Quote:
Originally Posted by GuerraCivil
But as Ruy Horta suspects in this thread: http://forum.12oclockhigh.net/showth...ight=P-47+p-51 - I have also the feeling that everyone loved P-51 because it was prettier, cheaper, faster etc. than the poor Razorback. The one became the swan and the other remained as ugly duckling.
I still think that P-47 was what was needed and was available when there were teething problems with P-38 and improved P-51 not ready to take in combat in great numbers...
I have not complete data but I believe that it will show the downward spiral of LW dayfighter force and growing losses at accelerating speed as soon as Thunderbolts entered in the picture... |
GuerraCivil, you are not quite acknowledging that the Mustang was a fundamentally superior to its contemporaries, much like the Bf 109 when it appeared in the late 1930s. For purposes of illustration, see the comparative data on zero-lift drag coefficient (CD,o) and maximum lift-drag ratio (L/D)max , for several US aircraft.
http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/Hi...468/app-a2.htm
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The P-47 was needed above all because the P-38 groups had been sent to the Mediterranean. The 1st, 14th and 82nd Fighter Groups made a very important contribution to Allied victory in Tunisia as well as Sicily. The first Lightning group of the Eighth, the 55th FG, did not become operational until mid-October 1943. In the Pacific, the 475th FG, and the equivalent of another Lightning group in separate squadrons, was operational at this time.
The key period when the Luftwaffe was defeated was the summer and early autumn of 1942, before the USAAF operations had any significant effect. In the West, the introduction of the Spitfire IX was important, but so was the improvement in Fighter Command tactics. Over the Western Desert and Malta, the situation was even clearer. The Spitfire V and the Merlin-engined Kittyhawk II (P-40F) were both inferior to the Bf 109, but the Luftwaffe technical advantage was relatively narrow and so Allied numerical superiority proved decisive. This is the reason why I think the Thunderbolt versus Mustang debate on its own is less important, it is the general course of the air war that is most interesting.
Regards,
Paul