PAR4DCR Loc: A Sunny Place

Some very interesting aircraft Tom. Well captured.

Don

black mamba

There's no beating around the bush here. Where there's a will, there's a way. We know that there's a way, so all we have to work on is developing the will part. This is a tough case. It won't be easy. But with understanding and sympathy, we'll have you soaring through the skies....reveling at the adventure of it all.

Damn, what's all that racket. I told y'all to hold it down. Here I was, sound asleep and having a great dream.

cucharared Loc: Texas, Colorado

That Quickie experimental looks like a Burt Rutan design. Always different looking but quite safe if I remember correctly. I think he also designed the SpaceShipOne mothership.

Ron

black mamba

Thanks, Jack.

There's some interesting thoughts being bantered around. But we need to delve a little further into the situation at the time.

In the European theatre, the P-51 pilots were going up against a very successful group of German pilots that were flying several excellent aircraft...including.the Messerschmitt 109 and the Focke-Wolfe 190. It was only toward the very end of the conflict that the quality of the German airman fell off considerably. The Mustang boys, the P-38 Lightning bunch, and the P-47 Thunderbolt crowd were up against some tough hombres pretty much the whole time.

Consider now the situation in the Pacific theatre. The Japanese pilots were already battle hardened from a couple of years of conflict and the Zero was a killer in combat. The U.S. Navy Wildcat was hopelessly outclassed, but it was flown by some great pilots and the U.S. was holding on as best it could. The arrival of the F6F Hellcat, which was superior to the Zero, marked the turning of the tide. And when the F4U Corsair showed up,the party was over for the Japanese .

But here's where the fly in the ointment shows up when you want to compare the war record of the P-51 in Europe versus that of the Corsair in the Pacific. Astoundingly to me, the Japanese had no aviation training program...I mean absolutely none....that could replace the loss of their frontline pilots as the war progressed. By the time the Corsair showed up, the game was practically over. It was indeed a far superior plane, flown by seasoned pilots, and they proceeded to decimate the remaining Japanese naval air forces that were woefully maned by poorly prepared aircrews.

Considering all of the factors at play, I'm going with the P-51. It was in combat for a longer period of time, flown against some very capable aircraft, particularly the Focke-Wolfe 190, and it was only very late in the war when the quality of the German aircrews fell off. In the end, of course, we were blessed to have both planes and aircrews necessary to prevail.

Bubalola Loc: Big Apple, NY

black mamba

Thanks for the visit. I appreciate it.

Tom

black mamba

Hey, Ron.

I don't know who designed that plane. But you're sure right about Burt Rutan.