Posted on 06/15/2018 7:14:01 AM PDT by Simon Green
So what are the best and worst fighter aircraft of all time? What plane would you pick for a war in the sky?
On the surface, the questions seem easy to answer. One might look at which planes performed the best in combat as opposed to fighters that did not. Or, one could look at which planes had the best technology, took advantage of historical circumstances, or utilized a combination of the two.
Does America dominate the field of best fighters? What about Russia? Does China get any mentions? Does any one nation have more negative mentions? All good questions.
Robert Farley, one of the world’s best security experts, gives us his breakdown. Over two articles, combined for your reading pleasure written several years ago, provides a strong look at the contenders for best fighters, but also, the worst of the worst.
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalinterest.org ...
The greatness of the P-47 was that it was without peer in ground support, but if jumped by enemy fighters it could drop its ordinance and duke it out with the best the enemy could offer.
That one’s my favorite! My father was the pilot of a P-38
The Soviets loved the P-39 Airacobra.
Five of the 10 highest scoring Soviets aces logged the majority of their kills in P-39s. Grigoriy Rechkalov scored 44 victories in Airacobras. Pokryshkin scored 47 of his 59 victories in P-39s, making him the highest scoring P-39 fighter pilot of any nation, and the highest scoring Allied fighter pilot using an American fighter.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_P-39_Airacobra
AFAIK, nothing in WW2 could outturn a Japanese fighter.
“Any list without the P-51 Mustang is bogus.”
Absolutely. (Although the Corsair was better according to some pilots:)). I’d add the FW190 D (analogue to the Mustang- used a bomber engine too) and the F-8 Bearcat, which would have outclassed everything if the war hadn’t ended right before it was off-loaded from the ships.
Who ever wrote that article is a moron and does not have any business commenting on aviation or fighter aircraft. That is the dumbest list I have ever seen.
The Zero was a flash in the pan. A highly maneuverable platform flown by outstanding combat veterans naturally faired better against inexperienced American pilots flying Brewster Buffaloes but even the much maligned F4F Wildcats had higher kill rates versus the Zero
The P-38 Lightning effectively rendered the Zero obsolete.
Glad to see the WW I SPAD S XIII on the list, but disappointed not to see the WWII P 51, (Sexiest plane that ever flew) not on the list.
These types of lists end up being “personal opinion” because they often don’t establish qualitative measurements for performance. I have my personal favorites of fighters and bombers for different eras.
Nice picture of the 3 model kits.
The Spitfire had the same engine as the Merlin powered
P-51 Mustang. The Mustang had twice the fuel capacity and twice the range of a Spitfire though. Due to its lake of range, the Spitfire was useless as a bomber escort.
For bomber escort and fighter superiority missions, the
P-51 Mustang was the best fighter of WWII. The P-47 was the best fighter-bomber due to its air-cooled radial engine, 8 50-caliber machine guns, and bomb load capacity. Fighters with a liquid-cooled engine like the P-51 and Spitfire were much more vulnerable in ground attack missions.
P-39 had excellent low altitude performance but was terrible at high altitude. Since most air combat on the Eastern Front was at low - medium altitude, the Soviets were fine with the P-39's operational limitations.
My recollection is the Soviets liked the P-39 as a hard hitting ground attack aircraft that could fight its way out of trouble unlike the Il-2.
There was a little Soviet plane called the I16 that would turn on a dime. I flew this one a lot for fun in one of the simulators. It was hard for other planes to hit me, but my ammo was so anemic I could run out of ammo trying to shoot another plane down.
But yeah, in the Pacific Theater, if you got into a turning competition with a good Japanese pilot, you were done.
Thanks for pointing out the author’s rather glaring mistake about the Royal Aircraft Factory BE-2.
However, there was a single-seat fighter variant of the BE-2, called the BE-12. It was thoroughly outclassed by German machines. The Red Baron shot down several.
Well sure, once they added external tanks. :)
WTF? Oh boy. I suspect they are only considering the amount of enemy they shot down, and even then.
P51
Spitfire
P47
P38
F4
All WW2 I put the 51 on top because of its range. The 47 did not have the range because it was a hell of a gas hog.
The 38 actually got near the sound barrier in its dives and pilots had real problems with it till they fixed that. Besides that, it was a plane designed by the best.
Read “Fork-tailed Devil”.
Thanks. Could you help me out a bit with why you are recommending the book.
“Erich Hartmann, the World’s top scoring fighter ace, claiming 352 victories, flew only the Bf 109G....”
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