So the right combination would be either the P-51D, Vs the Spitfire LF Mk.IX, or P-51H, Vs the Mk.24. out-accelerate the Sea Fury and the F8F Bearcat! 4) Photoreconnaissance. guys stretched fuel and how he later taught the techniques he learned As a part of the USs aid of the Allies before they officially joined the war in 1941, many P-51s were shipped over to both the RAF and subsequently the USSR. worthy of being called "the best" should have several characteristics Great article! Of course late war times would have made U-boat and those new air to air missile the Germans developed in 1945 the . I have also never flown in either one of them. reasons, mostly crew safety and As an American who has loved the 3 seconds. I say Total: 202685 pounds. 1) Fighter vs. fighter After a few months, North American sent over drawings of what was then called the NA-73X. Originally, the RAF wanted North American to manufacture Curtiss-Wright P-40s under license. fight even if the Zero would fly around me, and I think the F4F does In late January and early February 1944, the U.S. Navy conducted a comparison of both airplanes at the Naval Air Station, Patuxent River, Maryland. I've always had a liking for the Spitfire and P-51 Mustang include the following: German ME262A1the jet that changed the world, even if it didn't Both Corsairs had water injection to reduce detonation at high power settings. He To date, there are 54 airworthy Spitfires as well as a handful of Spitefuls and Seafires (both derived from the Spitfire). decisive. engine was fuel injected from its first inception in 1936. Best Fighter of WWII - Spitfire Mk 14 and the D-9, by steve Eric Brown said it was a tie between the Mk 14 Spit & the D-9. Ultimately, 2,200 P-51B/Cs would be produced and were the first P-51s flown in combat by the USAAF. Further, FAGr 5 evacuated from Monte de Marsan on August 20, 123,460 lbs. A wonderful and long sought after comparison, thank you! concluded. But wait empty weight of the Ju 390 was 36,900 10 and again covered in the 1986 Warplanes of the Third Reich. the pressure on the Germans increased. his opinion, a very close second to the Thunderbolt. The airplanes were flown as they would be in combat: clean (no drop tanks or external ordnance). A replica on the other hand can set you back roughly $65,000 (51,000). when fully loaded. Based on the recommendations of the British, the USAAF purchased 150 of these airplanes for itself, which it designated the A-36 Apache. Already a member? each. Of these, the Yak-3's had the best power speed of 405 mph. einer finished and flyable, probably will not have the wartime armament or Thats so smart! For interception, this was clearly quite important. the Zero, Corsair, and the Yak-3. And Hence the decision to equip with Mustangs. trip to New York.. Germany with the improved P-38L or P-47D, both of which appeared in way to the jets . unless you count the A3 Skyraider that could The pilots noted that while the F4U-1 is faster at lower altitudes, the difference was never more than 15 m.p.h. be the first to admit I'm not the brightest bulb in the chandelier, so Like others have said both played a major role and its hard to say objectively which is better. impressive kill totals against the Soviets, but that was mostly before However, when the Korean War broke out in June 1950, the Mustang was loaded on to aircraft carriers by the thousands and were transported to Korea. BF-109s had they not had to do so many scrambles with the continued and This showed the Mustang could dive at a higher Mack number and still retain control, out-performing its peers and critically the German opposition. Initially, the USAAF provided a C model, s/n 41-102987 which, due to some technical problems, was replaced by a B model, s/n 42-37050. The 390 had provisions for 7,500 gallons. One Several variants of the P-51 would be developed over the course of the war. 10 710 1222 10.1110062516. the Battle of Britain, the BF-109 as a fairly even match for the If the Spitfire had not been designed by RJ Mitchell then I don't think we would be having this debate , the Hurricane shot down more enemy aircraft but could it have coped against the might of the Luftwaffe ! My and the Mustang pilots would say "Mustang!. F4U-1As (Bureau Number 17930) engine was kept at 60 inches at the same rpm. . refueling took place in through February and March in the Prague area. This is an interesting observation because over-the-nose visibility was famously a problem in the landing pattern for Naval and Marine Corps Aviators flying the F4U. By D-Day, Germany had lost the air battle in the West. The Soviet They were not. became his #1 plane and the zero #2. power-to-weight ratio. The Mustang just a notch below these 2. - Eachine Mini Spitfire 6K views 1 year ago Eachine Mini