Another of my favourites from
Dunsfold Wings & Wheels Airshow 2014, 'Fighter Sweep' shows
the Spitfire and P51 Mustang of the Old Flying Machine
Company. Both are magnificent aircraft and there is often
debate over which one was the better WW2 Fighter...
Fortunately this question was answered when the Mustang
arrived on the scene during the Italian Campaign - I'll let
Col. Charles McCorkle (commander of 31st Fighter Group)
explain further...
"With late
winter came Anzio, plenty of action, and a flurry of
victories, along with orders to move to the Fifteenth Air
Force and be re-equipped with P-51s. The P-51B already had
been introduced into England in the Eighth Air Force, where it
was serving as escort fighter. This was to be the role of the
31st in the Fifteenth Air Force. The first two P-51s soon were
reported available at Oran in Algiers and were ferried to
Italy where the 31st was still located at Castel Volturno, on
the beach north of Naples, with one squadron on the Anzio
beachhead at Nettuno.
Now we
could see which was the better aircraft. Needless to say, the
subject had received plenty of attention since the conversion
had been announced. During a year-and-a-half of Spit
operations both the pilots and the ground crewmen had become
extremely partial to the Spitfire. Now came this new bird with
great recommendations, but the 31st had believed and proved
that the Spit could lick anything it encountered. Although a
few weeks of flying a new aircraft nearly always makes it
popular, here was a case where a test had to come first. After
several pilots had become familiar with it, a Mustang and a
Spit took off for scheduled "combat," flown by two top young
flight commanders. Their approximate takeoff statistics were:
Spit IX"”horsepower 1,650, wing area 242, weight (optional)
7,300, wing loading 30; P-51B"”horsepower 1,650, wing area
233, weight (optional) 10,000 (near), wing loading 43.
When the
fighters returned, the pilots had to agree that the Spitfire
had won the joust. The Spit could easily outclimb,
outaccelerate, and outmanouvre its opponent; the P-51 could
outdive and outrun the Spit. That sounds like faint praise for
the P-51, but we must remember that our opponents were not
Spits but Me-109s and that the P-51's climb and
maneuverability actually were quite good; nearly as good as
the Spit's. More important, the fuel capacity of the P-51 was
so superior to the Spit's that an entirely different dimension
was added to the combat capability comparison range. Range
didn't come into play in this particular encounter, though its
integration in the P-51 made the aircraft relatively heavy
compared with the Spitfire, which thus had better
maneuverability and climb. However, it could and did assure
the emergence of the P-51 as the best of a new breed, the
direly needed long-range escort fighter." |