Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!att!cbnews!military From: pspod@kira.lerc.nasa.gov (Steve Podleski) Newsgroups: sci.military Subject: Re: US Fighter Designations Message-ID: <1990Aug5.042502.28304@cbnews.att.com> Date: 5 Aug 90 04:25:02 GMT References: <1990Jul31.223607.6367@cbnews.att.com> Sender: military@cbnews.att.com (William B. Thacker) Organization: NASA/Lewis Research Center Lines: 96 Approved: military@att.att.com From: pspod@kira.lerc.nasa.gov (Steve Podleski) In article <1990Jul31.223607.6367@cbnews.att.com> As I mentioned next week in my talk on reversible time... writes: : :From: wb9omc@ea.ecn.purdue.edu (Duane P Mantick) : :[...] : :P38: Lightning, Lockheed. Maybe also thank you Kelly Johnson?????? : Twin boom "boomer" that the Germans called the "fork tailed : devil". HEAVILY armed; in the pacific was the aircraft HEAVILY compared to what? The P38 had 4 50's and one 20mm. The P47 had 8 50's! The P38 may be considered heavily armed when compared to some early Jap fighters but not to later Axis and Allied fighters. : :P39: Airacobra, Bell Aircraft. Sold lots to the Soviet Union during : WWII. Unique design, never horridly impressive. : :*** Heh, heh. This was an interesting one. Had it's engine in the middle if :*** the plane and a long propellor shaft through the cockpit. Was turbo-? :*** at first until the government got a hold of it, i think. The gov't was :*** also responsible for moving the engine back behind the pilot. not good :*** if something blows. See Saburo Sakai's description of one in "Samurai!" :*** He wasn't impressed. The Soviets, however, bought it in shiploads :*** (pardon the pun :-) Was made all the way up to the P-39Q in 1944 or so. The Germans on the eastern front were impressed since many of the top Russian pilots built up their score with the P39 (into the dozens of victories). THe problem with the P39 was poor high altitude performance due to lack of a turbo supercharger overwhich the B17 had priority. But at low altitude the P39 had very good maneuverability and speed along with heavy firepower. :P40: Warhawk, Kittyhawk, Tomahawk; Curtiss, methinks. Lots of these : built in several different flavors. Generally inferior : to its opponents but given good pilots and appropriate : tactics, the Flying Tigers held their own against Japanese : Zeros until better aircraft could be delivered. Methinks : the only American fighters to see action over Pearl Harbor : (or nearby...) were of this type. : :*** Yep. Two P-40's got off the ground from a field (Which one? it is the :*** field a few miles away from Pearl. Begins with a W...) and shot down :*** two or three Japanese fighters. The P-40 had a very heavy nose, and :*** made a beautiful dive-fighter. The Flying Tigers were taught by Gen. :*** Claire. E. Chennault not to engage the Zero in it's own terms, but to :*** Dive from above, fire off a few shots, scream through at a steep :*** angle through the formations, climb back up and do it again. This :*** tactic made the most of the plane's advantages, and even turned some of :*** it's disadvantages into advantages, ie. the heavy nose. There are :*** several books on this plane, most deal with the Flying Tigers, AVG, :*** and 14th Air Force (same thing, different names.) AVG is the American :*** Volunteer Group for the Chinese Army, led by Gen. Chennault and :*** Generalissimo Chiang Kai-Shek (spelling?). I doubt that the Chinese or the AVG saw many Zeros since it was the Japanese Army airforce that fought in the skies. What they fought against were Nates and maybe Oscars if they were unlucky. The Nate is a fixed gear monoplane that was very maneuverable but certainly was no Zero. The Oscar was the Army counterpart to the Navy Zero but more maneuverable. The confusion may be due to the Zero notoriety among Allied airman and is analagous to the land battles in Western Europe where every German tank encountered was a Tiger! Also where do you get the idea that the P40 was nose heavy. It may look heavy because of the large cowl that housed the cooler but I don't think that it was nose heavy. : : :[...] : :P47: Thunderbolt, Republic (formerly Seversky) Known to some as "the jug" : due to it's shape. A heavy, powerful bird that excelled in : the ground attack role in late WWII. : :*** Republic made two versions of this plane: one with the bubble canopy, :*** and another with a "razorback." It was ugly, and pilots hated it at :*** first, but they learned how to use it, and kicked butt with it. it's :*** main advantage was the proliferation of armor. One poor pilot was :*** flying a sortie over Germany and got separated from the rest of his :*** group. He had two German birds empty their guns into the plane, and :*** one even tried to ram him (he downed himself with this move...) He made :*** it back to England where the ground crew counted a couple hundred :*** bullet holes plus the spot where the 109 tried to ram him. He was :*** given credit for the "kill." Can't find the reference, so if I got it :*** mixed up, flame me. I'd deserve it if I did. :-) I think the pilot in question was Johnson, one the top pilot of the European front. There was one FW 190 who had run out of cannon shells in an earlier fight and tried to down the defenseless Johnson (he had little aircraft control due to earlier battle damage) with MG's. The German tried this on Johnson 6 o'clock position since he did not want to kill Johnson himself (who said chivalry in WW II was dead!). He tried this 3 times and each time he flew next to Johnson to survey the damage. On his last try (maybe he out of ammo or fuel) he shook his head in wonderment and waved good bye.