FW-190 vs Corsair vs Hellcat fly off

We still do this stuff today. The reason you are successful fighting the other guy is you know not only your own stuff, but you know his stuff and how and when to exploit or avoid a tactic.

What they saw in this correlates a lot with the research I’ve seen of German fighters in the Battle of Britain. Spit and Hurricane pilots learned early that they couldn’t climb with the German fighters so keep the fight horizontal. The 190A4 (tested) was one of the last models operated before the aircraft started shifting from Battle of Britain type designed to fight other fighters into a heavier anti-bomber or ground attack variant. Flown in those configurations they’d probably see an even greater disparity in turning capability as weight from heavier cannons over machine guns and the move to larger supercharged power-plants.
 
Cessnaflyer said:
I like reading old stuff like this. It would've been fun to watch the match.
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You should read “Red Eagles.”

It’s a book detailing the decades long program we ran out in the desert where we ad Air Force aggressor pilots flying actual Soviet hardware. Pretty amazing insights into how some of their aircraft newer stuff, MiG-23 in particular, were almost more dangerous to themselves than their “inferior” predecessors like the MiG-21
 
learhawkerbe400 said:
I wonder why they didn’t compare it against airplanes that were more common in the ETO?

Super cool info.
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Navy ran test.

People don’t typically realize that pre Goldwater-Nichols act (ie the 1980s), our military branches very much did not cooperate or talk to each other much less spend their time trying to work for the other one. No doubt buried in a file cabinet somewhere while this test was being run were the results of a near identical testing program consisting of P51 and 38s had already been conducted by the guys at Wright Field and the Navy was never invited to that party.
 
Lawman said:
learhawkerbe400 said:
I wonder why they didn’t compare it against airplanes that were more common in the ETO?

Super cool info.
Click to expand...

Navy ran test.

People don’t typically realize that pre Goldwater-Nichols act (ie the 1980s), our military branches very much did not cooperate or talk to each other much less spend their time trying to work for the other one. No doubt buried in a file cabinet somewhere while this test was being run were the results of a near identical testing program consisting of P51 and 38s had already been conducted by the guys at Wright Field and the Navy was never invited to that party.
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I had no idea but that hat’s not surprising. Typical government/bureaucratic inefficiency.

I’m pretty sure sometime over the years I’ve read a comparison between the German fighters and army air corps fighters. That was such a wild time in history.
 
Lawman said:
You should read “Red Eagles.”

It’s a book detailing the decades long program we ran out in the desert where we ad Air Force aggressor pilots flying actual Soviet hardware. Pretty amazing insights into how some of their aircraft newer stuff, MiG-23 in particular, were almost more dangerous to themselves than their “inferior” predecessors like the MiG-21
Click to expand...
I'll have to add it to my list.
 
learhawkerbe400 said:
I had no idea but that hat’s not surprising. Typical government/bureaucratic inefficiency.

I’m pretty sure sometime over the years I’ve read a comparison between the German fighters and army air corps fighters. That was such a wild time in history.
Click to expand...

Funny thing is working with our foreign partners today and seeing it first hand.

Many of the old colonial nations turned independent in the early Cold War period were building from scratch, so they emulated who they were allied too (IE Thailand us, N Vietnam the Soviets). Many of them didn’t encounter a moment that told them they needed joint integration like we did with Panama and Grenada so they never did it. You work with them today and the concept of even talking to the same echelon units they are supposed to do an operation with in the sister service (Air Force to Army or such) and it’s a big faux pa. Like no I Captain so and so can’t just call the Infantry Platoon commander (another captain) it needs to go through our respective headquarters.

It’s one of the reasons we operate so much better and we are by no means expert at joint operations. Everybody else is just really terrible at it.
 
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