"Roger (K8RI)" wrote in
:

On Sun, 16 Dec 2007 17:16:28 -0500, Dudley Henriques
wrote:

Morgans wrote:
"Dudley Henriques" wrote

The 51 was a fine airplane, and it worked well at all altitudes but
it was nearing the end of its run at the end of the war.
I loved the airplane and flew it often but for me, flying the F8F
Bearcat one sunny afternoon in December, redefined the meaning of
the term "prop fighter performance".
In my opinion, if the war had lingered on and the Bear had been
mass produced for both theaters, the F8F would have not seen its
match anywhere.

Interesting. I had never heard that expressed, before.

Would the F8F had the legs to do the long range bomber escort
missions?

As I recall the F8F had the most powerful piston engine ever used in a
fighter. Then later the same engine was used in the Skyraider. Now
there is one BIG airplane! Not very fast, but BIG!


Nah, it only had a R2800 and not a very powerful variant at that. The P47
used a more powerful version of the same engine and there were other more
powerful airplanes out there like the later Griffon powered Spitfires and
the Hawker Sea Fury.
I don't think any of them went any better than the Bearcat, though.


Bertie