The United States Army Air Force didn't originally buy the Mustang as a fighter, but as a dive bomber, according to. And so in October 1943, work began on a very long range escort fighter. P-51, single-seat, single-engine fighter aircraft originally designed and produced by North American Aviation for the British Royal Air Force and later adopted by the U. One proposal for the solution to the escort fighter range problem was for the bombers to tow their escorting fighters into the combat zone and release them when their protection was needed. While originally designed for interceptor and fighter escort roles, the 109 was sufficiently adaptable to serve in other roles, including ground attack, and reconnaissance. The United States Army Air Force didn't originally buy the Mustang as a fighter, but as a dive bomber, according to. If there had been an overwhelming operational need for a long range escort fighter for the RAF in 1942 (given how early the commitment to night time strategic bombing had been taken), there's no reason as to why an armed variant could not have been relatively easily developed (subject to all of the arguments, counter arguments, hair-splitting. Yes, Air Force One is typically escorted by fighter jets while in flight. Long-range escort model: P-47N-RA: 149: 5,934 canceled after VJ-Day: TECHNICAL NOTES (P-47D): Armament: Six or eight . The fighter could fly at a maximum speed of 234 miles per hour, had a range of 360 miles, and a service ceiling of 27,400 feet. Prior to the introduction of the P-51, Allied fighters could only escort bombers so far because of limited range. The Mustang served in nearly every combat zone during WWII, and later fought in the Korean War. 67 Tests and modification over the summer added an 85-gallon internal tank to the fighter which placed its range without drop tanks at over. With the tank the climb rate dropped to 1420fpm. P-47, fighter and fighter-bomber used by the Allied air forces during World War II. Increasingly after mid 1943 and certainly after mid October the 8th stayed within fighter escort range. Caudron R. Pursuit Fighter Prototype. Three fighters were involved in that successful long-range escort, the P-38 Lightning, the P-47 Thunderbolt and the P-51 Mustang. 465 mph. Long-Range Escort Fighter [ 1947 ] The Lavochkin La-11 was a further development of the successful La-9 series, but destined as a long-range fighter escort. Single-Seat Monoplane Fighter Aircraft. KK News. hull classification symbol CVE), also called a "jeep carrier" or "baby flattop" in the United States Navy (USN) or "Woolworth Carrier" by the Royal Navy, was a small and slow type of aircraft carrier used by the Royal Navy, the Royal Canadian Navy, the United States Navy, the. Designed to provide the US forces with long-range escort capabilities over the Pacific, the F-82 bore the appearance of desperate measures taken to use surplus P-51 parts. It was believed that Germany could be bombed into submission by long-range self-defending bombers that were capable of flying—without fighter escort—to industrial targets anywhere in western or even central Europe. The North American Aviation P-51 Mustang was one of the most effective air-to-air combat aircraft of World War II, and in 1943 and 1944, the Mustang emerged as a game changer for the US Army Air Forces in the strategic air campaign against Germany. The Wellington and Stirling, operating at a maximum of 18,000 ft and 17,000ft weren't terribly survivable when going against defended targets. Merriam-Webster. E. "The B-17Ds were delivered to the Army from February to April of 1941" per Joe Baugher. Additional armament. The North American F-82 Twin Mustang was the last American piston-engine fighter ordered into production by the United States Air Force. With high endurance and stable flight performance, the fighter made the perfect long-range escort and patrol aircraft. But the -4 was faster at the P-51s best altitude, and with the airframe stressed for the war loads it carried I would bet the wings would stay on longer than the mustangs. Merlin-powered P-51s, equipped with jettisonable drop tanks, had an operational range of more than 1,600 miles (2,500 km), and they mounted their first long-range bomber escort missions over Germany in mid-December 1943. As American Mustang pilots protected bombers and pursued their enemies in the air over Europe and the Pacific, they earned a place for themselves and their airplane in the annals of military. The pairing of the legendary Merlin engine and the P-51 Mustang eventually resulted in the P-51D, which provided the US Army Air Forces with a high-performance, high-altitude, long range fighter that could escort heavy bomber formations all the way to Berlin and back. This. The pairing of the legendary Merlin engine and the P-51 Mustang eventually resulted in the P-51D, which provided the US Army Air Forces with a high-performance, high-altitude, long range fighter that could escort heavy bomber formations all the way to Berlin and back. It was a tragic irony that a long-range escort fighter had been readily available for about two years. Without further ado, here are AeroTime’s Top 10 best fighter jets in the world in 2023! 