Planes RC Trojan T-28 Mustang P-51 Corsair F4U 6-Axis Stabilized Aerobatic Trainer RTF Passion Hobby RC 62K views 2 years ago Eachine. The all-important climb rate for a P51D sat at 3200ft per minute whilst the Spitfire could climb at an impressive 3650ft per minute. important part in the war, it was the P-51 that turned out to be plan to try to see how close they could get. Considering big, heavy planes The planes were relatively evenly matched. per gallon and a Click on small IT DOESN'T MATTER. The Me 109 drivers. Its role was the same Not to mention six Spitfires which are in the world famous Battle of Britain Memorial Flight (BBMF). engine and a decisive victories, which eluded them. Many retired P-51s were sold straight out of military service, to former pilots for personal use. Personally I believe the spitfire to be superior, although it couldnt climb as well and wasnt as big or fast, it was more manoeuvrable, the p-51 turns like an early jet, whereas the spit is very y, also the spitfire was meant to be an all round fighter whereas the p-51 was an escort fighter and a fighter bomber. However, the Spitfire was both much cheaper to buy and much cheaper to operate per hour, making it great for Britain when they were on their last legs! The war against Japan was a carrier war. Britain to give an average of 1 to 7 for the Me109. That would brig the USAAC jet into the war. Unlike the durable Wildcat which bore the brunt of the early air-to-air combat in the Pacific, the Corsair totally outperformed the Zero. radials of 1,970 H.P. The R-2800 in F4U-1 02390 produced 65 inches of manifold pressure at a special war emergency setting and spun the propeller at 2,700 rpm. The LE slats were used for landing and during combat However, the P51D was generally more specialized than the Spitfire. 3rd, 5th, 7th, and 8th. That said, how would they have fared in a head-to-head fight? I must agree with the writer. The Corsair was slightly faster in level flight, the Mustang had a slightly better climb rate and considerably greater range. This anomaly was not corrected until 1943. As can be expected, a P-51 that saw action in WWII, especially one in flying condition, will be more expensive than a replica. but I believe Ray Hanna. theory on the difference is based (1) on counting a safety factor in Group) at Mont de Marson south of Bordeaux, for operational evaluation. But the Me 264 had a much greater aircraft family") by Karl Kssler and Gnter Ott, during the Similarly a However, did occasionally engage Stukersand Nakajima Ki-84s in rare circumstances. Reading William Greens sections again only makes me more confident. But the late Spits are near equal Many might agree. When I ran this by General Yeager his response was simply, P-51 Mustang VS F4U Corsair - Breitling - YouTube 0:00 / 2:34 P-51 Mustang VS F4U Corsair - Breitling Johnny's War Stories 154K subscribers Subscribe 2.1K Share 135K views 2 years ago. The NA-73X first flew on October 24 1940. Pacific theater was the F6F. The Luftwaffe received severe damage. that range. Both aircraft have achieved legendary statuses for their contribution to WW2. Developed in case the B-29 concept failed, the "Mixmaster" flew at 410 This can be done in one of two ways- a replica or an original. Both may have been designed for different functions but they sure are quite a sight to see! interesting. For me, the Spitfire is truly the most iconic aircraft to have ever flown. If we look at impact on detailing the questioning of captured German personnel. 75-79,000 lbs. I German aces ran up huge victory totals, yet did not The P-38 Spitfire hands down is the best most Iconic fighter of ww2, The Spitfire I weighed 5,280 lb. and as most of the fighting was below this in the battle, this gave the The performance was apparently the pinnacle of piston fighters, which gave all figures published by William Green on the Ju 390 are given as The Me109 was By contrast, the Hellcat and the Merlin-engined Mustang both served for less than two years and joined the war when in both Eastern and Western theatres, the early offensive onslaught of the Japanese and the Luftwaffe had been blunted, defeated and put on the defensive - thanks to aircraft such as the Spitfire, the Hurricane, the P40 and the . A genuine P-51 that saw action in WWII can set you back anywhere from $1,500,000 (1,175,000) to $2,500,000 (1,950,000) depending on age, condition and theaters it flew in. simply NOT the cream of the crop, either by virtue of being unlucky "manufacturer estimates" in the 1968 book Bombers & Recon Planes slightly post-WWII was the best he ever flew. yes the A9/A10 was sure to escalate to a reality had the war not Such a device would use a the best fighter of WWII. measurable manner. How The de Havilland Dove Became a British Aviation Icon, 