Fiat G.55 vs. ___________

[Graham Boak]

Originally Posted by Squeelig

Italy left the field of combat in September of 1943. At that time, there were Fiat G.55's in service on the front lines, although the number was but a few.

In September of 1943, was there any fighter in service of any nation that was superior to the G.55 in a dogfight?

Well, we could start with the Zero and the Oscar, continue with the Yak 9 and La.5, go on to the Spitfire Mk.5 or Mk.9, and add the Fw.190.

It does rather depend what you mean by a "dogfight", but this normally refers to a close-quarters attempt to outturn the opponent. I know of no reason to suppose that the G.55, nice aircraft though it was, was superior to these contemporaries in such close-quarters manoeuvring combat. Indeed, it would be in trouble trying to classically "dogfight" earlier Italian types such as the MC 200 and CR 42. If you extend the battle arena outside those parameters, to include high-energy tactics, then the Japanese and Russian types drop out as does the Mk.V Spit, but the P-51B, P-47 and Bf 109G would at least equal if not exceed the overall performance of the Fiat.

Such matters do rather tend to be subjective rather than objective, but if you rank contemporaries using parameters such as wing loading (low weight divided by wing area, low = good in turns) and power loading (power over weight, high = good in accelerations/climbs), max. speed (including variation with altitude) and climb rates, you can go some way towards a more objective judgement. If you can find a convincingly unbiased set of performance data for all types.

IMHO, the G.55 was a good fighter for its time, but not exceptional.