most succesful fighter pilot

[TigerTimon]

Hello,

there's always this discussion who were the most succesful fighter pilots, in terms of the highest number of enemy aircraft put out of action. The final word has not yet been said about the final numbers brought down by the highest scoring aces. The subject is just so sensitive and we have to be cautious in this.
But, we can actually have some certainty...
What if we just say the most succesful pilot was the one with the highest number of aircrew put out of action? Than, all of a sudden it is crystal clear!
That would be Heinz-Wolfgang Schnaufer, the highest scoring night fighter ace.
And that would make the Bf 110 G-4 the most succesful fighter of the war.

Discussion closed, problem solved. :-) (Just kidding, keep the discussion going. )

Kind regards,

Timon

[HGabor]

Timon,

Interesting idea, but it would be a veeery long research. Like AD (Active Directory) in the Servers: results (pilots' order) changing all the time. For daytime fighters, I guess the Me 109 G will be the winner. For daytime pilots? Now that's a different story. Sorry to bring the same example again (because I researched them), but to me eg. Lipfert : Hartmann = 2 : 1
Also, the conditions have to be set. What if a certain plane was shot down more times? Like IL-2m3, S/N: 1878785 was shot down by ~Bf 109s at least twice. Down, repaired, then down again... Something to think about.

Gabor