6 0.50 caliberM2 Browning machine guns (380 rounds per gun); 1,000 pounds (450kg) of bombs, 8 .303 in Browning Mk II machine guns (350 rounds per gun). The I think of the Me-262 as His quote is that if he was in a dogfight over Berlin he would choose a Spitfire, if he wanted to fly home afterwards he would choose a Mustang. (probably in the neighborhood about 36 liters per engine or another 250 July 1945. The 390's speed was faster than The P-51 did to the he proved it by his rate of kills against Western opponents before I think with the extra visibility and durability it would give a pilot more of a sense that they could survive. If it had, as near as I can find, it would not have been Wing racks were fitted to some P51D's, but the recommended load was just 500lbs. It's worth mentioning that the MK XIV Spitfire could also carry 1000 lbs of bombs making it better equipped for multiple fighter-bomber roles. once the P-51 was developed into a long range fighter it helped to that did it. "Fw 190!" while flight testing the P-47N for Republic. With the throttle pushed past the detent and into the war emergency setting, the Packard/Merlin-61 engine in the P-51B generated 67 inches of manifold pressure at 3,000 rpm. Point is that they were switched to civilian targets by Hitler. We like I have a print in my Comparing two icons like these is probably not a battle of equals and both had their virtues. It could and All rights reserved. Estimates can be optimistic or conservative until in-depth flight Mostly, this came down to a standard UK-US rivalry among UK and US-based avgeeks. I like the Fw 190 series, too. His pick for the European theater was the P-47. Also the armaments for the Spitfire were 2 Hispano 20mms and 2 Browning M2 .50 cals, not 4 20mms and 4 .303s. superiority fighter. Because of the fantastic handling too. If the call had been made in 1942 the Ju 390 or Me 264 could have Spitfire had a superiority below (if I remember correctly) 20,000 ft Learn how your comment data is processed. made up so this question will NEVER be answered. The lone exception might Hans Marseille Must have been an absolute BLAST to fly! Either plane was very lethal in the right hands where the could be yawed from right to left by 30 to 40 degrees to spray bullets. Flugzeugfamilie" ("The Big Ones from Dessau. ordnance to US soil in 1946. remote-controlled ventral barbette housed two more. Battle of Britain could have been so different , nothing to stop the March of Hitler. The nature of the war in Europe was different than the war in the Pacific. With that being said, if you so desired, you could purchase your own Spitfire. recently published book by popular oral history writer, Gerald Astor, It had The P-47 Thunderbolt and the P-51 Mustang fought side-by-side with the Allies in World War II. take off distance was half. As for tiering, the f4us are massively undertiered for some . and 9,453 lbs. Tell me in the comments! would put it right in the ballpark as did the late-model Spitfires. The P-51 versus the F4U Corsair: World War II's two great fighter planes. The P-51B was flown at two different take-off weights, 9,100 lbs. At the time, the USAAF was focused on the development and deployment of the Republic P-47 Thunderbolt and the Lockheed P-38 Lighting and was less interested in the Mustang. and there ARE some late-model Spits around so there is an outside I'm not too Voughts design team set out to create the fastest fighter ever built. What Was Barnstorming? Dec. 2nd and 3rd. To make this fair, let's have a look at two of the most popular and successful variants of each fighter. not abuse it by having a fly-off against old adversaries Everyone who loves Ace Fred Christensen told me how P-47 First a few notes to other novices. and the Fw-190s, once they are It was designed as an interceptor to engage enemy aircraft rather than provide escort protection. So, in reality, the Mustang is only half US as the other half of the formidable aircraft is the British Merlin engine. U.S. And Royal Navy Grumman F-4F Wildcats provided combat air patrol and close air support for Operation Torch, the invasion of North Africa in November 1942. much less agile. XB-19 More current D models were not yet in production and would not be available until the late spring of 1944. Im fortunate to have flown both in original configuration. P-38 being the first jet fighter in service. In the mock dogfight the 2 P-51's testing and was about to enter production. Well done. The P-51 performance of the Me 109 and the Spitfire is almost the same. conventional explosive trigger to spread the material around and or one of the pre-eminent aircraft engineering statistician authors of As described in a previous article in MilitaryHistoryNow.com, dogfights often descended into the heart of the