Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => Aircraft and Vehicles => Topic started by: Shuckins on January 21, 2003, 10:42:55 PM
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...have fared versus the latest Japanese fighters in production when the war ended? That is, if the U.S. had decided to invade Japan instead of dropping the A-Bomb. What about the F4U-4 Corsair or the F6F-5? Or, theoretically, the F6F-6, if it had gone into production?
Regards, Shuckins
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F6F-5 saw lots of combat.
As to the F8F, well it would have dominated the A7M2 due to quality control and fuel if nothing else.
The J7W2 might have done better, but we fall back to the poor late war Japanese quality control.
F8F would have been very effective against Japanese fighters.
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Ive read that F8F could as well as or better than the Zeke, plus 410-420 top speed
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somone once posted that the stats of f8f and la7 are almost identical.
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Originally posted by lord dolf vader
somone once posted that the stats of f8f and la7 are almost identical.
I thought the F8F had an INCREDIBLE climb rate up to 20K plus. Didn't it set climb records near the end of WWII or just after?
Terror
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I stand corrected. this page http://www.daveswarbirds.com/usplanes/backdoor.htm lists Bearcats top speed as 434 mph and sustained climb of 4570 fpm
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Terror,
The F6F set climb records that were not broken until well into the jet age. And I don't mean a modified strip down one either. I mean with a combat load.
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The Goodyear F2G, souped up Corsair with 3,000 horsepower engine designed for use as a kamikaze interceptor, was clocked at 4 minutes climbing to 30,000 feet (dunno if it was carrying guns or ammo tho)
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The F8F Bearcat had a climb speed record that couldn't be beaten until the jet age. It outclimbed the jets of it's age. It's top speed was 421MPH! It could outaccelerate any plane of it's time. I don't think that any japenese plane could even come close to even touching it. I don't konw what Hellcat that you are talking about that could climb THAT fast? I think your talking about the F6F-6 right?
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Ya-Its the first piston engine fighter that required its pilots to wear G-suits because it was so manuverable. It WAS deployed during WWII in OPERATIONAL strength. It never fired a shot, however. On the down side-its got only 4 pop-guns. Now the F7f-4000 hp-+ tons of firepower=killer in MA. Bring the f7f and f8f to AH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Only if we get the J7W Shinden and the Do335 :D !
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"It's top speed was 421MPH! "
That's rather slow for a fighter that was only entering service in mid 1945. The P-51H which was entering service with the USAAF at the same time had a top speed in the range of 485 MPH; the P-47M which had entered service 6 months earlier (and saw combat) could do around 475. The F8F's main performance attribute was climbing ability, not speed. Remember this plane was concieved as a lightweight interceptor rather than as a general-purpose fighter which the USN already had plenty of.
G-suits had been in use for over a year by the time the F8F came into use. The F8F was not the most maneuverable fighter in the USN inventory--that honor falls to the lowly FM2 Wildcat, which was rated by the USN as their best dogfignter for under 10,000 feet beating even the F8F in this regard. Nor was it the fastest; the F4U-4 was about 25 MPH faster at combat altitudes. However, the F8F could take off and reach CAP altitude faster than anything else the USN had at the time.
The F8F was basically intended to be a Kamikaze killer, something which the USN desperately needed as Kamikazes had the potential to cripple our carrier fleet (in spring 1945 they knocked several of our big carriers out of action, a feat which the Japanese had been incapable of since 1942). Even with the excellent F8F, it's likely that our carrier fleet would have suffered signigant damage in an invasion of Japan as the Japanese had thousands of Kamikaze planes ready. Okinawa would have looked like a picnic.
J_A_B
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The top speed of the Bearcat depended on which verson you get and the 4 pop guns were each 20mm in one verson.
F8F-2 455mph max speed at alt. 4 m3 20mm cannons.
f8f 1b also had 4 20mm's
Regards,
Chris
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Type: Fighter
Crew: Pilot
Armament: four 20mm cannon
Specifications:
Length: 27' 6" (8.38 m)
Height: 13' 8" (4.17 m)
Wingspan: 36' 6" (11.12 m)
Wing area: 244 sq. ft (22.67 sq. m)
Empty Weight: 7070lbs (3206 kg)
Gross Weight: 9386lbs (5871 kg)
Max Weight: 12947lbs (5871 kg)
Propulsion:
No. of Engines: 1
Powerplant: Pratt & Whitney R-2800-34W
Horsepower: 2100 hp
Performance:
Range: 1105 miles (1779 km)
Cruise Speed: 163 mph (262 km/hr)
Max Speed: 434 mph (698 km/hr)
Climb: 4570 ft/min (1392.87 m/min)
Ceiling: 38900 ft (11856 m)
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Bearcat is FW190. try it in AH against a Zero.
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according to what few things Ive read about the F8F, it was deisgned to turn as well or better than a Zeke
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I heard the F8F bearcat could feed starving children in Somalia while traveling at five times the speed of sound, fight the Zentraedi ,and still have time to bring toys to the one legged boy in crutches named Timmy. :D :D :D
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Originally posted by Rasker
according to what few things Ive read about the F8F, it was deisgned to turn as well or better than a Zeke
Why would they care about that? The main thing the navy was worried about was intercepting kamikazes.
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Originally posted by udet
Bearcat is FW190. try it in AH against a Zero.
Yeah, they compare real well... I suggest you look into actual performance before you continue with this line....
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think f4u4 with more acceration and 4 20mm cannon that just tear up everything.
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Originally posted by F4UDOA
Terror,
The F6F set climb records that were not broken until well into the jet age. And I don't mean a modified strip down one either. I mean with a combat load.
The F8F held the time to climb record till the 1970s when a F16 finally broke it.
Standing start on runway to 10k in 93 secs by a F8F.
Whels
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Where did the Komet fit into all this record making business anyway?
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It's all there. It was designed before the kamikazees but production was delayed by all those the orders for F6f and TBf.
The engineers knew they could build a smaller more agile plane around the R2800 if they had time. The only penalty was shorter range and it was never really developed as a fighter bomber.
-Blogs
Originally posted by Montezuma
Why would they care about that? The main thing the navy was worried about was intercepting kamikazes.
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Bueatiful Bearcat's
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I have read that the Bearcat was "Optimized for Climb, Speed and Maneuverability." Range wasn't a top priority like most of the US fighters. Fleet defense was its primary intended role. Apparently the French used it as a Jabo ride against the Vietcong in the Indochina war. They loved it because it was reliable-it could work from very rough airfields- and it could carry a ton-of ordinance.
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The French loved any vehicle that was capable of running away from a vietminh soldier on a bicycle... :)
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I think the French got a bad rap. Like I said in a previous post. Liyba invaded Chad in the early 80's and France defended Chad. It was like 80,000 Liybans vs 3,000 French and the French spanked them. Also, rember when Algerian terrorists hijaked a AirFrance flight. French commando's stormed it and killed ALL the terrorists w/out one lost hostage. Delta-force in the US hasn't able to match anything like that (ask the Iranians).
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The French lost in Indochina just like the US.
The French Foreign Legion is one of the best trained unit in the world.