NAVY P51 Mustang

[MasterBates]

Radial engines are shorter fore to aft, and allow more HP in less length than a V or inline motor.. Does make a difference when each plane is 3-4 feet shorter on a boat.

 

[NYCJetCharter]

Now there is something I've never seen (the shots of the P-51 on the carrier). I never knew they'd taken the trials that far. Between the Mustang's dicey low-speed handling and light structure, it sounded like they wouldn't have a Mustang anymore if they tried to make it truly carrier-compatible.

 

[Mumbles]

I guess I'm a little partial, but I read an article last year, ( I think it was Air Combat Journal....Corkey Myers I believe) that talked about how he had flown F4Us, F6FS, FW-190s, A6M2s, and P-51s at Pax River as an AIRTEVRON guy during the war....and talked about how the Corsair kicked the shit out of everything else, Axis or Allied that he ever flew.

 

[Schnugg]

What I'd like to see is the current USN sponsor a plane like this...sort of like the navy NASCAR race car.

 

[Gatordev]

I guess I'm a little partial, but I read an article last year, ( I think it was Air Combat Journal....Corkey Myers I believe) that talked about how he had flown F4Us, F6FS, FW-190s, A6M2s, and P-51s at Pax River as an AIRTEVRON guy during the war....and talked about how the Corsair kicked the shit out of everything else, Axis or Allied that he ever flew.

Long, long ago I remember reading something similar. It said that the F4U had less total kills because it wasn't in the fight as long, but that it had a higher kill ratio of some sort.

This was when I was still a teenager, so I don't remember where I read that nor if it's even true, but it seems that if you could get the F4U back on the boat, it was a potent weapon.

 

[Mumbles]

Back to the in-line liquid cooled motor vice the radial.... I read years ago that Dr. Kurt Tank, who would go on to develop the FW-190 "butcherbird"....thought that the Supermarine Spit as well as the ME-109 were beautiful nimble thoroughbreds and as such, could be a bit tempermental and delicate. The fighter aircraft he wanted to design was to be a clydesdale war horse instead. And he ended up putting a big radial on the 190, though later versions, (TA-152) had a liquid cooled motor.

 

[Mumbles]

Unfortunately, due to their large size (for carrier ops) they were not produced in large numbers and did not have a big impact. British carriers in WWII already were at a disadvantage to American ones in aircraft capacity, their armored decks reduced their carrying capacity significantly. The advantage was much less damage suffered when attacked, even after direct hits to the carrier deck by bombs and kamakazies.

I dunno....but from what I recall, the flight deck footprint of a TBM Avenger would be larger than the moskeeter....

 

[A4sForever]

Long, long ago I remember reading something similar. It said that the F4U had less total kills because it wasn't in the fight as long, but that it had a higher kill ratio of some sort......

These two great birds combat debuted the same month ... the stats:

Hellcats - flew 45% of all fighter sorties during the Pacific War ... achieved a kill ratio of 19:1, and produced > 300 Aces.

Corsair - flew 44% of all fighter sorties during the Pacific War (only 15% from carrier decks) ... achieved a kill ratio of 11.1, and produced < 35 (? -- anyway, vastly fewer) Aces.

Hellcats anytime, Baby.

 

[A4sForever]

I dunno....but from what I recall, the flight deck footprint of a TBM Avenger would be larger than the moskeeter....

Folding wings ... ??? The Avenger folded up nice & tight.

 

[Mumbles]

very true.... the Grumman birds all had a pretty neat folding mechanism. I think General Motors eventually went on to produce the Avenger too...TBF instead of TBM??

 

[A4sForever]

very true.... the Grumman birds all had a pretty neat folding mechanism. I think General Motors eventually went on to produce the Avenger too...TBF instead of TBM??

I think it's the other way around, i.e.:

Grumman Iron Works = TBF Avenger

General Motors Chevy Truck Division = TBM Avenger

Both follow-on's to the Douglas TBD Devastator.

 

[Mumbles]

I got a ride in one when I was a kid. A Mr. Bob Cox owned it.... I think he passed away some years ago and I don't know what happened to his Avenger, but he was in this squadron at the time of "Flight 19"s disappearance in the Bermuda triangle.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flight_19
I remember some older guy at an airshow said the TBF stood for Tubby Fvcker....

 

[Gatordev]

These two great birds combat debuted the same month ... the stats:

Hellcats - flew 45% of all fighter sorties during the Pacific War ... achieved a kill ratio of 19:1, and produced > 300 Aces.

Corsair - flew 44% of all fighter sorties during the Pacific War (only 15% from carrier decks) ... achieved a kill ratio of 11.1, and produced < 35 (? -- anyway, vastly fewer) Aces.

Hellcats anytime, Baby.

More "facts." Actually, that's interesting. I forgot about the Hellcats (shame on me) and their fantastic record.

At Sun 'n Fun this year, one of these was ahead of us in the take off line up:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SB2C_Helldiver

Kind of cool to see fly. I don't know if I've seen one before except maybe at the Museum at NPA.

 

[A4sForever]

...."Flight 19"s disappearance in the Bermuda triangle. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flight_19...

This was the one chuckle out of that sad tale -- they came out of a place called: "NAS BANANA RIVER" ... now how would you like to be stationed in "NAS Banana River"??

I think the base later became Patrick AFB after WW2.

 

[nzachman]

Sweet vortex around the aircraft in one of the middle pictures