Just finishing off a 35 page Comms Plan of a Divisional Signal Regiment deployment for my course - apologies for the delay![/quote]
And also drinking until 5am at a Corporal’s Mess Christmas Do. I’ll try and get the next one written up tonight, if I can see my screen properly by then.
Happy party then!
Happy party then![/quote]
Very good party, paying for it now though 
I will be in the same state next week as we have exchange drinks in the O’s Mess, nothing like a Christmas booze up to get you into the party swing, enjoy the head BDL…
The final confrontation of the first round:
N1K1 Kyofu (Japan) v IAR-80 (Romania)
N1K1 Kyofu (Japan)
Top Speed: 304mph (489km/h)
Service Ceiling: 34,775ft (10,600m)
Rate of Climb: 2,983ft (909m)/minute
Range: 652 miles (1,050km)
Armament: 2x 20mm cannon and 2x 7.7mm (0.303in) MG
Originally designed as a float plane fighter, the N1K1 Kyofu (Mighty Wind) was converted to a standard fighter within three months of it coming into service. Although it could be difficult on take off, in the air the Kyushu had excellent handling and was very manoueverable. Due to the Zero maintaing almost complete air superiority at the time (late 1942) however, production was extremely slow because it was not thought that there was a reason to rush production. After a rapid change of fortune for the Japanese in 1943, it was decided to end production after only 89 had been completed, although the conversion of the N1K1 did lead to the N1K1 Shiden (‘George’ to the Allies) land fighter which was also an excellent combat aircraft (despite engine troubles).
IAR-80 (Romania)
Top Speed: 317mph (510km/h)
Service Ceiling: 34,500ft (10,500m)
Rate of Climb: 2,312ft (705m)/ minute
Range: 590miles (950km)
Armament: 2x 20mm cannon, 4x 7.7mm (0.303in) MGs
The IAR-80 was the only home grown fighter flown by Romania during the war, becoming operational in 1942. Mainly deployed for home defence (especially aroung the Ploesti oil fields), the IAR-80 remained in front line service until 1944. The I.A.R. 80’s flying characteristics were reported to be excellent, highly maneuverable with heavy firepower. A pressurized cockpit was also provided to improve pilot comfort at high altitudes.
Sometimes mistaken for a Fw-190 by Allied pilots, the IAR-80 (along with the Bf-109) took a heavy toll on the unescorted American bomber raids on the Romanian oil fields. After World War Tzwo, the Russians shipped home the entire I.A.R. factory and all aircraft from Brasov, as “war reparations”. There was even a joke around, at that time: Do you know the Principle of Lavoisiev? Nothing is lost, everything is transported.
I have no idea about these two, Im off to do some research.
Are there going to be any Yakovlev fighters in this game?
Ever?
Maybe even a Yak 3?
It might balance the selection just a tad.
Performance wise.
Someone here posted that a Spitfire is ‘the best dogfighter’, well, not in a Yak 3’s airspace it wouldn’t have been. Not one model would have been close, even LF Griffon jobs. ;-)! Unless he got a lucky shot.
Contiguity? / Appositeness of Comparisons?
The Brewster Buffalo, against the Kawasaki Hien? Out of time, by 6 months or more.
I am fairly certain no Buffaloes flew against Tony’s / Hiens. They certainly didn’t turn up in SWPA until the Kittyhawks / P40D’s turned up. By which time I doubt there were any left in combat use. Back home for training use? probably.
In Malaya (and then in Burma) the (few remaining) RAF/RAAF Buffs fought Oscars, and their spatted predecessors, and only a very few Zeros and … etc.
See yez
Like the Yak-9 that was paired with the D.520 a while back?
Did you bother to read the whole thread?
Matey, if you go back to page 1 of this you will see the reason for the match-ups.
My subjective (in a way) vote goes to IAR 80 (see http://www.ww2incolor.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=18323#18323)
Also I want to quote from
http://www.ipmsstockholm.org/magazine/2005/01/stuff_eng_profile_iar80.htm
The IAR 80 is a good example of how performance could be achieved in a very short term (about one year), with limited technical and financial resources. The IAR 80 appeared when the best fighter aircraft were the Bf-109E in Germany, Hawker Hurrricane Mk. I/II and Supermarine Spitfire Mk. I/II in Britain, and it took a honourable position among them.
