Most Overrated aircraft of WWII?

By 1944 the above statement is both irrelevant and incorrect. Typically by early 1944 it is not uncommon on a large daylight raid for the US to put up 500 to 700 bombers and an equal quantity of fighter escort. As Allied pilots now generally had several hundred more hours of operational flying time and even more before that in training compared to the paltry few Luftwaffe pilots were getting most Allied fighter jocks were not only enthusiastic about but hungry to engage the Luftwaffe regardless of what the later was flying. By that late in the war an Allied pilot had only to worry about running into one of a handful of dwindling experten that could give them a run for their money. The other 95% of the Luftwaffe was basically aerial target practice.
The Ta 152 was a serious non-stater. Without looking up exact numbers far less than 100 actually became operational and even then saw service with just a squadron or two and had virtually no flying time by the end of the war. So, for all of its vaulted "superiority" it too accomplished nothing.
For the Allies detaching a few hundred escorts to roam across Europe looking for things German to shoot up made perfect sense. This is even moreso true as escort fighters generally operated in waves one relieving the next of escort to and from targets.
Basically, a German pilot needed to be looking over his shoulder from the moment his wheels came up until he taxied off the runway. Allied aircraft dominated the entire sky over Western Europe and that is hardly an exaggeration.

 

absolutely spot on! I love the Ta 152 and it was probably the best piston fighter of the war, but essentially it achieved absolutely nothing. The Allies (not just US) by 1944 had better pilots and far greater numbers...the Germans never stood a chance!

 

This was a hot fighter! The USAAF decided not to produce it as they no longer needed interceptors.

http://www.warbirdsresourcegroup.org/URG/xp72.html

This plane could practically run down an Me 262 and outclimb it handily.

 

While I agree that the B-17 was overrated, let's make a few points clear. Its virtue and value was not the amount of bombs it could carry. What made it valuable, was the amount of punishment it could take and return its crew home. It was a beautiful aircraft and solidly built. It moved Boeing up to a new level as an aircraft builder. It was a first rate aircraft for the start of the war, and made great improvements over the duration of the war. IMHO, it was the better aircraft over the B-24, but it depends on what criteria you choose to follow.

 

The Swordfish was overrated. The myth that German and Italian ships couldn't hit it with their AA fire is just that. Myth. Attacking at night or a single ship virtually any aircraft could drive home an attack successfully with little or no loss. Look at the Prince of Wales and Repulse. The Japanese attacked with far more capable aircraft and sank both for small loss.
As far as it goes, many aircraft could fulfill the role of the Swordfish just as well or better. In ASW work the Avenger would be a better choice. Much more range and carrying capacity, better loiter times. All critical to ASW aircraft.
If the Swordfish were used in the Pacific war during its early days its reputation would have been tarnished beyond repair. I doubt anyone could imagine it trying to make a run on the Japanese carriers at Midway in the face of Zero fighter opposition. Unopposed in the Atlantic and Mediterrainian it was successful. If it had to face enemy fighters it was little more than target practice.
The major reason it wasn't replaced was the low priority on design work given carrier aircraft by Britain. Outside of the lash up Seafire and SeaHurricane British designers really didn't put much forward that actually reached service. The Firefly managed to just make it. The Blackburn Firebrand never did. The Albatross proved a failure.
In the end, the FAA had to turn to US designs for successful aircraft to replace their own marginal designs.

 

LOL Sorry I have to laugh at this. The P-51s were not detached from bomber escort duty to attack the fields. They targeted the airfields and Me-262s intentionally knowing that when the bomber streams were approaching or leaving it was a good time to attack when they were vulnerable.

 

different words for the same meaning. it doesn't take much to make you laugh, eh?

so again, how did the me-262 get to be overrated? because it was vulnerable on take-off and landing, or because the american pilots were scared to death of it at the start?

 

Totally agree. In fact, I really can't figure out why the Navy didn't just leave the Italian Fleet and the Bismark to the US to sort out while those over-rated Swordfish crews just put their feet up.

 

The question remains - by whom was the Swordfish over-rated in WWII ?

' When the Royal Navy took over the Fleet Air Arm from the RAF in 1938, it inherited obsolete aircraft. It was apparent...to the Naval aircrew that they could expect no replacements from the British aircraft industry because its resources were...concentrated on producing Hurricanes and Spitfires. When war was declared in 1939, the FAA was required in their obsolete aircraft...to support the RAF in the face of the very modern aircraft of the Luftwaffe. If some FAA aircrew did not rate their chances of survival as high, they were right....' ( Vice Admiral Sir Charles Evans, in 'War In A Stringbag', 1977 ).

I can find no reference to the Swordfish being highly-rated by anyone in 1939/40, not the Admiralty, certainly not FAA crews, and definitely not the Kriegsmarine or Regia Marina Italiana.

 

Wth? Internet overload, methinks. Really, you should read up on all the things it was capable of in some depth. I don't know what the rest of your post is supposed to achieve.

 

i'll just wait for the discussion to move to the overrated zero fighter. what i learned from the guys here so far is, if the ta142 came out in greater numbers, it'll be the p-51 that's overrated.

 

The Zero being a naval fighter, pray tell which aircraft carriers did the Imperial Japanese Navy deploy over mainland China to counter the Flying Tigers?

Remember, not every Japanese fighter was a Zero, there were the Army ones too...

 

Excellent point ZA !!!
The Ki-43 Oscar was rated better than the Zero I read someplace but I forgot where. They are the ones the Flying Tigers flew against and also the smaller Claude fighter.

 

Why would an Oscar rate better than a Zero? Its flimsier, slower, and is armed in most versions with little more than a couple of "paint chippers." And, yes, the IJN did deploy the first Zeros into China to combat test them but, they appeared fairly late into service there and were not in action that long before the Pacific War broke out.

 

I would say because it had such poor reliablility and was a fuel hog that it was a "self-defeating" aircraft. With engines that had a service life of maybe just two sorties, often less anything more than a handful in service literally suck up the entire production of Jumo 004 engines just to stay flying. Requiring nearly 2 tons of fuel per flight, as few as 50 to 100 would literally require Germany to give up panzers to keep them flying given the status of their fuel production in 1944.
On top of that, the landing gear was prone to failure, the aircraft itself often had manufacturing issues in general and all-in-all was a in-service nightmare.
While the few that did manage operational sorties proved to be a handful for the US their small numbers were never a serious threat. The above was going to keep them from ever becoming one.

 

Well, at least in true British tradition the crews were smart enough to know what they were stuck with. Likely the Commander Blimps and Admiral Ironbottoms behind desks were forwarding memos rating the aircraft in glowing bureaucratic terms as all good managerial desk jockys that never have to worry about being shot at do.
This is like the RAF still using the Wellesley in North Africa; another case of "There you are old man take this crate up and bomb those eyties over there! Piece of cake!"

 

It was the Japanese pilots who rated them better than a Zero since they were lighter and more maneuverable. The pilots at he time thought this was better than firepower and armor for the pilot.

 

The IJA was considered to have its ranks filled with some of the most rock headed and uncivilized men in Japan by the IJN. At least in the rock headed part they were TDC on that one.

 

The Swordfish was one of the most reliable aircraft to ever fly, just the type of aircraft you need if you are flying off a very small escort carriers in the middle of the Atlantic during winter.

 

I was incorrect about the Claude. This is the aircraft I was thinking of. Both look similar and also remind me of the P-26 Peashooter.

Nakajima Ki-27 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia