mosquito vs beaufighter - which is 'better'?

[jollyjack]

https://www.militaryfactory.com/aircraft/compare-aircraft-results.php?aircraft1=126&aircraft2=135

[ATAG_Ezzie]

I'll bite...

 

Having 'flown' the Beaufighter online in COD for a reasonable number of hours and maybe about the same amount of time in the Mossie online in BON I've got some thoughts on various aspects.

 

Visibility - the Beaufighter has better visibility by virtue of the observer/nav who looks backwards. In COD you could 'cheat' and quickly go into the observer's station and check 6 very quickly and you had an excellent view backwards and downwards.  Its possible to check 6 in the Mossie only if flying at tree top height as you have a significant blind spot under your tail if flying any higher.  At very low level you can usually assume there's no one under your tail. Usually but not always as I have learnt...

 

Manoeuvring - i didnt throw the Beau around and dont either in the Mossie.  Low, fast, get in and out quickly, do a steep offset pop up to acquire the tgt and then roll onto it and drop the bombs in a  short steep dive and have a squirt at stuff with guns but keep running.  So from my perspective they are more or less the same, noting i havent explored their full flight envelopes.

 

Speed - I think the Mossie is much faster down low although i dont know the numbers off the top of my head.  I cant recall outrunning many S/E fighters in a Beau but i can from time to time in the Mossie up until late 44/early 45.

 

Firepower - both have enough to make a mess of most things although i think the Mossie can carry more bombs and maybe has more options, but this might be a game thing and not reflect real life.  I'm not sure - but someone will prove me wrong - that Mossies never used torps operationally, so thats one real world difference and is not in either game so is kinda irrelevant for this discussion

 

Circuit flying - the Mossie seems to be a bit slicker in the pattern and its a tad harder to get the speed down when doing a straight in approach compared with the Beau whose chunky airframe and 2 x radials slow it down more quickly.  A nice circuit in the Mossie will get the speed down nicely however.

 

Overall I'd probably favour the Mossie but that may be because that is what I'm flying - and enjoying now - and its a been a few years since i flew the Beau.  Its possible to fly the Mossie kinda/sorta like it was flown in real life (ie day ranger type missions ) and survive online and do OK (see attached for my sorties in the recent CB Apollo 6). I cant recall being as successful in COD online in the Beau but that might say more about me than the aircraft itself.

 

I also flew the 110 a lot in COD and got OK/competitive at flying that aircraft and was able to do the 50 online mission/no death challenge scoring about 1 kill per sortie once. But once the 1941 set of aircraft arrived I found that the way i flew it wasnt anywhere near as successful.  But it was a fun aircraft to fly as well and was a much better performer than most people gave it credit for if flown to its strengths and weaknesses.

 

Ezzie

[Lusekofte]

Mosquito and Beufighter are two different beast loved by their crew both of them. 
flying same missions they both experienced same lethal danger of low flying. 
as a all round airplane I am thinking Mosquito is better. But for service in Burma and other demanding climates I guess Beufighters was of best use. You can say both is as good as the crew flying them.
Brown deemed  Beufighter a better night fighter than BF 110 but 110 a better day fighter.  You can’t really compare

[FliegerAD]

The German V/KG 40 long range fighter group (Ju 88 C-6 and R-2) considered the Mosquito to be a much more dangerous enemy, and generally tried avoiding combat with it. They felt confident enough to engage Beaufighters but even then an advantageous advantegous starting situation or numerical superiority was recommended.

 

You have to keep in mind they flew re-purposed bombers and wanted to hunt anti-submarine units, not get in dogfights with other twin-engined planes. They did reasonably well against Beaufighters, though, and the Ju 88 R-2 (BMW 801 powered) furthermore combatted the Mosquito with good results.

 

But even the R-2 crews were never keen to engage with Mosquitos.

 

And in game, I can see why. Flying the C-6 against the Mossie... yeah... no.

[CUJO_1970]

On 3/12/2023 at 8:51 AM, FliegerAD said:

And in game, I can see why. Flying the C-6 against the Mossie... yeah... no.

 

At least partially due to the Mosquito's greatly over modeled roll rate, as compared to real tests.

[Bremspropeller]

On 3/12/2023 at 4:51 PM, FliegerAD said:

The German V/KG 40 long range fighter group (Ju 88 C-6 and R-2) considered the Mosquito to be a much more dangerous enemy, and generally tried avoiding combat with it. They felt confident enough to engage Beaufighters but even then an advantageous advantegous starting situation or numerical superiority was recommended.

 

You have to keep in mind they flew re-purposed bombers and wanted to hunt anti-submarine units, not get in dogfights with other twin-engined planes. They did reasonably well against Beaufighters, though, and the Ju 88 R-2 (BMW 801 powered) furthermore combatted the Mosquito with good results.

 

But even the R-2 crews were never keen to engage with Mosquitos.

 

And in game, I can see why. Flying the C-6 against the Mossie... yeah... no.

 

FWIW

Roland Beaumont did test-fly a G-1 (or even a G-6?) right after the war and went into a mock-DF with a Mossie.

He liked the Ju 88 quite a lot and thought it could hold it's own in the brief fight.