10. Or a 2-engined LR escort fighter, Merlin 45 will do there if there is not enough of Merlin XXs. Open 9 a. K1016 467715: 137. The first escort mission for the bombers was not flown until 5 December. Possessing excellent range and maneuverability, the P-51 operated primarily as a long-range escort fighter and also as a ground attack fighter-bomber. The appearance of the P-51 Mustang, which had the range to escort US bombers to targets anywhere inside German held territory, put the FW-190 at a permanent disadvantage. S. a Fuel Consumed in Gallons for 5 minutes War Emergency Power & 15 minutes Military Power. Bf 110C/D Italeri. To the Ruhr, shorter ranged MkV's escort out to 200 miles using DT's, P47's go out as far as they can before turning back, the escort Spits do the rest, forget Berlin, the B17's only bomb targets out to 400 miles until the P51's arrive in numbers. The YB-40 was a heavily armed modification of the standard B-17 used before the North American P-51 Mustang, an effective long-range fighter, became available to act as escort. . 2023. Using air superiority is not how it should be : with this your long range heavy fighters will try to engage quicker fighters and die like flies. The only prototype XB-38 to fly crashed on its ninth flight, and the concept was abandoned. of bombsTo make a Spitfire into an optimized escort fighter or long range pursuit type interceptor that retains all it's admirable attributes. "The B-17Ds were delivered to the Army from February to April of 1941" per Joe Baugher. S. Like the La-9, the La-11 was designed to be a low to medium-altitude. and Royal Navy markings–contributed to eliminating the U-boat menace in the Atlantic. The Hurricane I, at 7,127 lbs. The Lightning truly shined in the Pacific theater; seven of the top eight scoring USAAF aces in the Pacific flew the P-38. With improved range and speed, P-51 squadrons could now accompany 8th Air Force bombers on long-range raids over Europe. Most long range escort fighters designed in the mid 1930s,like the Bf 110,did indeed prove to have insufficient. He presented his twin-fuselage fighter to the top directors, and it was a direct hit. There are no correct or incorrect answers to a "what if," and the long-range Spitfire is a complete "what if. The Fw 187 Falke was a twin engine fighter that was built by Focke-Wulf in 1936, at a time when the newly-formed Luftwaffe did not consider such. The Mustang was among the best and most well-known fighters used by the U. Its manufacturer, North American Aviation, was confident. Its primary armament was eight . Used initially for counterair and ground attack work, their importance as night fighters caused them to be withdrawn for defense purposes until a shortage of spare parts made it necessary to. US war decisive World War 2 long-range escort fighter plane. Fundamentally an allied escort fighter needed to range out a couple of hundred miles to cover most operations being run or would be run in support of the. Two Allison Lightning V-3420 inline engines. The Merlin-powered Mustang with a four-bladed propeller. The Bf 109 first saw operational service in 1937 during the. Bayraktar have max speed of 100mph and range of approximately 90 miles, so I. In some service in 1942 to trial small long range raids. As a result, FW-190s were forced to retreat deeper into Germany, effectively giving Allied bombers free reign over the territory that lay within Allied escort fighter range. Strategy for Defeat: The Luftwaffe 1933-1945. Love. During its service life, the Thunderjet served in several roles, including day fighter, long-range escort fighter, fighter-bomber and as the USAF's first tactical. Sholto Douglas, head of Fighter Command was. effort was made to develop a high-performance escort fighter that could accompany the bombers to all targets of interest. The Battle of Midway is credited. As well as the RAF's own light bomber force, demand now came from the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) Eighth Air Force, which had started its. IXs to rendezvous with the Bomber Wings and escort them back. The McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet is an all-weather supersonic, twin-engine, carrier-capable, multirole combat aircraft, designed as both a fighter and attack aircraft (hence. The extended range allowed these fighters to escort the American bombers as far as the German western frontier. The problem for escort range when compared to the Merlin Mustang is drag/boost. The Germans didn't have any long-range single engine escorts in the early to mid war either. Mitsubishi incorporated this same design feature in the Zero, for the same reasons and with the same results. The Messerschmitt Bf 109 is a German World War II fighter aircraft that was, along with the Focke-Wulf Fw 190, the backbone of the Luftwaffe's fighter force. If you decide you'd rather have shorter legged fighters, you'll need to decide if you would rather make frequent stops or bring a Starfarer along to keep their tanks full. Serving as a high-performance, high-altitude, long-range fighter, the new Mustangs