Ace says P-40 is not crap

[SYN_Ricky 75]

Out of curiosity only Luke, what Japanese aircraft did the P-40 go up against mainly in China?

 

Chief

 

I'd say as far as fighters are concerned, mostly Ki-43, as the Japanese Army had no Zeroes.

[LukeFF 3558]

Out of curiosity only Luke, what Japanese aircraft did the P-40 go up against mainly in China?

 

The Ki-43 Oscar

[avlSteve 85]

The Ki-43 Oscar

 

When do we get the Oscar?  

 

j/k can't wait to fly the P40 a lot.  And that Mig.  Seriously can't wait.

[=CFC=Conky 46]

I'd say as far as fighters are concerned, mostly Ki-43, as the Japanese Army had no Zeroes.

 

If we're talking AVG, then it would be the Ki-27 and Ki-43 (which was often mis-identified as the Zero by AVG pilots). Later on the P-40 would have gone up against the Ki-44, Ki-61 and eventually the Ki-84. Of course by then the USAAF was fielding the P-51 but the the P-40 remained in service with the Chinese Air Force.

 

Good hunting,

Conky

[Y-29.Silky 470]

What I learned, you just cannot defend American fighter aircraft. There's always a scapegoat and the actual pilots are full of propaganda. According to many pc pilots. It's sad.

Edited August 23, 2015 by Y-29.Silky

[Finkeren 5567]

What I learned, you just cannot defend American fighter aircraft. There's always a scapegoat and the actual pilots are full of propaganda. According to many pc pilots. It's sad.

Try defending Soviet fighter aircraft and try to convince people, that the MiG-3 was not all crap then

 

I'm just looking at the numbers, and from that it seems clear, that the P-40E had inferior performance to a mid-war LaGG-3 in all but turn rate and dive speed.

[SCG_wtornado 135]

Looks like there will be plenty of planes to fly offline.

 

Veteranen will have his work cut out for him making missions 

[ShamrockOneFive 1961]

Try defending Soviet fighter aircraft and try to convince people, that the MiG-3 was not all crap then

 

I'm just looking at the numbers, and from that it seems clear, that the P-40E had inferior performance to a mid-war LaGG-3 in all but turn rate and dive speed.

 

Its not fast at top speed but get in a good spot and the fast dive and reasonable energy retention, plus the 6 guns, plus the good turn and roll rates make the P-40 pretty appealing to fly even if its raw performance numbers are inferior. Up against the 109E-7 it'll be fine. On paper the P-40 is ok but it has the right kinds of attributes that you can use to do well versus superior opponents. Can't argue that its superior in any way... but it's a scrappy fighter.

[=Nomader=Krokodil-1 97]

Well here is what VVS pilot Golodnikov had to say of the P-40.

 

Actually, the P-40 could engage all Messerschmitt's on equal terms, almost to the end of 1943. If you take into consideration all the characteristics of the P-40, then the Tomahawk was equal to the Bf 109F and the Kittyhawk was slightly better. Its speed and vertical and horizontal manoeuvre were good and fully competitive with enemy aircraft. Acceleration rate was a bit low, but when you got used to the engine, it was OK. We considered the P-40 a decent fighter plane.

 

He said the same about the I-16 in comparison to the Fw 190.

I think a lot of things were lost in translation, especially with phrases like "equal terms."

[6./ZG26_Custard 998]

 

 

were lost in translation

Without doubt, Golodnikov was quoted as saying the Shvetsov M-25 was on a par with the Merlin if not better  . From what I have read and in my limited experience it does seem as though the VVS ran their aircraft and engines to destruction frequently.

[=362nd_FS=Hiromachi 1122]

Try defending Soviet fighter aircraft and try to convince people, that the MiG-3 was not all crap then I'm just looking at the numbers, and from that it seems clear, that the P-40E had inferior performance to a mid-war LaGG-3 in all but turn rate and dive speed.

 

Dont see the reason to defend MiG-3, it was quite good aircraft with some advanced features, and its good that we will see him here.

 

As for the numbers ... numbers are not everything, there is also quality of manufacturing, reliability, comfort of flying, etc. I never sit in either P-40 or LaGG, not to mention flying any of them but something tells me that both quality and reliability were in favor of P-40. Of course those are meaningless factors in game, but that only proves that sim never will replace the reality.

 

 

If we're talking AVG, then it would be the Ki-27 and Ki-43 (which was often mis-identified as the Zero by AVG pilots). Later on the P-40 would have gone up against the Ki-44, Ki-61 and eventually the Ki-84. Of course by then the USAAF was fielding the P-51 but the the P-40 remained in service with the Chinese Air Force.

 

Good hunting,

Conky

More or less yes, initially P-40s faced Ki-27s and Ki-43-I. Since spring 1943 there were some replacements on both sides, Japanese started using Ki-43-II and Ki-44-II (very little in fact) with a two speed superchargers which considerably raised the operation levels, to a standard of 20,000 feet where P-40 performance was far from desired and Japanese pilots possessed advantage. This raised a lot of complains about necessity of introduction a higher performance aircraft, and so in late 1943 P-51A and P-38 began to operate. British received a much nicer (at least in my opinion ) Spitfire VIII. 

Edited August 24, 2015 by =LD=Hiromachi

[WklinkTomCofield 16]

It should be effective in this game.  The faults with the aircraft were in its high altitude performance with the Allison engine.  We shouldn't see that much of that in the game.

[Finkeren 5567]

As for the numbers ... numbers are not everything, there is also quality of manufacturing, reliability, comfort of flying, etc. I never sit in either P-40 or LaGG, not to mention flying any of them but something tells me that both quality and reliability were in favor of P-40. Of course those are meaningless factors in game, but that only proves that sim never will replace the reality.

I agree, and as I said: I'm not trashing the P-40 as an aircraft overall, especially not in terms of the service it actually gave IRL.

 

It's just that some people seem to be expecting the P-40E to be a mighty effective fighter within the sim, and I just don't think that'll be the case.