On Sun, 06 Mar 2005 05:47:50 GMT, Kevin
wrote:

LRod wrote:

snip

...the fastest, quickest (not the same thing), best armed ship in the fight.
The P-51 was always that...

snip

I always thought so too, until I learned Richard Bong, the top U.S.
ace of WWII did it in a P-38 Lighting.

And #2 (McQuire?) was a P-38 pilot, too, I believe.

However, different theater, different adversary.

Incidentally, of the top ten U.S. aces (and ties) in WWII, three of
the fourteen flew P-51s, three flew P-38s, two flew P-47s, two flew
F6Fs, two flew Corsairs, one flew a Spit!?!?, and one flew an F4F.

Just to reinforce Chuck Yeager's (and many others') feeling, that it's
not the airplane, it's the pilot, Joe Foss, the 2nd highest Marine ace
and #7 on the list, flew the F4F. The Wildcat isn't even in the top
ten of WWII fighters.

(Top ten WWII fighters, in no particular order: P-51, P-38, P-47, F6F,
F4U, Spitfire, Hurricane, BF-109, FW-190, Zero. One should somehow
find a way to include the ME-262; maybe a top eleven?)

- -
LRod

Master Woodbutcher and seasoned termite

Shamelessly whoring my website since 1999

http://www.woodbutcher.net