More references:
http://www.worldwar2.ro/arr/?article=749
http://www.studenten.net/customasp/axl/profile.asp?cat_id=10&ple_id=369
After a bit of reading and a bit of pondering I have decided to go with the Romanian ac.
The Japanese aircraft were just too flimsy for me.
I’ll leave this until tomorrow (too hungover to write anything today ), so about another 24 hours for anyone who wants to vote.
2-0 to the Romanian fighter at the minute.
The Romanian aircraft goes through then. The line up for the second round looks like this:
Spitfire XIV (UK)
Bf-109K-4 (Germany)
F-4U-4 Corsair (USA)
P-51D Mustang (USA)
P-39 Aircobra (USA)
LaGG-3 (USSR)
F4-F Wildcat (USA)
Fw-190D-9 (Germany)
La-7 (USSR)
Ki-44 Shoki (Japan)
G.55 Centauro (Italy)
Yak-9 (USSR)
Hawker Tempest (UK)
P-47 Thunderbolt (USA)
Ki-61 Hien (Japan)
IAR-80 (Romania)
The draw will be made shortly.
Second Round
F4-F Wildcat vs FW-190
Yak-9 vs LaGG-3
G.55 Centauro vs P-39 Aircobra
Ki-61 Hien vs P-51 Mustang
Bf-109 vs P-47 Thunderbolt
Hawker Tempest vs Ki-44 Shoki
F4 Corsair vs La-7
Spitfire vs IAR-80
Fw-190?
Fw-190?[/quote]
Damn you pdf
I’d have got away with it, if it wasn’t for those pesky kids
It’s fixed now :oops:
I changed the thread status from normal to sticky.
Thanks Dani - the next match up will be done tomorrow - been sleeping off 24 hour duty today
F4-F Wildcat (USA) vs FW-190 (Germany)
F4-F Wildcat
Top Speed: 318mph (512km/h)
Service Ceiling: 34,000ft (10,638m)
Rate of Climb: 1,950ft (594m) per minute
Range: 770 miles (1,239km)
Armament: 6x 12.7mm (0.50in) MGs in the wings.
In 1936, the US Navy was looking for a new carrier based fighter. Although the Brewster Buffalo was initially chosen, Grumman were authorised to build a prototype competitor, the XF4F-2. Grumman were very experienced in building naval aircraft and designed an aircraft with large wings set well forward on the fuselage to improve lift (making the short take offs and landings on carriers much easier) and manoueverability. This better lift did lead to a slower aircraft though, and the first prototype only managed 290mph in tests. After a fly off in 1938, the Buffalo was chosen for the US Navy, but Grumman continued to develop their new aircraft.
The next version, the XF4-3 had a more powerful engine and a tailplane mounted higher on the tail, as well as some internal differences. This aircraft achieved 335mph and managed to impress the USN who ordered 78 in 1939. An export version, with a slightly different engine also served with the British Fleet Air Arm as the Martlet, primarily in the Battle of the Atlantic on the Royal Navy’s escort carriers.
Based on this combat experience with the RN, the XF4-4 was developed, with folding wings, six machine guns (previous versions had four), self sealing fuel tanks and armour. These improvements slowed the aircraft down, which was unpopular with the pilots, but the folded wings were liked by the USN, who saw that they would be able to fit more aircraft onto each carrier using them.
By the time of Pearl Harbor in 1941, the Wildcat was in service with 11 squadrons of the USN and USMC, with 131 in service. They fought desperately (usually against superior numbers) in the initial stages of the Pacific War, with one Wildcat pilot (Capt. Elmrod of VMF-211) sinking a Japanese destroyer during the defence of Wake Island, receiving a US Medal Of Honour (posthumously - he was killed during the defence of Wake, during the land fighting).
There were many problems with the Wildcat, it was difficult to fly, the pilot’s seat was cramped and too low to give good visibility, there was no way to jettison the canopy and it was not as agile as the Zero that their Japanese opponents flew. Although not all pilots liked flying the Wildcat, it did hold its own well against the superior Zero until more modern aircraft were brought into service.
