I don't know squat about WWII fighters, but my favorite is the Mustang, because gramps fought in one.
It sounds like there was lots of tradeoffs with all of them. One plane I haven't seen mention is the 98 Mosquito, though I think it was a fighter/bomber, not a dedicated fighter.
While being a Fighter Pilot is consider the most glamourous , my personal favorite, and if I had lived in those times and was able to serve as a pilot, would be in Night Fighters...that was more pilot skill than how great the A/C was...The Beaufighter was mentioned... but also the Mosquito in its roles was a much more versatile A/C than the Spitfire
A very good read on Beaufigthters and Mossies is Night Fighter Navigator He spent the siege of Malta flying Beau's there. I had no idea how desperate that fight was and he gives a very good account of it and then later Mosquitos over the continent after D-Day.
A very good read about Malta is the book Warburton's War, by Tony Spooner. It is the story of the man they called "The Hero of Malta", Adrian Warburton. His story is quite the legend, and is well worth reading about. He was a photo recon pilot, and his exploits are legendary.
Turbocharged throttle body fuel injection with water injection on an 18 cylinder, 2600 HP radial engine. It sounds like a pretty complicated procedure to get everything out of the motor, and if you did it wrong bad things could happen.
I watched the entire video and I can't see how anybody could keep their mind on everything that was necessary to get full performance out of the engine while under the stress of air combat.
I guess pilots got the hang of it after a while. But it sounds like a serious learning curve.
lots of good stuff. one thing i haven't seen...and it's something our planes almost always have...the ability to take a hit. ww2 lots of our pilots got shot up but were able to escape, return to base and learn not to do THAT again. the training system we put into place worked for us too.
one thing more. no matter what your plane can do, rules of engagement can prevent it from happening.
If you're not having fun; you're not doing it right!
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