were capable of escorting bombers to Berlin and back. The term penetration fighter has been used to describe a long-range fighter aircraft designed to penetrate enemy air defences and attack defensive interceptors. USAF Historical Study No. The mastery of these long-range escort missions isThat said, I think the assumption that the RAF was looking for a long-range escort fighter early in the war is problematic. The Air Force (with input from its airmen) selected well; Raider evokes themes consistent with the history of airpower theory. Many people do not realize that the Zero was the world's first long range escort fighter. The Schweinfurt mission in particular foretold the failure of deep penetration raids of Germany without adequate long-range escort. Search Advanced searchWhen the Lightning began combat operations from England in September 1943, it was the only fighter with the range to escort bombers into Germany. The slow, heavily laden aircraft were easy pickings for fast. 50 cal. The first successful jet aircraft, the Heinkel He 178, flew only five days before the 1 September 1939 start of the. 20. 24 The Fifteenth was able to send a small force of 102 bombers to Steyr, in Austria, where they destroyed 20 per. m. Thus was born the world's best long-range, propeller-driven escort fighter. . Long Range Escort Fighter Italeri | No. 1939. However, the P51D was generally more specialized than the Spitfire. In February 1937 the US Army Air Corps issued a specification for a long-range interceptor (pursuit) and escort fighter, calling for a speed of 360 mph (ca. by Bernard Boylan, USAF Historical Division, Research Studies Institute, Air University,. '7 In July, 1936, GHQ initiated specifications for a multi-place fighter with bomb-carrying capacity, but when criticism of it arose, GHQ complained that some of the pursuit advo- cates "still want to cling to the idea that aThe extra output power allowed the aircraft to feature additional armor protection for the crew and the airframe was further reinforced. So it. Freelancer: Light Multi-role escort. The thonly chance a B-17 without fighter escort stood against a Me 109 was its 11-13 . In the postwar era,. What is most likely to happen is that the P-51 would empty its guns into the P-47, but fail to score a. Certainly no entirely successful machine in this category emerged from the Second World War, and when Professor Willy Messerschmitt began design studies for such a warplane towards the end of 1934, at the Bayerische Flugzeugwerke at Augsburg, his problems would have seemed insurmountable had. Thus was born the world's best long-range, propeller-driven escort fighter. Once the P-51 came on board, they had support to anywhere in Germany. The Fifth Air Force also began receiving. tailed P-51 Mustang airplanes, the best fighter aircraft type in the Army Air Forces. Republic P-43 Lancer. There is very little information about air units in HOI III in the moment I am writing this. The XF8B was intended for operation against the Japanese home islands from aircraft carriers outside the range of Japanese land-based aircraft. Gold Star. Americans can have a fighter with turbo-charger(s) to escort them in 1941. [1] [2] Bombers are vulnerable due to their low speed and poor maneuvrability. Again, nice thought but even though the Spitfire IX had the performance, it didn't have the range. S. U. The P-51 Mustang was an important aircraft in the war that had an American airframe and a British Rolls-Royce ‘Merlin’ Engine. the G6M1 could become a heavy escort fighter for other bombers but this diversion failed to live up to expectations. The fourth priority was an escort fighter with 1,500-mile range. 7480lbs Spit VIII. The 55th Fighter Group (USAAF) entered combat as a long range bomber escort group, and carried out that role until the end of the war in Europe. Second of the important fighters designed by Willy Messerschmitt, the Bf 110 originated from a Reichsluftfahrtministerium requirement of 1934 for a long-range escort fighter or heavily armed Zerstorer (destroyer). 50 caliber machine gun turrets,The new variant had good range and outstanding speed, about 80 kph (50 mph) faster than previous models. An aircraft carrier, complete with escort ships and fighter firepower, is designed to fight the planes and ships of nations more than it is built to root out fighters with rifles hiding in city. The XF-88 was envisioned as a dedicated interceptor and heavy escort fighter for protection of the USAF's long-range bombers. However, when the Boeing B-52 Stratofortress entered service and ushered in. I've always followed the squadron with interest since, especially when the EP-3E was downed on Hainan after the collision. It was an exceptionally large heavy fighter, intended to serve as a long-range escort fighter and bomber destroyer. . S. Thunderjets first encountered MiGs on January 21, 1952, when eight F-84s raiding Chongchan bridge were bounced by two flights of MiG-15s which shot an F-84 down. In the end, the Twin Mustang missed out on combat actions in World War 2 altogether, was turned into a night fighter and served with distinction. To Arnold’s credit, he