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[Innsmouth Dweller]

you described my feelings about food perfectly

[Commander Rpg]

you described my feelings about food perfectly

Oh now they are feelings, not urges.

Will you marry some food later?

[bEVEsthda]

This thread is threatening to become weird, so I think it's time to present this:

 

 

 

 

 

This is the most lethal air combat fighter of WW2.  Grumman F6F Hellcat.  Rarely was a fighter so aptly named.

Sometimes I get a sense of that it's not particularly well known? Which is weird, because not only is it the killer non-plus-ultra, but it's also one of the two most important US fighters of WW2, the other being the P-51 Mustang.

Every air battle the Hellcat took part in was a very one sided affair. It dominated all Japanese fighters, even the late and famous, like Ki-84 and N1K-J. It literally swept the skies clean of Japanese airpower. The day the Hellcat entered service everything changed. Much like the Mustang in Europe. Only 270 Hellcats were lost in combat during the war. The other side was decidedly more bloody with 5163 claimed kills. Which results in a stupendous kill ratio of 19:1, which is not only flabbergasting but also in league of its own, completely out of reach for any other fighter.

[Commander Rpg]

The unstoppable

 

 

Manfred would be proud.

[Kaiser Arian XVII]

The unstoppable

 

 

Manfred would be proud.

 

Oh it's called a Fokker. Must be the first model...

[Fidite Nemini]

This thread is threatening to become weird, so I think it's time to present this:

 

*snip*

 

This is the most lethal air combat fighter of WW2.  Grumman F6F Hellcat.  Rarely was a fighter so aptly named.

Sometimes I get a sense of that it's not particularly well known? Which is weird, because not only is it the killer non-plus-ultra, but it's also one of the two most important US fighters of WW2, the other being the P-51 Mustang.

Every air battle the Hellcat took part in was a very one sided affair. It dominated all Japanese fighters, even the late and famous, like Ki-84 and N1K-J. It literally swept the skies clean of Japanese airpower. The day the Hellcat entered service everything changed. Much like the Mustang in Europe. Only 270 Hellcats were lost in combat during the war. The other side was decidedly more bloody with 5163 claimed kills. Which results in a stupendous kill ratio of 19:1, which is not only flabbergasting but also in league of its own, completely out of reach of any other fighter.

 

Worth noting that this is primarily a carrier-based aircraft that went up against likewise primarily carrier based aircraft.

 

Also, the P51 only really took off as one of the best aircraft in WW2 after the british who got it via lend-lease took the subpar original engine out and replaced it with the supreme Rolls Royce Merlin engine.

 

And if we're talking WW2 aircraft, this little hunk of metal shan't be missed:

 

 

The Ilyushin Il-2 "Sturmovik" ground attack aircraft. The first flying tank. Not the fanciest, not necessarily the most destructive, but certainly one of the most unkillable aircraft right up there with the B17 and P-47. Those aircraft could take hits that would make modern fighter jet engineers weep in agony just reading the reports.

[God]

This thread is threatening to become weird, so I think it's time to present this:

 

 

 

 

 

This is the most lethal air combat fighter of WW2.  Grumman F6F Hellcat.  Rarely was a fighter so aptly named.

Sometimes I get a sense of that it's not particularly well known? Which is weird, because not only is it the killer non-plus-ultra, but it's also one of the two most important US fighters of WW2, the other being the P-51 Mustang.

Every air battle the Hellcat took part in was a very one sided affair. It dominated all Japanese fighters, even the late and famous, like Ki-84 and N1K-J. It literally swept the skies clean of Japanese airpower. The day the Hellcat entered service everything changed. Much like the Mustang in Europe. Only 270 Hellcats were lost in combat during the war. The other side was decidedly more bloody with 5163 claimed kills. Which results in a stupendous kill ratio of 19:1, which is not only flabbergasting but also in league of its own, completely out of reach for any other fighter.

 

Nah, The Chance-Vought F4U Corsair was deadlier. I think you're mistaking lethality with number of kills.

 

As far as most underrated (and deadly) American Fighter Aircraft of the Second World War...

 

The Lockheed P-38 stands at the top. With the Corsair of course, but also the Republic P-47 Thunderbolt.

 

 

Dick Bong, America's Ace of Aces, flew the Lightning.

[bEVEsthda]

Nah, The Chance-Vought F4U Corsair was deadlier. I think you're mistaking lethality with number of kills.

 

How is that mistaking anything?

 

Anyway, the F4U-4 only emerged at the end of the war. This is the one people are thinking of when they extol the F4U. Previous versions were inferior to the F6F in almost every regard. During the entire war, and before as well, the F4U went through an intensive development program to fix everything that was wrong with the plane. Meantime, the F6F is unique in having gone through the war with almost no changes at all. There are two reasons for that. One is that the aircraft was so important for the war that they did not want to interrupt the production.

