Just to start a debate here, which country made the best planes during WW2? America or Britain?
it has to be Germany with Me 262, FW-190 equipped with X4 A-T-A missiles
but as your questions, i think Americans are better than English with their P-51D mustang,
P-51D mustang, with extra fuel tank, can escort allied bombers from England to Berlin, they even have enough fuel to kill more target on their way back, plus their max speed is 437 mph, which is faster than spitfire with 406 mph, but slower than Me 262 with 540mph
An interesting fact is Mustang P51D looks awfully like the German Me 109, Allied air defense would somtimes shoot down some Mustang P51D in mistake :x
I think you mean the earlier P51’s… without the bubble canopy. I don’t see how one could mistake the P51D with a 109
The question was… who had better planes… american or britain. Let’s see… Britain’s best was the Spitfire… we had a number of planes that were just as good as that… p51, P38, Corsair… etc. And they were all radically different designs.
To quote Austin Powers… “Yay capitolism!” lol
Actually im afraid you are wrong, the later Griffon-engined Spitfires had a maximum speed of 448m.p.h. and the P-51Ds had a max of 437m.p.h The Griffon spitfires carried four 0.78 in. Hispano cannons and up to 1,000 lbs in bombs or rocket projectiles. The Griffon Spitfires claimed over 300 V-1 flying bombs and also shot down the first Messerschmitt Me 262 that had a max speed of 540m.p.h.
And if it werent for the Rolls-Royce merlin V-1650 engine produced under liscence, the p-51 Mustangs would never have gained the altitude and speed that it does.
As for the corsair, i do admit that the corsair was the best naval fighter of WW2 but the Seafire was a fully competitive fighter and its performance outweighed its disadvantages.
There are many British planes that are better than the p-38 lightning. The Hawker Typhoon (single-seat interceptor/fighter-bomber) Had Four 0.78in Hispano cannons and eight 3 in. rocket projectiles or two 1,000lb bombs w/ a speed of 412m.p.h. The Lightning(single-seat fighter fighter-bomber) only had one Hispano cannon and four 0.5 in machine guns, with the same bomb load, its max speed was only 347m.p.h. The best of them was the De Havilland Mosquito(multi-role, w/ crew of two) wich was almost invulnerable to interception, had a combination of four Hispano cannons, four 0.303 in maching guns, bombs to max of 4,000lb, eight 60lb rocket projectiles, and a max speed of 408m.p.h.
Well anyway that concludes my rambling.
I have to agree with the above especially as British aircraft were operating over Berlin before the Americans joined the war (Mosquitos)
and we were carrying out reccy ops over most of Europe without too much hassle.
As mentioned elsewhere the Mustang is lauded as THE Fighter however by the time it arrived in any real numbers the air war over Europe was incredibly one sided and the numbers of Mustangs fielded were more than the Germans could compete with, also given that most of their experienced pilots had been in combat since '39 without a real break and the others were rookies then it’s hardly surprising the Mustang shot so many down.
All you have to do is look at the totals of the individual ACES the Germans were into three figures by the end of the war easily.
The american bombers were just awesome. The B-17 and B-24 had to be the best strategic bombers of the war.
yes id have to say that the americans had far better bombers than the British.
No absolutely not they had more bombers but had we been able to produce in the same numbers we would have been just as succesfull
The mosquito was capable of bombing precision targets as far as Berlin before the Americans even joined the war and for precision and long range we had the Lancaster as well.
Also the point about the Spitfire being our best fighter was also a bit generalised and the same goes for the fighters,Had we the ability to produce the same numbers as America we would have had no problems.
And besides the P-51 using the British engine it was also built to a British Specification so without us it would probably have never been built.
No absolutely not they had more bombers but had we been able to produce in the same numbers we would have been just as succesfull
The mosquito was capable of bombing precision targets as far as Berlin before the Americans even joined the war and for precision and long range we had the Lancaster as well.
Also the point about the Spitfire being our best fighter was also a bit generalised and the same goes for the fighters,Had we the ability to produce the same numbers as America we would have had no problems.
And besides the P-51 using the British engine it was also built to a British Specification so without us it would probably have never been built.[/quote]
Come on the Mosquito was a great plane but didnt have near the drop load or the armament as the B-17 or the B-24. There was no Mosquito superfortress. They British planes were okay but not like a B-17 and a B-24 that were actual strategic bombers…The Mosquito was more of a tactical bomber. Sorry but carpet bombing was more devestating on the Germans. Dont get me wrong the Mosquito could hold its own in combat with the weaponry but in my opinion the american bombers were just superior strategic bombers.