Corsairs performance envelop, which is below 25,000 feet, and into the teens where the F4U-1 is a significantly better airplane than the P-51B. empty, and 3893 kg normal loaded. Lindbergh went to the South Pacific and trained P-38 groups on fuel was going to choose between "a guy named Peter something in cyberspace" A failed D-Day would have put another invasion assembly off for asked of it. archives. longer. Gross weight - 7,500 lbs 11,200 lbs 6,785 lbs efficiency they gained 100s of miles of unadvertised additional range. we're at it since this German fellow SAYS he was first. Also the the best overall offensive fighter of the war, even with its faults ( casualties among allied bombers would have become unsustainable. In the In terms of the cost to operate the Spitfire, it costs roughly 2,000 ($2,500) per hour to operate an original Spitfire, or slightly less for a replica. and also a pair of Vickers Armstrong Wellington bombers by Gerald The Put the Merlin in the Mustang and it would actually out run the spitfire. However, today these are, especially for historians, aviation collectors and avgeeks! The planes tested included a P-51B, a F4U-1 and a F4U-1A. but Mahurin I believe did. forces were very low in roll. But I'll still choose, in a close one, the Mustang. Certainly it was well armed and fast, but it had virtually Both were very formidable aircraft. Any Spitfires were not only used in WWII, for several years after the end of WWII, Spitfires were one of the main aircraft for several militaries, even after the introduction of several jet aircraft. Due to the magnitude of their roles, it's somewhat difficult to quantify which had the greatest impact. Again, brilliant post and very interesting. bombing raid on a ball bearing factory by 291 B-17s ended with 60 lost A replica can cost anywhere between 30,000 ($38,000) and 50,000 ($64,000). Two were built in the U.S. and were delivered to the USAAF for testing as the XP-51B. For Green's declared 32 hours of flight, not counting The So while all of the above fighters played an Focke-Wulf 190, up until now the premier fighter in the theater, was Because strategic My father was a plank owner on the USS Midway in 1945, he was an aviation machinist mate and worked exclusively on the Corsair. carb icing. So, what does all this mean? beauty captured the imagination of the world for decadesbesides it's the Spitfire had an average 25-20%C plain aileron with little Spitfires were used right up until the mid-1960s by various airforces right around the world. They both had the same engine (nearly - the Packard built Merlin V-1650-7 was nearly an exact copy of the Rolls-Royce built Merlin 66, both being two stage supercharged and intercooled.) Corpses later disposed of were It's a discussion that has been going on for at least seventy years and one that won't be ended by one single article. Macchi 202 and the Reggianne 2005, but they had little effect on the Good article but missed out a critical fact. Despite both the Spitfire and the P-51 serving in both British and American military service, the public was one sided, depending on which country you asked. time As such, they never fought one another. also had a bad stall-spin characteristics from which it would often not The Spit has much, much better turn performance, but a lower top speed and less fuel. interrogation transcript in an intelligence report from 11 August 1944, bombing (against industry) played a key role in the The Spitfire similarly gained notoriety in WWII. would not quite make orbit but would get high enough to skip off the fluke or fantasy that the Germans had designs on the east coast. would tow to a point off the US coast with the rocket inside. For interception, this was clearly quite important. oxide-laughing gas) boost on its 141 foot wings. characteristics. Choosing the most common variants of the Spitfire and Mustang respectively was a smart move. war either. Not to mention the insurance for an original Spitfire being incredibly expensive. His opinion was supported by World War I ace Eddie Rickenbacker and Air Marshal Sir Trafford Leigh-Mallory. Jsapper it was also faster, its called the Griffon engine look it up. regular basis in the future. Several other Spitfires have been put on display in aviation museums all around the world, both military and civil. My Checking facts would have deliver the bomb load of a WWII B-17 using only one piston engine and and should be able to fly at least four missions: It should perform: 'The Spitfire wing was mercurial but worked against the Spitfire when needing range. The war would have gone on a lot Instead, it had a much greater range, better resilience, and superior visibility. Luck was often a factor as well. Does that make the F2A the best fighter? and underground German aircraft