swapped the first and fourth priority, moving long-range fighter escort to first place. Bomber escort defenses were initially layered, using the shorter-range P-38s and P-47s to escort the bombers during the initial stages of the raid before handing over to the P-51s when they were forced to turn for home. Thanks to its ability to excel in long-range escort duty, the Mustang was the first single-engine plane based in Britain to penetrate Germany, first to reach Berlin and first to go with the heavy bombers over the Ploiesti oil. Schmued presented him the new proposal, and it was also an instant success. Zeros flew long range bomber escort missions during the war in China, before the Pacific war even began, and throughout WW II Japanese carrier air groups out-ranged their US counterparts, primarily because of the. Using fighters to escort CAS also has the added benefit of the fighters ground attack value adding to the CAS when the bombing actually takes place whereas. Of course, there's also the lightweight Mustangs (XP-51F/G, P-51H/L/M), but you'll be. Mitsubishi A6M Zero taking off to attack Pearl Harbor. RM2JD6HJB – US Air Force Lockheed P-38 'Lightning' shooting down a German aeroplane during the Second World War. In addition to a defensive fighter, the adaptable Yak-9s were also put to uses such as reconnaissance, long-range bomber escorts, nighttime fighters, armed with 37mm or 45mm cannons and used as tank busters, general ground attacks, and when equipped with bomb loads of up to 1000 pounds, the planes could also serve as light bombers. (U) Development of the Long-Range Escort Fighter, by Bernard Boylan (1955). MG 151/20 Waffenwanne für Bf 110 G Italeri. Located in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada we offer firefighting specific fitness evaluation services for the local fire departments; historically including. General Walther Wever, first Chief ofStaff Hermann Göring and Ernst Udet and Willi Messerschmitt Mainstay of the fighter force: the Bf 109G The flawed fighter: the Bf 110 The "fast" bomber: the Ju 88 The interim bomber: the He 111 Field Marshal Albert Kesselring B-17 formation attacking Brunswick. Capt Quince L. RAF can have a long-range Spitfire III to escort them. 50in machine guns, three to five more than the standard B-24D (which could carry either one or three guns in the nose, two in the waist positions and two each in dorsal, ventral and tail turrets). Fighter / Fighter-Bomber. They sent a directive to NAA to provide maximum range to the P-51B for fighter escort at the earliest possible. Drew was better known for having shot down two German jet fighters in Europe. The P-5l Mustang was an outstanding fighter in World War II. Designed for various. Americans can have a fighter with turbo-charger(s) to escort them in 1941. (Image source: WikiMedia Commons) All through the summer and autumn of 1943, massive B-17 Flying Fortresses carrying nine tons of bombs flew into slaughter over Nazi Germany, sustaining crippling. Throughout the 1920s and 1930s the Air Staff argued that fighter escort was tactically unsound,diverted resources from its beloved bombers and was in any case technically infeasible. (Image source: WikiMedia Commons) All through the summer and autumn of 1943, massive B-17 Flying Fortresses carrying nine tons of bombs flew into slaughter over Nazi Germany, sustaining crippling losses as they were shot down. In Soviet Union, Leonid Kurchevsky developed a series of recoilless rifles in various. (National Archives) But the Germans had not created a coastal fighter belt. testimony as to the effectiveness of the escort fighter can be given than by the enemy. During its combat with the Fifteenth Air Force, the 332nd Fighter Group was one of seven fighter escort groups, four that flew P-51s and three that flew P-38s. 21,300 13,896. 1943. Your best bet for a long range fighter escort is undoubtedly the Vanguard as it is the smallest ship to combine long range and a purely combat focus. Navy /U. 463 mph. The problem was, the Bf 110 was easily killed by the more maneuverable Spitfires, so the Bf 109 found itself pressed into service. This covers the reasons why the Spitfire could have been modified into a long-range escort fighter and, as has been mentioned in another thread on the subject, it was discussed and trials, which the author Paul Stoddart mentions in his article, were carried out to determine the feasibility both in the UK and USA. In 1943, however, the P-51 Mustang fighter proved to have the range needed to travel from the U. Forums. P-38 Lightnings were used extensively as a long-range escort fighter during World War II and saw action in practically every major combat area of the world. Developed for the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC) by the Lockheed Corporation, the P-38 incorporated a distinctive twin-boom design with a central nacelle containing the cockpit and armament. The system was under development in the. Only when truly long-range fighter escorts joined formations did daylight bombing become a viable reality. Blue Sky Productions 1:72. The fourth priority was an escort fighter with 1,500-mile range.