American Banshee vs Me262

Who do you think would win in such a battle ?

 

It would depend on the polit.

Christian

 

First of, this probably is better moved to the Air Warfare section, but here goes with some stats...

F2H Banshee
First flight: Jan. 11, 1947
Model number: F2H-2
Wingspan: 44 feet 11 inches (without tip tanks, 41 feet 8 inches)
Length: 40 feet 4 inches
Height: 14 feet, 6 inches
Weight: 14,234
Ceiling: 48,500 feet
Speed: 586 mph (max.)
Range: 1,200 miles
Power plant: Two 3,250-pound-thrust J34-WE-34 turbojets
Accommodation: 1 crew
Armament: Four 20 mm cannons, 1,000-pound bomb load

http://www.boeing.com/history/mdc/banshee.htm

Type: Me 262A-1a
Function: fighter
Year: 1944 Crew: 1
Engines: 2 * 900kg Junkers Jumo 004B-1
Wing Span: 12.48 m
Length: 10.60 m
Height: 3.84 m
Wing Area: 21.70 m2
Empty Weight: 3800 kg
Max.Weight: 6400 kg
Speed: 870 km/h (My Notes, Approx 545 mph)
Ceiling: 11450 m (My Notes, Approx 37,500ft)
Range: 1050 km (My Notes, Approx 650 Miles)
Armament: 4*g30 mm

http://www.fighter-planes.com/info/me262.htm

The "My Notes" are just my own rough Metric/Imperial conversions rather than official figures, simply to save time searching around for stats in Imperial.

The Sturmvogel Me262 could also carry a 500lb bombload.

Observations.

The Banshee is faster in clean flight and has a more flexible weapons load of 4 20mm cannon, although the Me262's weapons were more destructive they were geared to bomber interception, that said I have read of field conversions of the Me262 which replaced the top pair of 30mms with a pair of 20mm Mg151/20s.

I'm not sure how much ammunition the Banshee carried for its guns but the Me262 in its standard configuration only carried about 9 seconds for the top guns and 11 for the bottom, meaning the Messerschmitt pilot would have to be pretty sure of his shots before firing otherwise he would be quickly out of ammunition. The 30mms were also not the most reliable weapons. I would guess the Banshee carried between about 15 and 25 seconds worth of fire for its cannons. Please bear in mind that is all that is for the Banshee, my own guess work not hard facts.

Overall the Banshee is faster, however its straight wings will give it a lower overall maximum speed (For example in a dive) before it starts suffering compression and becomes unmanouevrable, so at altitude the Me262 could potentially escape the Banshee by diving.

In addition the longer wings will probably mean the Banshee has a poorer Roll rate making it the Me262 arguably more manouevrable as it will probably be able to execute high-G turns and Split-S manouevres more quickly.

Probably the biggest problem for the Me262 would be the reliability of the engines.

Overall I would probably put my money on the Banshee, but it would be a very close call.

 

It would been a lot more fair to compare the FH-1 Phantom, from which the Banshee was developed, to the Me 262 instead. They were more contemporaneous ( yes, that's a word ).

Having said that, the Banshee was a far more advanced aircraft than the Me 262, but it was developed for an entirely different role. It was a shipboard fighter with emphasis on range and adverse weather cabability.