Best Plane

[vorticon]

depends what i was fighting...i would have to go with the spit 9 if i couldent find out earlier though

[Shiva]

Originally posted by Zanth
Two 20mm MG 151/20 machine guns above the nose
Two 30mm Mk 103 cannon mounted in the wings.
One 30mm Mk 103 cannon firing through the propellor hub.

To be fair, Zanth, that was the Do-335B-2; the Do-335A-1 only had two 15mm Mk151/15 and 1 30mm Mk 103 in the nose, although it did have provision for an SC500 or two SC250 bombs in a fuselage bomb bay and either two SC250 bombs or drop tanks on wing hardpoints. There is some argument whether the A-1 had Mk 151/20 cannon replacing the Mk151/15 cannon; since no A-1 models survive (sole surviving example is Do-335A-0 VG+PH, Wk.Nr. 240102,  in the NASM collection), and the historical documentation is equivocal, it remains speculation.

The Do-335B-2 had the Mk 151/15 cannon replaced by Mk151/20, and two additional 30mm Mk 103 cannon mounted in the wings, with the leading-edge fuel tanks repositioned to the outer wings and the bomb bay sealed and filled with an additional fuel tank. Two prototypes, designated M13 and M14, were completed. Because of the additional weight, the landing gear was strengthened, with a larger nose wheel that had to rotate 45° during retraction to fit inside the fuselage, and an armored canopy was fitted. The M13 made its first flight in October 1944 and the M14 was completed in November, but none saw actual combat. The M13 received extended wingtips and the 30mm nose mounted cannon of the M14 was removed to reduce weight. The M13 was destroyed before the end of the war but M14 was captured and evaluated until 1948 by the French Army.

Do-335B-2:

[Drunky]

P51-1/2 D/E

Yeah...that's plane I would fly

[NOD2000]

I'd take a FW 190 any version would be fine.......like the Fw 190 A series i would just put abeyville boys markings on it.....american/british pilots knew they were the best and you better not mess with one of em unless you have your whole squad with you. Or even one of the "long nosed" Fw's i've read acounts where a mustang and thunderbolt pilots just turn and ran after spotting one of these....

[vorticon]

i read reports where p47's were shot down being thought to be 190s

[MetaTron]

What does it matter your just going to HO and come out dead?

[vorticon]

how do you "come out" of your dead???

[Ack-Ack]

Originally posted by vorticon
i read reports where p47's were shot down being thought to be 190s

Here's a story that was posted on another AH forum about that type of confusion.  It also seems like the P-51 was at times mistaken for a ME109.

P-47 Reigns Supreme over P-51 Mustang
Don Whinnem B-17 Escort Mission
352nd FG ETO -

We were escorting B-17s. I was flying Al Marshall's
wing. We got into a mixup and got separated from the
Group. I looked over my left shoulder and saw
something coming in. I called , 'Al, there's a bandit
coming in at 7 o'clock high'.

We did a scissors. Al broke left, I broke right and
when I completed my circle it looked like Al was being
shot up by an ME109 I put the throttle to the
firewall, poured on the water injection and got on his
tail. When I got within 200 yards I started firing and
got strikes all over the plane. But as soon as he was
hit he broke up sharply, and only then did I see the
square wingtips and square tail. It was a P-51!

I called our Group Commander, Col. Joe Mason, a real
tiger, and said 'Sir,there are some P-51s in the
area'. He came back, real caustic, 'The hell they are.
They're 109s. Shoot the bastards down'. 'But sir, one
of them is a P-51 and I just shot it up pretty good'.
Silence.

Well, I located the P-51 again, and by this time he
knew we were 47s, so I pulled up alongside to take a
look. I didn't know it was Glenn Eagleston, but he
looked like he was hurting. There was nothing I could
do, so I left him and joined our formation.

I got part of the story later that day and the rest of
it 3 months later. It went all the way up to the 8th
Fighter Command Hqs......A p-47 had shot up a P-51.
Col Mason had to go up there and explain it to the
brass. But our story held up. The P-51 was 150 miles
off copurse, and his camera film showed him shooting
at a P-47.

The trouble was that an FW190 and a P-47 have the same
silhouette. You have to see the planview to see the
elliptical wings.

Three months later I crash landed near a 9th AF base,
and was taken to their hospital with a banged up nose
and forehead. Eagleton was stationed there and they
knew my name from the flap at Hqs, so he looked me up
and we drank beer at the club and flew the mission all
over again.

Eagleton swore he was shooting at a FW190, and even my
camera film looked like I was shooting at a 109 to our
Intelligence Officer. Glenn said the only thing that
saved him was the armor shield behind the cockpit..
The bullets came in over his shoulder, hit the
instrument panel, knocking most of them out.. When he
got to his base it was weathered in and he was forced
to bail out. His instruments were too shot up to try
it.

And that's how Don Whinnem shot down Glenn Eagleston -
something no German pilot was able to do. Glenn ended
up with 20 1/2 confirmed victories, tops in the 9th
AF. Whinnem was no slouch either. He didn't get credit
for that P-51, but he got enough 109s and 190s to make
him an Ace.

ack-ack

[Mathman]

Originally posted by Furious
Kinda an offshoot of the "Jug was best fighter of WW2" thread.

Scenario:

"AirKill 2112", a game show in the future that pits one pilot in his choice of WW2 prop fighter against another pilot in a WW2 prop fighter in a duel to the death for your viewing pleasure.  Real planes; one guy lands, the other is dead.

If you were a contestant in the above show, what plane would you choose?

dork