On Tue, 02 Oct 2007 15:49:11 -0700, Gordon
wrote:

P-40 USAAF effective fighter of excellent quality; it was quite
effective with appropriate tactics.

What a lot of people don't fully realize is that this aircraft was
just about all we had for the first two years of the war, and it
remained in service long after it was made obsolete by others. Until
the unready P-38s and the thirsty P-47Cs came along, P-40s were just
about it!

Well, there was the P-39.....

P-47 Ready far earlier than the P-51.

But not long-range capable to the same extent nor with the same
performance; and the timing is easy to overstate the first
combat-capable P-47C's were operating in April 1943, the first
combat-capable P-51B's in November 1943.

P-51; the P-38 had sufficient range to cover untill the P-47M with a
wett wing which actually
could excede the range of the P-51.

Cost and battlefield effectiveness - P-38s would have had a very
difficult time against airfield defenses and in other roles where the
51 excelled.

More importantly, the P-51 was an altitude-capable long range fighter
escort in the ETO at a time when the P-38 wasn't, despite its long
range.

Gavin Bailey

--
Solution elegant. Yes. Minor problem, use 25000 CPU cycle for 1
instruction, this why all need overclock Pentium. Dumbass.
- Bart Kwan En