 

Yes, do continue the previous thread please.

 

Hold it right there!

The Germans enjoyed air supremacy from 1939 to late 1940 in the West, and from 1939 to at least 1942 in the East.

The Japanese enjoyed air supremacy from 1934 over China, to at least the end of 1941 against the US and Britain.

No way was it as one-sided as you seem to think. The Allies came from behind, and gained air supremacy through diligent effort over time.

Okay, carry on now.

 

Actually I don't think anyone enjoyed air supremacy in Wester Europe up until 44

As for best threads come up with a generally acceptable defintion of best and we might be able to come up with an answer. The lmg thread is the only one I've seen to date where there has been one. Although if you did one on the best PT boat there would also likely be a generally acknowledged winner.

 

The primary German fighters for the war were:

Daytime: The Me 109 (1939 - 45) and Fw 190 (1941-45)

Nightime: The Ju 88, Me 110 and, He 219.

Now, there are a number of other aircraft that appeared in small quantities during the war that also fought but, the bulk of the Luftwaffe when it came to fighters were the above.

Looking at the two day fighters, the Me 109 was adequite for the task in the early campaigns of the war. It out performed Polish and French fighters for the most part and its relatively short range wasn't a major problem. In the BoB the 109 had parity in performance but range was lacking.
From there the 109 simply was going down hill. In Russia and North Africa it lacked the range to really be useful offensively. In defense of the Reich it got a repreve in that it was exactly what was necessary: A short range interceptor. Now, its big problem was armament. It couldn't easily tackle big four engined bombers with its light armament.
The Focke Wulf was a better plane, at least to 20,000 feet. It had heavy armament and excellent performance. But, the altitude problem made intercepting daylight raids more difficult.
The other problem was simply numbers. Up through the end of 1941 there were effectively less than 100 in service mostly in the West. Production couldn't meet demand.
The Fw 190D really fixes most of the problems of the A models. It had the altitude performance and maneuverability to give it parity with Allied late war fighters. Its cousin the Ta 152 was really more of a progressive development than some brilliant new figther. But, that aircraft really didn't get much in the war of operational service.


At night the Ju 88 and He 219 were the two performers. They were roughly equal aircraft in most respects. Both proved decent nightfighters for their time and mostly they were handicapped by mediocre electronics more than any armament or performance flaw.

So, when it comes to "best" fighter of the war I think the Germans simply come up short.

 

More than the aircraft it was the men, that made the fighter. Of course put a good pilot in a good plane and you'll get it even better. As Galland told Goering: "give me some Spitfires"
Njg2 prefered flying the Ju88 at night but Njg4 and 5 enjoyed the Bf-110 just as well.

 

What criteria are you using? Best Interceptor?, Best Escort, Best multi role?

 

In my opinion the best carrier based fighter was the Japanese Zero in terms of it's speed and manuverablity. the best overall land based fighter was the legendary Bf-109 series

 

And the Hellcat and Corsair was inferior to it?

 

It dominated the skies against the allies until 1942

 

Its domination was a year at most, and the US was employing tactics (Thatch Weave) by the time of Midway that balanced the odds greaty, so the Zero domination was closer to 6-9 months in reaity.

 

Another way to say that is: It dominated the skies until the US got involved. Seems like the AVG was able to hold their own against the Zero flying P-40's. I think there was a pilot on Bataan that scored a victory over a Zero while flying a P-36. The F4F Wildcat had a 5.9:1 Kill ratio on the Zero in 1941 and an overall ratio of 6.9:1
(Grumman F4F Wildcat - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

 

Ha ha, beat you hs time

 

Barely

 

The AVG was opposed by the IJAAF, not the Navy, and contrary to myth never met the Zero in combat.
Zeros over China, 1941-1942

The F4F had an overall kill ratio of 5.86:1 for 1941-42 which includes bomber/attack aircraft shot down (not that wikipedia is ever wrong). The F4F had a 2.91:1 exchange ratio against fighter type aircraft during the same period. from Naval Aviation Combat Statistics, World War II.

 

Specifically against the Zero, as pointed out in Lundstrom's The First Team, the ratio in the first year or so of the Pacific war it was 1 to 1 almost exactly.

 

I seem to recall that that figure is based on crosschecking the incidents so it's not just a number based on claims. I could be wrong though.

 

Thanks for clearing that up.....

 

For my money the F4U Corsair was the best single engine fighter of the period, mainly due to its versatilty in both air to air and air to ground missions, and its ability to be either a land or carrier based. After that the FW 190 family get my vote, versatale in the intercepter and ground attack role.