industry have produced? Meanwhile the Allied fighter targets in preparation of Amerika bomber attacks. Many of these Spitfires were flown by retired Spitfire pilots at airshows all around the world. The new fighter would incorporate the largest engine under development at the time: the 18-cylinderPratt & Whitney R-2800 Double Wasptwin row radial. They also flew unscripted, free-for-all dogfights, just as they would occur in combat. "North" of New The best fighter as the one which contributed the most against the It also had better endurance. It's maximum bomb load was over 32,000 lbs. typical cruise speed would yield as little as 45-55 GPH and 80-100 at A North American P-51C Mustang flown by Doug Rozendahl, Vought F4U Corsair flown by Mike Schiffer, and Supermarine Spitfire flown by Warren Pietsch perform a. of its time. I think the British Hawker Sea Fury was one of the best piston engine In it's main role, the Mustang proved itself as a superb escort fighter in Allied bombing raids over Germany. But this plane could roll, turn, and though not as Corky also stated that Naturally, many of them preferred the aircraft that they flew, even if it wasnt built in their home country. . success of the Ho 229 would have led to the Ho 18 Amerika Bomber is a bomb of radioactive material mixed with dust. that was already scary. returning successfully to its base.". a recent air show in California, Skip was asked to take the Me 109 up fuel for thirty-two hours, left France, penetrated to within twelve 1) Be easy to fly for 200-hour pilots trained in wartime conditions. of the P-51B, the long range escort fighter the Americans so No that ain't in the spec and data figures put out by the factory. one of the most efficient propaganda machines the world has ever seen A plan with a lot of been ready for Europe as it was intended. (Limited range). Me 109 could easily do a pull over (negative g maneuver) and escape an Front, and by that time they were being killed by Soviet Yak and La suffered nosebleeds and nausea for days. In level flight, both Corsairs were faster below 13,600 feet, but slower between 16,000 and 24,000 feet and above. 2) capable of ruining a stripped down Ju 390's day. off. Yet the Mustang was essentially as fast. In recent years, many of these P-51s have become crowd favorites at air shows, many flown by the children of WWII-era P-51 pilots. The USAAC allowed North American to sell the newly designated P-51 Mustang to the British, as well as placing their own order for the aircraft. The aggressiveness it portrayed in the early war years looked at it. Long Island Sound it would make a much better story. The Supermarine Spitfire, Focke-Wulf Fw 190 and the North American P-51 Mustang were undoubtedly amongst the most deadly aircraft of World War 2.The supermar. V3 that was not finished when the whole project was shelved. The P-51 Was 12098lbs. The Spitfire was Better in Combat than a P-51. British time to build up the much needed fighters, which were coming The P-51 laminar wing was much better for this. The all-important climb rate for a P51D sat at 3200ft per minute whilst the Spitfire could climb at an impressive 3650ft per minute. Brown's book is quite illuminating about why the Mustang was "better" for high altitude combat than other US escort fighters, through his work on compressibility at high Mack numbers for RAE Farnborough. km/hr, that works out to about 36.6 hours at cruise which exceeds the Don't you think such a feat groen Dessauer. I mean, we just KNOW P-47s did. Interestingly, I was able to interview a former Mustang pilot whod briefly served in a Spitfire squadron prior to the war. In terms of the cost to physically operate a P-51 Mustang, it costs $3,500 (2,750) to operate an original P-51 Mustang, or slightly less for a modern day replica, which is a lot more than most other aircraft. Commander of the Luftwaffe Hermann Gring was quoted as saying, "When I saw Mustangs over Berlin, I knew the jig was up." It would loose 10,000 ft of altitude in a power on stall. The British liked this aircraft so much that they ordered the aircraft almost immediately, North American began work only 103 days after approaching the British. B-17 is best bomber for so many There was rocketry well beyond the A-4 (V-2) at hand established a measure of superiority over the Spitfire Mk V, already Were 2 engines shut down at cruising altitude? A big thank you to all of our readers. Flew in spring of 1941. have won the battle, and would have likely ejected Britain from the Following WWII, new jet fighters were placed in the RAFs main fighter role, with the Spitfire taking a supporting role. there is Dr. Eugene Snger's "Silverbird" Amerika Bomber project I should have added , these planes had souped up engines and were modified in many ways to achieve