In real life the P-51 was an excellent aircraft, just like it is in game. When the P-51 was introduced in the first half of 1944, the Luftwaffes top fighters were 1.42 ata Fw 190A and none methanol Bf 109G, mostly equipped with gunpuds. This meant the P-51 had many performance advantages, in particular at high altitudes, where it could fly circles around the German opposition, but also at lower altitudes where it still had climb, dive and speed advantages. And, compared to previous US escort fighters, it manoeuvred well, being competitive with whatever the Luftwaffe had.
Early on, the bomber escorts rarely had a numerical advantage, often the Luftwaffe had it and the P-51 was still successful under these conditions.
However, the tactical situation needs to be taken into account and here it is important that the escort fighters often held the initiative, because the Luftwaffe fighters focussed on the bombers. That's far more important than any numerical odds and something the P-51 did benefit from.
To reduce the combat success of the aircraft to numbers and relative pilot skills, is very superficial, to say the least.
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02-12-2013, 08:39 AM
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