LOL Juzz!
YUP
I have learned the hard way - don't believe everything you read!
However most of these statements are correct. Let me explain.
Brewster Buffalo: "One of the best shipboard Navy fighters is the F2A-3."
Yes the high-performance Buffalo was light years ahead of such rockets as the Grumman F2F.
P-36: "The French stated that they were definitely superior to anything the Germans used against them."
I agree, the Hawks were far superior at littering the landscape with debris than were the German fighters.
P-40: "In North Africa, the plane is said to have rolled up a twelve-to-one victory score."
Yes, on one sortie a flight of Warhawks ran into a flock of birds, killing 12 of them. However one of the Warhawks was forced to crash land due to bird damage.
P-38: "Engineers quietly estimate the top speed, under ideal conditions, at between 540 and 580mph."
Yes, and the ideal conditions are 3 seconds before the plane impacts the terrain in a vertical dive after the pilot has lost pitch control due to Mach tuck, and the props have run away.
Boulton-Paul Defiant: "It was first used during the Norwegian campaign and did much to slow the German Panzerdivisions..."
Yes, the wreckage of Defiants fell upon several roadways, forcing the Panzers to detour.
Fairey Fulmar: "...one of the Fleet Air Arms fastest fighters."
Indeed, the Fulmar outruns even the speedy Fairey Firefly.
Hawker Hurricane: "...in combat it has been proved that this machine is better for air fighting than anything the Germans have yet been able to produce."
"Further, it has been demonstrated that the Hurricane is not limited to he 335mph usually claimed for it, for on a 327-mile ferrying hop from Edinburgh to Northolt a Hurricane averaged 407mph, covering the distance in 48 minutes."
Absolutely correct. However the writer failed to mention that the Hurricane was being carried in the cargo bay of a C-141 at the time.
Martin Maryland (Top speed, 310mph): "...is faster than the Nazi Messerschmitt Me. 109 below 6000ft."
Like the P-38, the Maryland can achieve amazing speeds once those pesky drag-inducing wings have been blown off.
Westland Lysander: "It is further said to have shown its superiority over Germany's Messerschmitt 109 in combat. It has a much slower speed than that Nazi plane and is therefore able to make shorter turns and thus gain the advantage."
Again, completely true. However the pesky Germans have invented a new air superiority aircraft even slower than the Lysander, able to make slow speed turns even more tightly: The dreaded Fiesler Storch.
[This message has been edited by funked (edited 05-03-2000).]