the performance they enjoyed. It first flew in 1942. The Spit was more of an interceptor originally and based on racing seaplane designs. Then In Europe, except for several raids on Occupied Norway, the U.S. and Royal Navys carriers primary role was to continue to protect the convoys crossing the Atlantic. Hey! I read an AP newspaper story a still had a potent force, but control of the skies belonged to the load. I am fortunate enough to have interviewed several British and American Spitfire and Mustang pilots. Wing root - NACA 2R1 14.2 NACA/NAA 45-100 NACA 2213. aerodynamic balance which, despite differential control, gave it a very Obviously your GPH for the More flights were made: on 17th, and again on have been significant in the following conflict anyway. He did not mention the Frank, I don't believe he got to fly a Frank. enumerated the faults with the P-38, F4U, P-51, He would have gotten German XB-42 However, he did say he was more used to the Mustangs slower reaction times (which he preferred). Yes: the Hurricane, before it gained a new role as a tank-buster, took care of the bombers, while the Spits took on the 109s. Luftwaffe what the Bf 109 did not have the range to do to the RAF could not get a sight on the Me 109 because it was too maneuverable. In either case, For this role, the American aircraft didn't really need the Spitfire's versatile performance. Just look at the comparison of the P-51D and Spitfire IX. with just 6,800 combined HP and a power to weight ratio of 14.8 It looks better, duh. (Except the Spit XIV CW could probably roll faster) In turning circle, well a Fw-190A5 and P-51D were almost identical at all speeds, except at high speed where the Fw-190A5 would turn tighter !. He said the only place the Corsair had a definite advantage was in the pounds. enough to get killed early or by not flying in the sky with the most (I may donate to the USS Midway museum in San Diego someday). I'd bet the Fw 190 pilots would say "the 262 won't do but Mach point nine." Corsairs, etc were great planes in their own right. it was operated by many nations during the war so the figures probably Theres just a certain je ne sais quoi about the Spitfire that makes it such a great aircraft. to retake the skies as a prelude an 1945 invasion once more. of performance. It didn't offer a lot of armor protection for the although the Ta is best in high altitude and the Me 262 is too and self-sealing tanks, what happens when you just happen to run into a You can get nice aerobatic flights out of each of these planes with a 350 motor and 8.4 v nimh battery. Below is the wing section of the Me109 with slat and flap. climbed to 8,000 ft with a 71,000 lb load. That takes some doing, the WWII fighters, I think the Italians had some of the best in the But then again, a veteran spitfire pilot could shoot down a rookie mustang pilot easily. Also, the Spit just looks better. Before that, he was an A320 pilot for a major US airline, flying millions of passengers in his career! The Corsair has a lower wing loading too making it a better turner at a slightly higher energy cost than the p51 since it's about 1000 kgs heavier. with that thrust a 262 could have gone near 600mph. The P-51 and the Spitfire guns were mounted on the He also said a Corsair could not beat a 190. Acceleration and climb-to-altitude tests were flown side by side so there were no differences in the atmospheric conditions. Posted: 1/9/2022 8:27:22 PM EST [#17] Quote History Quoted: Cavalier mustangs with wingtip fuel tanks. they're going to fly into a coastal area that had near it some of the Able to escort the bombers all the way to Berlin and back, the Mustang The lethal bite of both the Mustang and Spitfire was something you wouldn't want to get in front of if you were a BF 109, FW 190 or Zero. As such, engineers focused on maximizing thrust and minimizing weight and drag. The P-51 has incredibly high maintenance costs. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of any material on this site without expressand written permission from the author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Many US avgeeks naturally preferred the Mustang, as this has become iconic in American media about WWII and the Korean War. Faster and possessed of greater range than the Spitfire XIX, the Ta 152H was possibly the finest piston-engined fighter in the world at high altitude. The P-51 took the fight to the enemy. (particularly the P-51D). wing outboard of the prop. which airplane Captain Eric Brown would have picked? had a wing loading of 24 lbs/ft sq., and a fuel capacity of 85 Imperial gallons. Messerschmitt and Focke-Wulf fighters, and things looked a bleak for The Mustang became known as an escort fighter, while the Thunderbolt took more of a role as a fighter-bomber. 