So he was named as the designer, that often happens with the lead person. Skunkworks ring a bell. I know he didn't do it by himself. But the fact remains, that aircraft was designed around the Allision.....
I got my information from Time life books, and have read it many other places. The aircraft was designed and two protoypes built in six months.....
Later the Rolse royce was adopted to it. They put the merlin in them to ferry them to Britton... It was the RAF's intent all along.

 

That was the other “cat”. I knew the Hell cat was pretty tough, and I thought the wildcat was the one I was thinking of. There were 3 “cats” they talked about on the Military channel that gave the Japanese Hell in the Pacific. It must’ve been the Bear Cat.

I thought it was this plane, but I just looked up the specs- The Bear Cat was very powerful (2,100 HP, and 431 MPH speed), but half the weight of the Jug... There was another WWII aircraft that was near the size of the Jug, but I cannot recall it.

1. Agreed, but tactics count.

2. Disagree: According to the military channel, the P-38, though devastating in it’s firepower, was largely a failure in combat in Europe. It caught the German’s attention for it’s design (Fork-tailed Devil), not so much for it’s application.

3. 50/50: Disagree- the Bf-109 may have been faster in level flight and in a climb, but the P-47 was a much more formidable aircraft, even though their intended roles were different. Tactics count, and according to WW-II P-47 pilots, they could disengage from a Bf-109, dive and run away from the Bf-109 if the tide wasn’t in their favor and the 109 couldn’t catch them. They also said they liked to pounce on Bf-109’s from above, as the .50 cal machine guns would rip an Bf-109 apart and if they missed, they were already in a dive, and the Bf-109 couldn’t catch them to return fire.

What’s worse, the P47 could takes lots of damage. I forgot what the rates are, but in air-to-air encounters, the P47 killed many Bf-109’s than the 109 killed 47’s. The jug was damn-near unstoppable by the 109. Although not designed as an air superiority fighter, it shot down a lot of planes- and is still rated the best ground attack plane of the European theater. No American fighter in the Euro theater shot down more enemy fighters than the….. (drum roll) B-17 Flying Fortress, a flying gun platform that also dropped bombs- LOL.

Agree: The P-51 had the speed, firepower, and capability to make the difference in Germany, but it wasn’t until the Merlin went into the Mustang. That engine gave it the power and speed it needed, as well as the high-altitude performance to out-class the Germans. The American engines that came after the Merlin engine was used by the Brits had 200 HP more (1,200 HP) than the already successful Merlin. The Mustang was almost wrote off as a failure too, until it got a proper engine- and wow… What a difference. When it was all said and done, the Mustang had the Packard V-1650-9 liquid-cooled supercharged V-12 rated at 1,490 hp (standard) and 2,220 hp at War Emergency Power). The Pratt & Whitney Double Wasp (Bearcat) matched this horsepower number as well, but was 60 MPH slower than the Mustang.


As for the Navy stuff- The war turned at Midway. It may have turned more at the battle you mention, but Japan realized they could be hurt at Midway. Our victory there took out the bulk of their aircraft, 4 carriers, and stopped the invasion of midway that was about to happen.

Japan’s naval aviation never recovered from the losses at Midway. This is not to say they weren’t still good with what they had left- but, with the loss of 4 carriers, who knows how many men, and nearly 300 aircraft- in one day- they were not nearly as confident any more.

Our capital ships and theirs never went toe to toe, so we’ll never know. The Iowa’s 16” guns would have sank the Yamato, just as easily as her 18” guns would have sank the Iowa class. We had one thing the Japanese didn’t have though, and that was radar. With that, I think the Iowa may have had an advantage on the Yamato. But, after Midway, the Japanese didn’t put the Yamato or her sister ship (Musashi I think) in harms way.

Top Navy officers on both sides knew the aircraft carrier spelled the end of the road for the battleship. Others denied this, but Pearl Harbor proved the theory right. Small, cheap airplanes could destroy capital ships. Even after Pearl, there were still naysayers who said it couldn’t happen to a battleship at sea. The next day, the Japanese navy sank two British battleships that were at sea and able to maneuver.