FW-190
Top Speed: 426mph (685km/h)
Service Ceiling: 39,370ft (12,000m)
Rate of Climb: 2,772ft (845m) per minute
Range: 519 miles (835km)
Armament: 2x 13mm (0.51in) MG131 cannon and 2x 20mm MG151 cannon.
In 1938, the Messerschmidt BF 109 was being brought into service as the Luftwaffe’s front line fighter aircraft. In case future development of the Bf-109 ever ran out of steam, the ReichsLuftMinisterium (German Air Ministry) wanted an alternative fighter that could continue to be developed. At first, Focke Wulf offered several designs based around the same DB-601 engine used to power the Bf-109, but these were all truned down because they did not offer much more than the Messerschmidt and all DB-601 production was earmarked for the Bf-109 anyway.
One FW designed, Dr Kurt Tank, had a different idea, he wanted to us a BMW radial engine, which he believed offered better reliability and more power. This was accepted by the RLM, and in 1938 three prototypes were produced (a fourth was built in early 1940). The RLM were so excited about this new aircraft that 40 production aircraft were also ordered before the prototypes had flown.
Although some problems were identified on the prototypes (carbon monoxide leakage into the cockpit and cockpit and engine overheating), these problems were gradually overcame, and the Fw-190 was ready for production by early 1941. Formal production was begun in June 1941, and initally 100 were built.
The first Fw-190As were armed with four 7.92mm machine guns, but still proved to be more than a handful for the Spitfire V then in service with the RAF. The Fw-190 proved to be very agile and was one of the first to be fitted with a one piece canopy to improve pilot’s vision. This canopy was found to be very difficult to jettison in an emergency and an ejection system was installed to push the canopy off into the slipstream. The aircraft however was found to be poor over 20,000 feet, the engine had reliability problems and the aircraft was difficult for inexperienced pilots to handle.
The first dog fights with the RAF showed that four machine guns was not a heavy enough armament and the Fw-190A2 had two of the machine guns replaced with 20mm MG151 cannon. The Fw-190 proved so troublesome that the British planned a risky commando operation (Operation Airthief) to steal one from an airfield in France. This was cancelled after a German pilot got lost over the English Channel and landed on an RAF airfield by mistake. This was evaluated and was found to have some (although not many) weaknesses which the RAF hoped the new Spitfire IX could exploit.
Although the new Spitfire matched the Fw-190, Focke Wulf continued to improve their aircraft, and the Luftwaffe and RAF began a mini arms race between their two premier fighters which would continue throughout the war, culminating in the ‘Dora-9’ Fw-190D-9 which would cause problems to the Mustang and Spitfires of the Allies until the end of the war. (Shortly after the introduction of the long range Mustang escorts for the raids on places such as Schweinfurt, an overenthusiastic American manufacturer printed an advertisement that displayed an FW-190 to mock it with the caption: “Who’s Afraid Of The Big Bad Wulf?” They got a copy of the ad sent back to them in the mail along with a letter signed by everyone in a bomber unit that said: “We are.”)
Other variants of the Fw-190 included fighter-bombers (‘Jabos’), torpedo bombers (carrying a 1,400Kg/3,090lb torpedo on the centreline), anti-bomber versions with R6 21cm (8.27inch) rockets and up to an additional six 20mm cannon in underwing packs (the rockets were very inaccurate and were more of a distraction to bomber crews than a real bomber killer. The heavy cannon armament proved very successful though), recce versions with reduced gun armament and cameras fitted into the fuselage, air to ground rocket firing versions, carrying a version of the Panzerschrek anti tank rocket (after the Germans had been impressed with rocket firing Typhoons and P-47s in Normandy) and two seat training versions. There were also several other one aircraft only experimental models with various different weapons fits.
The final version of the Fw-190 to be developed during the war was the Ta-152 (The Ta prefix being given in honour of Kurt Tank), which was produced in very small numbers but saw some combat (when fuel could be found for them) which proved to be an extremely good fighter.
I’m going on Christmas leave on friday evening, so this might be left open until after New Year, as I have no internet access at home. I’ll see how the voting goes for this, if it’s a clear result before I leave on friday, I’ll try and get another one done.