Doghouse, now you’re speaking my language…..something I have mulled over time and again, how the Corsair would’ve done in Europe against the Nazi’s best…..My basic conclusion has been this….at or below 25,000 ft, the Corsair was equal to or better than anything the Allies could come up with (Mustang, Spitfire, P-38, P-47, whatever)…and THOSE were by then basically better than anything the Axis forces could come up with (except the 262 jet) so therefore it stands to reason that the Corsair would’ve faired fairly well against the Axis planes…now, granted, this is a GENERALITY, in some categories some planes may score better in performance than the F4U, in some they may come off WORSE than the Corsair, but all around I think it’s safe to say the Corsair would’ve held it’s own, ESPECIALLY in the case of the faster F4U-4…
Would LOVE to have Rob Mears 2 cents worth on this particular thread and see what he thinks also…
Don’t know about the P-38 question…

M

I posted a thread on another forum once regarding a clash of titans if you will between the Iowa class Battleships of the United States and the Yamato class of Japan….the debate went on for months and some VERY interesting conclusions were reached, and we all had fun doing it. Had I just stuck to ‘facts’ and the ‘fact’ that the Yamato and the Iowa never came withing firing range of each other during WWII, the whole thread would’ve never even been submitted.

Open your mind to possibilities, man….don’t close it. And you’re dealing with a BUNCH of historians in here, some who MIGHT shed some previously unseen LIGHT on history if you’re willing to let it in. I am an aviation historian myself, and several of the people in here have written books and articles about a GREAT NUMBER of WWII subjects…including myself!! (see the next Warbird Digest, Feb ’06)

Mark Morris

My dear Mr. McKay, that is what we do here, discuss what was and what could have been/might have been….if you don’t like it, don’t subscribe to the thread. Lord knows we would’nt want you to use your imagination, god forbid. Relevance has nothing to do with it…it was a combat fought 65 years ago and there’s nothing NOW that we can do to change it (except create a time machine and go back with the schematics for all the bigger and better planes of WWII…or for that matter of the Jet age, and change history). MY BOOK on WWII planes says the top speed of the P-40C was 345 miles an hour at 15,000 ft-YOURS may say something different…let’s assume it’s somewhere in between. Obviously anything under 350 MPH was NOT the optimal speed for fighting in the skies of europe in a WWII fighter, and maneuverability at height was a must. Question answered. Pertinence has nothing to do with it, and you don’t have to be insulting in your response. It is that kind of ‘attitude’ that has members of this forum leaving for OTHER forums.

M

Can anyone possibly tell me the AVERAGE height of Luftwaffe Heinkels and Dorniers when the came in on their bombing runs over UK cities? THis may help to determine whether or not the P-40’s would have been of any use in attacking them….but I have to believe either way that they COULD be attacked by the P-40’s, even if their performance was’nt optimized for that altitude…I show a max service ceiling for the C model of 32,400 ft, with an optimized SPEED height of 15,000 ft (345 mph)….

M

Oh, NOW Moggy gets finicky about spelling…I have seen spelling in here that would make an english teacher wince in pain…..puh-LEASSSSEEE! Remove the excess stickys and I’ll spell it right…

M