best WW II fighter, The

Flight Journal, Aug 2003 by Meyer, Corky

Pilots who flew the Lightning in combat quickly became accustomed to its twin engines' excessive thrust, and they appreciated its single-engine safety potential. When the P-38 was equipped with hydraulic-boost ailerons, it demonstrated a much greater combat advantage over enemy fighters; and when it at last had dive-recovery flaps installed, pilots no longer feared over-diving the P-38 into compressibility.

Although Maj. Richard Bong (40 kills) and many other P-38 pilots considered the Lightning a most useful combat tool in all theaters, it had too many problems and limitations to earn it a place at the top of the list.

6 Messerschmitt Bf 109

Between July 1937 and 1939, in the Spanish war against Russian fighters, 29 Messerschmitt Bf 109Bs were blooded by two combat squadrons in JDG Group J/88; thus, it saw duty before WW II. More were produced-and without interruption-than of any other fighter; it was manufactured right up to the end of the War and was a most promising fighter, but 11,000 of the 33,000 built were destroyed during takeoff and landing accidents-one third of its combat potential! I was amazed when my friend and 176-kills ace the late Gen. Johannes Steinhoff told me this. It seems incredible that the primary cause of this outrageous statistic-a splayed-out wheel landing gear known to have incorrect geometry-was not rectified immediately by the powers that be. Chief aerodynamicist for the Messerschmitt Me 163 rocket fighter, Josef Hubert, who came to Grumman in 1946, told me that Willi Messerschmitt had adamantly refused to compromise the Bf 109's performance by adding the drag-producing wing-surface bumps and fairings that would have been necessary to accommodate the wheels with the proper geometry. This would have reduced its accident rate to within expected military-fighter ranges and made it a world standard!

Steinhoff also related the story of ferrying 200 Bf 109s from Germany to France just before D-day in June 1944. Because of poor weather, a lack of training and operational problems, only 23 made it to their destination-177 aircraft lost out of 200 sent!

As a fighter-bomber, the Bf 109F-1/B was a borderline failure. It could barely carry enough external stores to justify the risk. The best it could do was to sling a single 500-pound bomb on a centerline rack. There's a good reason why you seldom see a picture of a 109 carrying bombs: it was an inferior fighter-bomber.

Early in the War, the Bf 109 made hundreds of high-scoring aces, including top scorer Erich Hartmann (352 kills). It was considered to be an outstanding defensive and offensive fighter, but with a mediocre fighter-bomber capability and a high accident rate designed into it, it could never be rated as the best.

5 Russian Yak-1 and Yak-9

In 1938, 32-year-old Alexander Yakovlev won the contract to build a line of very simple, straightforward Yak fighters that would provide more than 30,000 fighter aircraft for the USSR air forces during the War.

The Yak-1 started with wooden wings and steel-tube and fabric fuselage and tail surfaces. After being moved east from Moscow to Kamensk/Uralsk, Yakovlev's first aircraft rolled off the lines three weeks after the arrival of the jigs and tools. This was an amazing feat! The Yak-1 was powered by one 1,100hp M-105Pa engine that took it to 311mph at sea level and 363mph at 16,000 feet. Its range, however, was limited by a fuel capacity of only 107 gallons. The Russians quickly learned their lesson, and the Yak series was continually redesigned and improved.