Yak-3 > P-51?

[Mastermariner]

  https://www.warhistoryonline.com/whotube-2/two-ww2-russian-yak-3-fighters-wanaka.html

 

Interesting

 

Master

[Original_Uwe]

Not really.

Comparing a yak and a P-51 is like comparing apples to anvils.

Let's see the yak fly from London to Berlin and back.

As far as pure performance the mustang was never the best at anything but range.

109 out climbed it, thunderbolt out dove it, spitfire out turned it. But she could fly a looooooooooong way.

Edited May 16, 2016 by II./JG53_Uwe

[216th_Lucas_From_Hell]

What Uwe said really. The P-51 was one of the best strategic fighters of its time, while the Yak-3 was one of the best tactical fighters. I was lucky to see a restored Yak-3U (originally with M-82FN engine, but now flying with a PW I believe) flying last year.

 

 

From that airshow, note how tiny it is.

[J2_Trupobaw]

Not really.

Comparing a yak and a P-51 is like comparing apples to anvils.

Let's see the yak fly from London to Berlin and back.

As far as pure performance the mustang was never the best at anything but range.

109 out climbed it, thunderbolt out dove it, spitfire out turned it. But she could fly a looooooooooong way.

... and her .50 machinegun were perfect for downing heavily armoured, overgunned fighters designed to hunt B-17s. P-51 was long range escort. Yak was a superiority fighter.

 

If I wanted to hunt something with more armour like Il-2, I'd take anything that has cannons over P-51. If I wanted to protect ground targets from B-17s, I'd take these upgunned and armoured 109 Ks which P-51 was hunting. If I wanted to protect my 109 Ks from P-51s, Yak or Spitfire would get job done (or 109 not configured to fight bombers...) . But if I wanted to go really long way to protect B-17s from bomber-fighting 109Ks, knowing that there are no superiority fighters to challenge me, P-51 is ideal plane.

 

And if I wanted to go to airquake server  ...

Edited May 16, 2016 by Trupobaw

[Solty]

For dogfighting at low altitude Yak3. But long range escort/fighter sweep/CAS/CAP. P-51D all the way. Overall P-51D, but it is not unfounded.

 

Why? P-51D

-is faster at all altitudes

-has longer range

-has bigger payload

-has a bit better visibility

-has less time consuming engine managment with most of it beeing automatic

-has better handling at high speed

-has better dive

-has better energy retention

 

 

And it's .50cals are enough for everything that Axis had during the war as most their bombers were quite fragile (He111, Ju88 etc.) and soviets are no different, they mostly had tactical bombers, so no problems there.

[II/JG17_HerrMurf]

It is probably more accurate to say the P-51 was not the best at anything (except range) but was very good at everything. She has taken a beating in various forums over the last decade or so but she was a very capable fighter. Used within her flight envelope she was world class. Using her in an airquake scenario at 2000 meters certainly does not tell the whole story. Let's not try to re-write her contribution to the war effort here shall we?

[6./ZG26_Emil]

It is probably more accurate to say the P-51 was not the best at anything (except range) but was very good at everything. She has taken a beating in various forums over the last decade or so but she was a very capable fighter. Used within her flight envelope she was world class. Using her in an airquake scenario at 2000 meters certainly does not tell the whole story. Let's not try to re-write her contribution to the war effort here shall we?

 

Nicely put!

[216th_Lucas_From_Hell]

The average 'forum monkey armchair pilot' Mk I cares too much about performance figures as they come, that leads to seeing history through very distorted glasses.

 

Most of the time the differences in performance people amplify so much were barely noticeable in combat and quickly negated by the situations at hand. Case in point, a Bf-109 climbs better than the P-51D at all altitudes, and surpasses it by about 3 m/s at 6-7000m. That means f*** all when you have some 30-odd Bf-109s chasing 500 bombers with 200 escort fighters and while you've been climbing at 300 km/h all the way from ground level, they are happily cruising at faster speeds and with a huge altitude advantage over you.

 

I mean, today I tried out the Battle of Moscow campaign and spent some 10 minutes diving and climbing onto a group of Bf-109F-4s... in my I-16!