The way night fighters tended to work - was that there would be a ground control station that used radar to detect enemy aircraft and vector the night fighters to them. When the night fighters got in range of their own radar - they would home in on the bomber and attack it. Because they had no ground control radar to vector them onto enemy night fighters over Europe - it was difficult for Allied Night fighters to escort bombers What the P-61's did though - was go hang out at the bases the German Night Fighters took off from - because they KNEW where those were - and wait for a German night fighter to return. This was a variation on the same tactic American Fighters used against German Jets. The problem with this tactic - was that their airfields were heavily defended with German Anti Aircraft. I don't know how successful these tactics were. .
At the start of the vid, its stated that the Betty was faster than the A20 Havoc this surprised me. The data I looked at had the Betty at 266mph at 14000 ft, and the A20 at 325mph at 14500ft. Likewise with your Mosquito v P61 comparison, the Mosquito is the quicker of the two at 415 mph at 28000 ft, and the P61, at 366mph at 20000ft
The A-20 Havoc in its bomber configuration is faster yes, but the converted P-70 Night fighter variant was not, since it was much heavier due to the radar and extra weaponry installed, which significantly impacted its performance. As for the Mosquito V P-61 challenge, it wasn't a standard P-61 that challenged the wooden wonder, it was specially modified by the ground crew for as much performance as they could squeeze out of the airframe, thus using the listed 366mph figure from Wikipedia (which is I presume where you got that performance figure from) isn't applicable. I am intrigued however how modifying a plane to win a competition isn't considered cheating in that scenario but, well, it is what happened according to the testimonies of those involved.
@@5MinuteGuidesToAircraft When talking about someone (or group of people) basically going "I have this machine, what can I do to make it go 0.5mph faster?" Is cheating even a valid concept? Unless you are actually breaking the laws of physics, how would one quantify "cheating" within this context? Also is this a comparison (per OP) or challenge (per you)? The latter would imply some form of competition (like a fly-off between two competing designs for a contract or picking which of multiple designs looks better on paper) while the former does not. The only way to cheat in a comparison is to lie.
@@whyjnot420 As far as I know the Mosquito was unmodified for the Fly off (it was indeed a fly-off to see which plane was better, not a simple stats comparison to see which was 'theoretically' better). Allowing one side to modify their plane to the point that its more of a experimental racer rather than a production military aircraft (while the other side doesn't) I see as a little disingenuous to a competition trying to see which airframe is better, especially if many of those modifications are impractical or straight up counterproductive to a military aircraft (i.e removal of guns for less weight, frail high maintenance engine tuning for more performance, use of custom parts for adapting said modifications, etc).
@@5MinuteGuidesToAircraft In that case, I concur. Especially within the realm of military aircraft. It is one thing to allow for a clean configuration of a plane, perhaps even to the point of removing weapon pylons. But anything beyond that essentially negates the reason for a competition. Since at that point, you are basically entering the realm of one-off designs. That said, I completely understand why this kind of thing happens. Afterall the military is run by the same people who draw up voting districts.
A 'Tweaked" version won while the Brits used a standard fully outfitted Mosquito. So the contest was rigged and cannot be trusted, fairly standard tactics. The only valid test would be a regular squadron aircraft against another. As the saying goes, The Mosquito has the runs on the board Vs the late war Black Widow
There is one being restored to flying condition in reading Pennsylvania at the mid Atlantic air museum
Huh, cool!
A recovered wreck from the south Pacific no less.
Mount Cyclops@@danweyant4909
The way night fighters tended to work - was that there would be a ground control station that used radar to detect enemy aircraft and vector the night fighters to them.
When the night fighters got in range of their own radar - they would home in on the bomber and attack it.
Because they had no ground control radar to vector them onto enemy night fighters over Europe - it was difficult for Allied Night fighters to escort bombers
What the P-61's did though - was go hang out at the bases the German Night Fighters took off from - because they KNEW where those were - and wait for a German night fighter to return.
This was a variation on the same tactic American Fighters used against German Jets.
The problem with this tactic - was that their airfields were heavily defended with German Anti Aircraft.
I don't know how successful these tactics were.
.
At the start of the vid, its stated that the Betty was faster than the A20 Havoc this surprised me. The data I looked at had the Betty at 266mph at 14000 ft, and the A20 at 325mph at 14500ft.
Likewise with your Mosquito v P61 comparison, the Mosquito is the quicker of the two at 415 mph at 28000 ft, and the P61, at 366mph at 20000ft
The A-20 Havoc in its bomber configuration is faster yes, but the converted P-70 Night fighter variant was not, since it was much heavier due to the radar and extra weaponry installed, which significantly impacted its performance.
As for the Mosquito V P-61 challenge, it wasn't a standard P-61 that challenged the wooden wonder, it was specially modified by the ground crew for as much performance as they could squeeze out of the airframe, thus using the listed 366mph figure from Wikipedia (which is I presume where you got that performance figure from) isn't applicable. I am intrigued however how modifying a plane to win a competition isn't considered cheating in that scenario but, well, it is what happened according to the testimonies of those involved.
@@5MinuteGuidesToAircraft When talking about someone (or group of people) basically going "I have this machine, what can I do to make it go 0.5mph faster?" Is cheating even a valid concept? Unless you are actually breaking the laws of physics, how would one quantify "cheating" within this context? Also is this a comparison (per OP) or challenge (per you)? The latter would imply some form of competition (like a fly-off between two competing designs for a contract or picking which of multiple designs looks better on paper) while the former does not. The only way to cheat in a comparison is to lie.
@@whyjnot420 As far as I know the Mosquito was unmodified for the Fly off (it was indeed a fly-off to see which plane was better, not a simple stats comparison to see which was 'theoretically' better). Allowing one side to modify their plane to the point that its more of a experimental racer rather than a production military aircraft (while the other side doesn't) I see as a little disingenuous to a competition trying to see which airframe is better, especially if many of those modifications are impractical or straight up counterproductive to a military aircraft (i.e removal of guns for less weight, frail high maintenance engine tuning for more performance, use of custom parts for adapting said modifications, etc).
@@5MinuteGuidesToAircraft In that case, I concur. Especially within the realm of military aircraft. It is one thing to allow for a clean configuration of a plane, perhaps even to the point of removing weapon pylons. But anything beyond that essentially negates the reason for a competition. Since at that point, you are basically entering the realm of one-off designs.
That said, I completely understand why this kind of thing happens. Afterall the military is run by the same people who draw up voting districts.
sorry but the A20 was faster than the Japanese Betty
Re check your facts fella... 😅
A 'Tweaked" version won while the Brits used a standard fully outfitted Mosquito.
So the contest was rigged and cannot be trusted, fairly standard tactics. The only valid test would be a regular squadron aircraft against another.
As the saying goes, The Mosquito has the runs on the board Vs the late war Black Widow
Army airforce!
Who writes the garbage?
Day 1 of Asking for best fighter jet ever P-59