There is a British guy named Eric Brown. He happens to be the worlds most experienced test pilot ever. He also writes books about all the aircraft he has flown. You might want to read what he has to say about the Corsair, and what he has to say about the Hellcat.

[bEVEsthda]

Also, the P51 only really took off as one of the best aircraft in WW2 after the british who got it via lend-lease took the subpar original engine out and replaced it with the supreme Rolls Royce Merlin engine.

 

The Allison engine P-51 was a phenomenal performer. It had higher performance at low altitudes than all other existing aircraft at that time.

That was the reason in the first place why they wanted to try it with the Merlin engine.

 

You have to understand that the Allison V-1710 was not a "subpar" engine. It was an excellent engine. The problem was that there had never been developed a two-stage compressor for it. It was originally intended, but pacifists and bean counters managed to stop funding for it, because they had found in papers that the Army Air Force "had no mission requirement to fly at high altitudes". (1)

So poor performance at altitude was always a problem for all Allison powered aircraft, except the P-38 which featured integral turbo-superchargers.

 

The practice to substitute the Allison with a Merlin engine, when a version with better high altitude performance was required, was already established. It had been done to the P-40F, for instance. And strictly, it wasn't the British who did it. The work was already being done, when they suggested it.

 

But yes, it was the Packard Merlin V-1650 which made it possible for the Mustang to operate at high altitudes as an escort fighter. But it wasn't the Merlin which provided the Mustang with its performance. That was present from the beginning.

 

(1) This was before the war, obviously. During the war, work to provide the V-1710 with a two-stage compressor continued on and off, for political reasons. This was eventually fitted to the P-82C and subsequent versions, for political reasons. But it was a hack and caused no end of problems.

[The Invader]

The F-86 Sabre, in my opinion it's one of the greatest aircraft ever built. Armed with six Browning M2 .50 caliber heavy machine guns it was capable of laying down a blistering world of hurt.

[Jehuty]

AC 130.

 

Enough said. 

[The Invader]

Navy Rail gun test firing.



It's now portable.



Other targets.

[Jehuty]

Nice!

 

Double nice! 

[bEVEsthda]

It's now portable.

 

 

Portable?

Okay, but what about the batteries? 

[Commander Rpg]

Oh it's called a Fokker. Must be the first model...

It's the Fokker Dr. I. If I recall correctly, Manfred von Richtofen won about 80 air-fight battles with that.

[The Invader]

Portable?
Okay, but what about the batteries? 

On an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer.

But seriously, the word portable was just a small joke considering the early prototypes were titanic. As in entire buildings and or warehouses were built around them. The Navy intends to place these on their ships within the next couple of years( my prediction, 6 to 10 years ).

[The Love Runner]

CAPTAIN COLD IN DA HIZZOUSE!!

[nallepuh86]

Navy Rail gun test firing.



It's now portable.



Other targets.

Future antiair guns will probably be railguns. So much easier to shoot plane down than with missiles. Immune to ecm, hard to evade because of velocity.

[L. Han]

 

Swiss Army knives got nothing on this. This one is true multi-purpose. You can dig, stab, scoop, or use it for eating.

[The Love Runner]

^ But what if...

[Commander Rpg]

Consider this knife to be less big than it is, at most 2 inches.

Pick it up. Skip the airport metal detector and eye-inspection without very little troubles.

Now you can assassinate a whole airplane crew and its passengers.

[Cknarf]

Awwwwwww yeeeeaaaaaah!

 

[Gener_iKo]

Believe it or don't, I'm super good at shooting out of these.

[Aimi]

It's the Fokker Dr. I. If I recall correctly, Manfred von Richtofen won about 80 air-fight battles with that.

Only 17 of Richthofen's victories came in the Dr.I. Here's a breakdown:

Albatros D.III - 23 victories
Albatros D.II - 17 victories
Fokker Dr.I - 17 victories
Halberstadt D.II - 12 victories
Albatros D.V - 9 victories
Fokker F.I (prototype Dr.I) - 2 victories

The Dr.I...was not the best plane of the war. Although it offered exceptional maneuverability, there were a lot of engine problems associated with it, and the wing structure was highly unstable (in addition to being poorly constructed). It probably wasn't even the best German plane of the war; from a technical standpoint, that was probably the Fokker D.VII. The German fighter with the largest operational impact was either the Fokker E.I (which was a poorly made aircraft overall except for the revolutionary interrupter gear on the machine guns) or the Albatros D.III (which didn't have quite the same effect but was an overall better aircraft and the workhorse of the Luftstreitkräfte).

[Kaiser Arian XVII]

Future antiair guns will probably be railguns. So much easier to shoot plane down than with missiles. Immune to ecm, hard to evade because of velocity.

 

It will be like a non-stop Star Wars-y laser beam. Nothing can escape from its destruction!