No absolutely not they had more bombers but had we been able to produce in the same numbers we would have been just as succesfull
The mosquito was capable of bombing precision targets as far as Berlin before the Americans even joined the war and for precision and long range we had the Lancaster as well.
Also the point about the Spitfire being our best fighter was also a bit generalised and the same goes for the fighters,Had we the ability to produce the same numbers as America we would have had no problems.
And besides the P-51 using the British engine it was also built to a British Specification so without us it would probably have never been built.[/quote]
Come on the Mosquito was a great plane but didnt have near the drop load or the armament as the B-17 or the B-24. There was no Mosquito superfortress. They British planes were okay but not like a B-17 and a B-24 that were actual strategic bombers…The Mosquito was more of a tactical bomber. Sorry but carpet bombing was more devestating on the Germans. Dont get me wrong the Mosquito could hold its own in combat with the weaponry but in my opinion the american bombers were just superior strategic bombers.[/quote]
Ya, but alot of the armaments where quit worthless, the British tried to do Daylight bombing over Berlin using the B-17 and it was a complete failer, they never attempted to do it again. THe Mosquito was more of a tactical bomber and didnt have the same load, but the Lancaster had quite a big load, and was able to carry the “GRAND SLAM BOMB” the only bomber in WW2 to ever do that. The debate about who had the best bombers in WW2 is quite debatable (lol) but the British deffinetely had the better fighters, cant argue with that.
The Lancaster bomber I mentioned seems to have been forgotten…
just because it wasn’t bristling with .50’s it was wasn’t useless,It was a strategic bomber and was capable of pinpoinbt attacks carrying a wide selection of specialist bombs,The B-17 and 24 once again relied on weight of numbers, and if they hadn’t had a fighter escort a lot more of them would not have returned. If you read about the first bomber missions by the Americans over Europe you will see that they learned the hard way that lots of guns on your bombers doesn’t help an awful lot.
As for carpet bombing well it may or may not have helped end the war but prcision bombing of factories certainly Did.
Ya thats true. With carpet bombing youd basically just be killing thousandths of civillians.
Carpet bombing was very effective against large factories such as I.G. Farben and Krupp. And civilians are going to get killed. Even in modern warfare we still kill civilians by mistake. My idea: You dont like getting bombed! Stop starting wars then ***hole! 
Not saying that the British Planes were crap. Just think American strategic bombers were better. Of couse it was superior numbers that won the war. Technology did not defeat the Germans…Manpower did. Now I wil say that the British had better tactical bombers. Close air support bombers thats about even.
Carpet bombing was very effective against large factories such as I.G. Farben and Krupp. And civilians are going to get killed. Even in modern warfare we still kill civilians by mistake. My idea: You dont like getting bombed! Stop starting wars then ***hole!
Not saying that the British Planes were crap. Just think American strategic bombers were better. Of couse it was superior numbers that won the war. Technology did not defeat the Germans…Manpower did. Now I wil say that the British had better tactical bombers. Close air support bombers thats about even.[/quote]
Its true that manpower helped win the war, but with-out good enough technology you be ****ing crazy to enter war.
Im kinda thinking everyone during this period of time was ****ing crazy.
I think , britain built the best planes during the war( as well as the best pilots!!)
Germany had the best prototypes.
USA had the best production…but not the best planes…so many of them broke down ( engines, cooling system…) .
France…hem…disappear after 1940…
USSR, had some good planes at the end of the war (1944…)
Japan…had the famous zero… which was the best in asian area …but in 1943/44 it was too old fashion…in front of the US’s ones.
Italy had some good pilots , but …the planes were…not from the same war time…
I agree with everything that you say, exept that Russia had the best production. The fastest and the most. The British deffinetely made high-quality planes, and engines. With out the Rolls royce engine the famous American P-51D wouldnt accomplish anything. So you cant say its american, its American-British.
The power of war production of Russia was incredible. All factories, including civilian, was built for military and by militery. This is a tradegy until now - all factories until now can’t normal produce the civilian goods. But in the time of war, it was perfect. In the end of the 1944, Stalin must have to close some of tank-building factories, because was very much of them. Medium production of tank T-34 (for example) was total about 200-250 in a day!
I wouldn’t necesarrily sya that Britain had the best pilots as some of the German other nations had their own aces.
British production also suffered and unfinished types were rushed into service before they were really ready out of necessity such as the Typhoon. The engine of which was troublesome from the outset also the early models had a nasty habit of losing their tails.