Posted on 11/10/2017 6:43:02 AM PST by sukhoi-30mki
Looks like a F-16 and F-18 mated and had a kid.
Kind of like the Japanese entree in the film “Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machine”?
And with the conformal fuel tanks, it looks like that kid has mumps!
The lost lesson of WWII: Quantity is a quality of its own.
We didn’t beat Japan’s Zero by having a better aircraft. We beat it by having more aircraft.
We didn’t beat the German tanks by having a superior tank. We beat them by having more tanks.
We didn’t beat Japan’s navy by having superior ships. We beat them by have really good ships and many of them.
We didn’t beat Germany’s air force by having better airplanes. We beat them by having many more airplanes.
An F-35 may be good at some things, but a swarm of really good aircraft will overwhelm an F-35. It can only engage so many targets and is can only carry so many munitions to do that.
I’ll reply to this later in depth. For now, you are correct in that “Perfect is the enemy of good enough”. However, other than tanks, the US had superiority in everything else top to bottom.
Quantity by itself does not suffice.
By 1043 the US had superior carrier-based planes to the Japanese. The Corsair and Hellcat were nearly 80 mph faster and more heavily armed and armored.
Even in 1040-1941 a P-40 could compete with a zero if used right.
We had better airplanes than the Germans. Even the Soviets had a plane that scared the wits out of the Germans.
“Quantity by itself does not suffice.”
Lack of quantity is always a failure. When you run out, you’re done.
“We had better airplanes than the Germans.”
Not always, and certainly not at the end of the war when they fielded their jet aircraft. They simply didn’t have enough of them.
The lesson isn’t that having quantity guarantees a win. The lesson is that when you run out of whatever you have, you’re done.
We didn’t beat Japan’s Zero by having a better aircraft. We beat it by having more aircraft.
The Wildcat and P40 were equal to or slightly inferior to the Zero
The Hellcat, Corsair P38 and P51 took the Zero to the woodshed
My wife was just trying to explain this to a young teacher the other day.
Sometimes your opponent has them but doesn’t want to tangle with you like the Iraqis/Syrians/etc.
Israel proved that a smaller number can be superior.
That was later in the war. Earlier, we had inferior aircraft but we field more of them and used them well.
F-5 and F-16.
Never forget the lessons of the past.
The Japanese possibly did us a favor at Pearl Harbor by destroying so many old aircraft on the ground, but NOT the pilots, who could then be put into better planes.
The Zero was better than the F4 and P-40 in the early war. However, the “Flying Tigers” developed boom and zoom tactics that helped out the F4’s once utilized. Joe Foss won his CMH in a F4 against the cream of the Japanese early war aircraft. Once the F6 and F4U came into play the Japanese were swatted out of the sky. Japanese bombers were hopelessly slow, fragile, and outdated. Meanwhile the US had the B-24, B-25, B-17, and B-29. The B-29 was so fast and flew at such high altitude that the Japanese couldn’t even get to them until the “George” came out near the end of the war.
Germany had good planes but they had short legs. (short range) Both the P-51 and P-47 could do long range escort and the P-51 was every bit as maneuverable and faster than anything the Germans had until the Me-262 jet which came too late. The P-47 was a fantastic CAS platform and with rockets made a great tank killer. Germany had no 4 engine long range bombers.
Most US Navy capital ships (cruisers, battleships) had radar guided targeting computers. They were vastly superior to the Japanese targeting systems. US Aircraft Carriers were better in every way. The only thing the Japanese had that was better was torpedoes.
US Tanks were reliable, easier to produce, easier to maintain, but undergunned until the E-8 Sherman. The M-18 Hellcat, M-10,and M-36 tank destroyers had good main guns but open top lightly armored turrets and/or chassis. Mostly it was doctrine in the use of tanks.
US Artillery was the best overall in WWII.
US transport trucks, jeeps, halftracks, duece and a halfs, etc were all better, easier to maintain, and easier to produce.
You are correct sir. The boom and zoom tactics developed by the “Flying Tigers” in P-40 Warhawks gave the F-4 pilots early in the war parity at the least. Once the F-6 Hellcat and F-4U Corsair were put into action the Japanese Air forces were done. The biography of Saburo Sakai mentioned how inferior the Japanese planes were near the end of WWII.
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