Patton: I’ve read a lot about him, wrote a lot about him in college too. Not saying I know all there is to know about him- but I know enough to know that his strategy kept Germany on their heels, and that was good for America at the time. The only general in the European heater who was arguably as good, was Bradley. To me, Bradley was more like Jean-Luc Picard, whereas Patton was more like Capt. Kirk. Were I going into battle, I’d rather be with a Picard than a Kirk. But, even with that said, there is no denying Patton’s war results. For those who survived- they had a lot to celebrate.


This is in keeping with everything I have read and watched over the years- and being a WWII buff I have read and watched a lot about it- stories often told by those who were there- as well as historians (The History Channel, The Military Channel, and more…)

Read about the Mustang:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P-51_Mustang

I know some people (Professors) don't like Wikipedia as a source. However, articles I've read stated Wikipendia's informtion was found to be equal in content, reliability, and errors per article, to the encyclopedia Britannica.

 

I just remembered my grandpa saying this, Just before the battle at Midway Japan attacked Alaska in attempt to distract US troops. I always thought that was pretty interesting.

 

Yes, they did a distraction attack up there. The USA, wasn't quite sure of which area the Japs were going to hit. At that time the code breakers came up with this idea.
The Japanese had the islands coded by alphabet. So the U.S. sent out a radio broadcast from Mid Way the a water condenser was broken. When the Japanese rebroadcast it to their command, it let the US Navy know that Mid Way was the true target. So our Navy was there waiting for them.

 

Big Hersh
Those were the three Cats, built by Gruman. I'm not sure of the other airplane you are refering to right now. If I remember what it was I'll post it up. But McDonald Douglas had some Airplanes in the theater also.

What was the designation of the Airplane that came at the end of WWII, that was later used in Korea? It's nicname was "Sandy". They used it in Korea and Vietnam for ground support. Maybe that is the one you are refering too.

 

in reference to the P47 and its toughness. I read a story one time that I think took place in Europe. But a German fighter pulled in behind aq P47 that was crippled and coulsd't evade him. But the German unloaded all of his ordenance into the back of the P47, and still couldn't bring him down. So once the German ran out of ammo, he pulled up beside the injured airplane, saluted the pilot, then broke of pursuit and went home. The pilot of the jug made it back home. Those the wee big and heavy, but took the licks.

Back in the 80's I was visiting in Indiana, and heard there was a restored P47 at an airport in Elkhart. So I new someone that knew the guy that owned it. We went out to the Airport nad I got to look it over up really close. In the picture of me standing in front of it. The back of my head was even with the oil cooler. I'm 6'3" tall. THe leadind edge of the wing, was about chest level or higher. I'm going to have to look that picture up, I haven't seen it in several years. It wasn't but a year or to later I heard that airplane got destroyed somehow. Oh, it was the D model, with the bubble canopy.

 

You know, I'm a fan of World War II aircraft, and for the life of me, I'd never heard of that plane before I watched that show, and I can't remember it now. It was a simple plane, almost as big as the P-47, but the 47 was slightly larger, and slightly more powerful. They were talking about the similarities between the two planes. I'm not sure of it's involvement in the Pacific. I know it was there, but when it comes to the pacific theater, the planes they always talk about on the military channel is the P-38, the "Cats", and the F4U- when it comes to fighters.

It wasn't the Sandy (A1 Skyraider) though- that came after WWII.

 

There was another Grumman 'Cat' - the F7F Tiger Cat.

It was a twin engine Navy fighter that saw action in Korea.

 

I forgot that one too. But the airplane called the Sandy was a single engine.
I've got the books at home, if I think of it ,I'll look them up tonight.

Another Douglas aircraft was a dive bomber, called the Dauntles.

 

Douglass: A-1 Skyraider.

 

 

My grandfather always talked about his artillery division having to call in recon and strafing as they moved their way up towards Italy through the mountains. He was telling me they usually sent P38's since they had a 20mm canon and 4 50's. He said they had some rare B-25's that had a canon mounted in the nose of the bird but I forgot what mm it was.... much bigger than 20mm I know.

 

One version of the B-25 had a 75mm cannon mounted in the nose.

 

If I remember correctly. Every time they fired it, it temporarily blinded the pilot

 

That's it. For some reason I was thinking 70mm...

Here is one of them used for strafing
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgu...a%3DN%26um%3D1