Hi,
none of the tested italian planes was usable for ground attacks, this the testers saw as a major drawback.
The G55 was the only airframe in the test to be comparable to the german planes(109G4/190A5), IF it get the DB603.
With the italian DB605A the plane wasnt better than the german planes and with the weight of two more cannons the plane would have needed the more strong engine, otherwise it wouldnt be any better than the 109 with gunpods or the 190A5 with two more cannons.
As we know the DB603 came very late and the DB605 in the 109 got much more power.
Regarding the 109F, i doubt it was the best 109. It was the 109 with the badest oponets in comparison to its own performence, just like the 109D in Spain.
The 109F vs the 1943/44 SpitIXc, P47D, P51B, La5F, P38J and specialy B17, B24, IL-2, Pe-2 etc would have been more hopeless than the 109G, which was still very comparable in clean condition, specialy later with MW50.
The best 109 imho was the 109G14AS. It had all possible Rüstsätze, a clean surface and much power over a very wide altitude range.
The german HQ wanted to get rid of the 109, not cause the design itself was to old, but cause the design wasnt made for the task they did need it.
If the Luftwaffe would have had 1000 4-Mots and would have bombed england, the RAF HQ would have sayed the same regarding the Spitfire and P51.
The 109 was made as a short range interceptor to face fighters and twin engined planes in an tactical airwar. In this role the 109 did shine till the end(as topcover for the "schwere Gruppen", over Russia).
When the 109F saw service the main airwar still was mainly tactical nature(ground support) and the Luftwaffe Pilots was on the top of their skill and the oponets often was without training(russia/US pilots over Africa) and/or with worse planes(I-16, Yak1, Mig3, Lagg3, P40C-E, P38G, HurriII).
This made the 109F to one of the best planes of its time, but not to the best 109.
The undercarriage problem is imho much overrated. What pilots should fly a modern high performence fighter?? For sure nothing else than at least seasoned skilled pilots. The normal young german pilots from 1944/45 probably would have crashed the P51´s with full rear tank short after take off and would have had a stallfest with the Spit´s and specialy CW Spits.
The 109 was good till the end. Imho the long stop regarding an effective development of the DB605 (42-early 44 same power) was the main problem of the 109, not the airframe itself.
Specialy in 1943 the allied planes of all nations got a major boost regarding the power(SpitVLF, SpitIXc, La5F, P47D, P38H), while the DB605A, same like the BMW801D-2 did stuck almost two years with the same power.
The MW50 and AS or D for the DB605 simply came to late. With MW50 already at in mid of 1943, the escort fighters would have had much more problems to catch a 109 with 3 cannons also the La5´s have been even more in trouble.
As we can see in the comparison between the german and italian planes, the 109 airframe still made the best out of the DB605A. With MW50 the 109 was up to date again, not absolut the best anymore, but still comparable.
Greetings,
Knegel
