Getting back to the original and not trying to bamboozle everyone with technical data, I notice that nobody has yet mentioned crew capability, or a detailed scenario that the fight was fought under. I was in the back seat of one of two Hawk T.1A’s that had a series of two v two simulated combats against two USAF F-16C’s on teh ACMI range in Sardinia. Both sets flew with their real weapons simulated, cannon and AIM-9’s…L for the Hawks and M for the Falcons. The end scenario was a 9 to 2 kill ratio in favour of the Hawks, with both F-16’S being downed twice before a Hawk was killed. Having flown on Red Flag against F-15’s, albeit A’s, our definition of the F-15 was ‘a 2 million dollar airplane flown by a 2 bit crew’. Now if you want to talk about USN Tomcat crews, that’s a difdferent matter.

One thing that was key that nobody has mentioned yet was the fitting, just in time, of VHF radios to Fighter Command aircraft. Without this the close control pre positioning of their fighters would have been seriously degraded.
There is also no doubt that British tactics were well behind the Luftwaffe initially, and I’m not sure which happened first, the RAF adopting looser and more flexible tactics and formations or the tying down of the Luftwaffe fighters to close bomber defence which seriously hampered their efficiency in fighter v fighter combat.

LesB, You are slightly wrong in saying the PR.9 normally uses only 80% power for take off. In fact the norn is 90% unless one is operating from a high altitude airfield, such as Teheran, or in very high temperatures. This is because of the problem for drivers airframe to hold it in control should you lose an engine. The assymetrical thrust would cause the aircraft to want to roll…not what is wanted that clost to terra firma. As an ex PR.9 nav I experienced a 100% power take off at Tengah in Singapore, and we crossed the airfield perimeter at 10,000ft plus.

Bucc v Tomcat

It’s impossible to judge between the Bucc and F-14 as they were intended for totally different roles. Whereas the Bucc was the ultimate low level weapons platform, the F-14 was porobably the ultimate Fleet defence fighter. As a former Bucc back-seater I came across the F-14 on Red Flag in 1978 when we flew 2 sorties against them and TA-4s (from Miramar). To my mind, the F-14 was the most difficult fighter I ever flew against.
As far as the comparison between the Bucc and the A-6E is concerned I’ll quote a USNavy Captain who was on exchange with 12 Sqn, and had previously been on A-6Es. When I asked him about how they compared he said the Bucc airframe and engines left the A-6 for dead, but the trouble with the Bucc was that he spent half his time over the North Sea wondering where ‘the Hell I’m at’.