Planes

[David603]

Originally Posted by manintrees

It's blowing my mind that none of you have mentioned the P-47 Thunderbolt or the ass-whoopin' F6F Hellcat from the PTO.
Both of these planes have insane kill ratios and are well known for their effectivness versus the FW 190's/Me 109's and the Zeroes respectively.

P47 is quite good, but only at high altitude and it suffered from having the manoeuvrability of a barge, and the F6F worked well against Zeros but would be too slow to see effective use in Europe.

If I'm flying a Bf109 in Il2 1946 and I see a P47, the only part of the combat I'm worried about is getting past the 8 .50cals if the pilot tries a head on pass. Once I'm past these the only way a P47 is going to survive is either having a pilot far better than me or by using its weight to dive for the deck, and if I can spare the time and don't have to fight anyone else I will get him when he starts to climb back up to altitude again.

The F6F was certainly a good plane in its place and time, but it isn't even a contender for best fighter.