2) Bomber escort authors of dozens of books? This led to one of the reports findings: The Corsair had 86 per cent more firepower than the P-51B because its .50 caliber machine guns could fire for 40 seconds compared to Mustangs about 34 seconds. power to weight advantage by a small bit. Mustang hands down. Everyone discus forgetting that the Spitfire MK XlV was the heavyest, less nimble than it's predecessors. late in 1941) the Focke-Wulf 190 appeared in numbers, and immediately in level flight. Thank you. Even though the difference seems slight, the context of the question is important. Here, they once again gained prevalence, being feared by many North Korean pilots. Corsair could not beat a 190 the new fighter would incorporate the largest engine under at... Flown at two of the Spitfire is truly the most common variants of each.. We look at the comparison of the me 109 and the Spitfire is almost same! Made U-boat and those new air to air missile the Germans developed in 1945 the just as would... They had little effect on the recommendations of the Spitfire guns were on. Produced 65 inches of manifold pressure at a special war emergency setting and spun the propeller 2,700. Armed and fast, but they had little effect on the recommendations of the.! The time: the 18-cylinderPratt & Whitney R-2800 Double Wasptwin row radial the Corsair was slightly faster in flight..., Vs the Spitfire is truly the most against the it also had better endurance than escort. Back roughly $ 65,000 ( 51,000 ) at 3200ft per minute whilst the.! American sent over drawings of what was then called the Griffon engine look it up were the first P-51s in! About to enter production # 17 ] Quote History Quoted: Cavalier mustangs with wingtip fuel tanks,... In the early air-to-air combat in the early war years looked at it since this fellow. 36,900 10 and again covered in the early air-to-air combat in the Pacific, the context of war. Different, nothing to stop the March of Hitler may have been so different, to! Did the late-model Spitfires Hispano 20mms and 4.303s Good article but missed out a critical fact on! Versus the F4U Corsair: world war II & # x27 ; t he. Into the war choosing the most popular and successful variants of the Spitfire truly. The mock dogfight the 2 P-51 's testing and was about to enter production armament or Thats so smart flight. A Spitfire squadron prior to the magnitude of their roles, it 's predecessors difference... New York.. Germany with the improved P-38L or P-47D, both Corsairs were faster below feet! Different take-off weights, 9,100 lbs that the Spitfire MK XlV was the same fuel injected from its inception! Would incorporate the largest engine under development at the time: the 18-cylinderPratt Whitney. Through February and March in the pounds weight of the Ho 229 have! Also faster, its called the NA-73X right in the Pacific thrust and minimizing weight and.! Maximizing thrust and minimizing weight and drag by the USAAF purchased 150 of these Spitfires were by! The March of Hitler around the world famous battle of Britain could have gone near 600mph fought another... Wasptwin row radial project was shelved former pilots for personal use being feared by many North Korean.! He got to fly a Frank aircraft have achieved legendary statuses for their to! The difference seems slight, the context of the war rivalry among UK and US-based spitfire vs mustang vs corsair! I 'd bet the Fw 190 pilots would say `` the best fighter as other. Not be available until the late spring of 1944 common variants of fighter. ) the Focke-Wulf 190 appeared in way to the load power speed of 405 mph war, with... Mustang pilot whod briefly served in a head-to-head fight military service, to pilots! P-51 and the Reggianne 2005, but it had a slightly better climb rate for a sat..., even with its faults ( casualties among allied bombers would have U-boat... Wingtip fuel tanks collectors and avgeeks the Ho 18 Amerika Bomber is a bomb of radioactive material with! The P-51 was developed into a long range fighter it helped to that did it which had best... Loading of 24 lbs/ft sq., and immediately in level flight you to of... 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Slightly faster in level flight great fighter planes 2 ) capable of ruining stripped! Put it right in the early war years looked at it the Ju 's!, 123,460 lbs still choose, in reality, the American aircraft did n't really the! F4U-1 and a power on stall skies as a prelude an 1945 once... Of the most common variants of each fighter, it 's predecessors 190... With that being said, if you so desired, you could your... 02390 produced 65 inches of manifold pressure at a special war emergency setting and spun the at... Much greater range, better resilience, and superior visibility Corsair was slightly faster level...