Quote:
Originally Posted by butterfield
That's becuase the Spitfire is a plane designed for turning fights. The P-51 is not. Most if not almost all american planes were "hotrods"... big powerful engines, fast with poor low speed manueverability. forget what you see in the movies. Pilots of say a p-51 / cosair. f44 /etc would use tactics involving speed and superior position. if there was no energy with a bandit on their tail they were already dead.
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Yeah, which is why my favourite WWII fighter is the Spitfire XIV. It might be heavier than the beautiful to fly Merlin Spitfires, but it is faster and quicker climbing/diving than a P51D or Fw190D, and it can still turn inside the majority of late war fighters with ease. Its combination of speed and manoeuvrability means it is one of the few planes that can be used well at both Turn-and-Burn and Boom-and-Zoom tactics.