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Aviation History
1944
1944 - 0288.PDF
146 FLIGHT FEBRUARY IOTH, 1944 GERMANY'S "SECRET WEAPON but these have been gradually terreted out by the Allies and thoroughly bombed. '' For a long time the Nazis worked like beavers prepar ing installations for their great weapon, which has not yet been launched in an attack. It was only after Allied bomb ing began wrecking takeoff points that the Germans, realis ing that the Allies were already in on their secret, began to brag about it and its terrific potentialities." The correspondent concludes that this weapon, " although it unquestionably remains a dangerous menace," has been " spiked " by the Allies, and that " there is not the slightest worry that it will ever represent more than an especially nasty and dangerous arm." DORJNIER. 247. A METHOD Of CARRYING" THE WINGED 8CMB UNDER. 1UE. PUStlAGE OF TUE CONTROLLING MROLAfT. Dornier 217 with a radio-controlled glider bomb beneath the fuselage. The World's Best Aircraft The Mosquito Awarded Three "Firsts" Out of 22 Categories : Point System Adopted By PETER G. MASE FIELD t J W E reprint herewith from " Flying " of U.S.A. an article by Peter G. Masefield giving rJtj miH^of the world's best aircraft. It was penned before Mr. Masefield took up his present official appointment, and in concurring to republication, the writer observes— " (n making these statements one should emphasise that in all cases the comparisons are made only between aircraft which are in active operational service and about which details may be published. Thus in comparing the Mustang with the Spitfire, the latest Mustang is the T-5IB Mustang III, and the latest Spitfire is the Spitfire IX. It is no secret that later versions of the Spitfire are flying which might modify the conclusions if details could be made known. Examples in other categories may appear to informed opinion. Further, the points taken into consideration in assessing qualities are not only those of performance and fire power but also of maintenance, vulnerability and ease of production, etc." WHAT are the world's best aircraft in each of the more important military and civil categories? Is the Flying Fortress or is the Liberator the most formidable day bomber? Does the Mustang surpass the Spitfire as a single-seat dog-fighter? Has the enemy any unbeatable types in operation? Questions such as these are posed frequently. They have been answered from time to time by lists of "The World's Best Aircraft," each representing its author's personal opinions and prejudices—mine among them. Interesting and enlightening as many of these may have been, the weakness of such selections is that personal preferences have had perforce to enter into them—and rarely have two selec tions agreed ; any more than have similar selectionsof foot ball or movie stars. The Supermarine Spitfire IX which, as the Seafire, gets 95.2 per cent, marks as a naval interceptor-fighter. American pilots flying the Spitfire on operations give it full marks as a high-altitude fighter. Before going further I am going to say that I believe that, provided there is sufficient basic information from which to work, comparative qualities of aircraft can be assessed in different categories on a basis which will eliminate mere opinion and prejudice. Further, working from a founda tion of this sort, detailed calculations, practical research and experience of actual operations leads me to believe that, taken all round, the three most outstanding aircraft in the world to-day are: 1. The North American Mustang (Merlin engine) single- seat fighter. _J^ 2. The De.Jfavilland Mosquito fighter-bomber. 3. The Consolidated Liberator day bomber. Such aj^taternent is seemingly mighty sweeping. The ose, of this article is to justify it and to try to show how an overall assessment can be made of the relative quality of other aircraft in the various categories required in modern air war. In such an assessment, each of the three aircraft singled out above for special praise comes out not only on top of its class in its specialised category, but also has the versatility to lead in other complementary categories. Thus the Mustang is supreme, according to my estimation, in land-based single- seat fighter categories; the Mosquito _ V' supreme as a high-speed day and night j- »1 >^ bomber and reconnaissance aircraft and L /"J also as a night intruder-fighter, while the • ~~ w Liberator leads both as a long-range day bomber and as an ocean patrol-bomber. So much for generalities. When we come down to detail, we find that tha characteristics which distinguishes the> performance of aircraft from the perform ances of their human rivals for glamour, is that the aircraft is a mechanical being and its features can be calculated in
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