War Planes of the Second World War 4. - Fighters [antikvár]

fmwsi I vri'- p ii'v!,, Jr u- ßmm • . I r. lt.- ¦.'.(,' . i' ' ' INTRODUCTION One of the most remarkable aspects of wartime aircraft production was the rapidity with which the U.S. aviation industry achieved a phenomenal output of fighters. When the United States entered World War II the fighter squadrons of both the U.S.A.A.F. and the U.S. Navy were operating warplanes which were admittedly inferior to the fighters employed by most other combatants. To a major extent the inferiority of U.S.A.A.F. fighters was the result of the "ascendancy of bombardment over pursuit" belief which was widespread in official American circles in the years immediately preceding World War II. The P-39 Airacobra and the P-40 Warhawk were products of this school of thought; warplanes which were to be described officially as "disappointing" and which invariably possessed an inferior performance to the fighters by which they were opposed. It is sobering to recall that these aircraft constituted more than fifty per cent of all U.S.A.A.F. fighters committed overseas until September 1943. Fortunately for the U.S.A. and her allies, however, the U.S. aircraft industry was quick to learn, and superior fighters were soon rolling off the assembly lines in astonishing quantities, these providing the bulk of more than 101,500 fighters of nine principal types produced prior to V-J Day, by American aircraft manufacturers for the U.S. forces and, as the war progressed, all the U.S.A.'s allies. The P-51 Mustang in its Merlin-powered forms was probably the best piston-engined fighter produced in quantity by any of the combatants, while the F6F Hellcat, if eclipsed in certain performance respects by the F4U Corsair, is generally considered to have been the best all-round shipboard fighter. The U.S. aircraft industry was singularly prolific in the number and variety of experimental fighter designs built and tested during the war years, and thus a large part of this, the fourth fighter volume of War Planes of the Second World War, is devoted to the numerous American experimental fighter designs or experimental variants of production types which, for one reason or another, failed to attain operational service. These range in weight from the tiny wooden 3,670-lb. Bell XP-77, intended to conserve strategic materials, to the immense 39,000-lb. Lockheed XP-58, which at one period of its career was intended to break up bomber formations by bombarding them with 75-mm. shells. In design they vary from the completely orthodox to the radical tail-first XP-55 Ascender, the tailless XP-56 built entirely of magnesium, and the twin-boom XP-54 with built-in elevator for the pilot and hinged nose armament. Apart from the U.S. aircraft industry one other aircraft industry finds a place in this volume: that of Yugoslavia. Although this industry's fighter progeny participated but briefly in the conflict, they are indicative of the high standard of indigenous design attained by Yugoslav aircraft manufacturers at the time of the German onslaught. In conclusion, I should like to record my sincere thanks to my good friends Warren M. Bodie, Harold G. Martin, H. Andrews, and Peter M. Bowers, who have supplied some of the photographs that appear on the pages that follow, and to Dustin W. Carter, Ray Wagner, author of that invaluable work of reference, American Combat Planes, Mauno A. Salo, and Zoran Jerin, all of whom have furnished information which is included in this volume. October 1961 William Green