Quote:
Originally Posted by RPS69
You state a lot of true concepts, with a questionable conclusion. No airforce without air superiority would have had a successfull anti tank aircraft!
Those aircraft were all vulnerable to fighter attacks, since their armour was intended to protect them against hand held weapons, not canons.
They performed well at slow speeds, and low altitude, and that was it's job.
This same platform with better engines, would have been better, but the concept as it was, it was good.
It actually has a kind of a modern sibling on the A10. It is almost the same concept, with jets...
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You’re right, leaving aside different information about the Gnome Rhone, we draw different conclusions. In the end, my opinion is that all specialized anti-tank aircraft of WWII, of all nations, were a failure, and the Hs129 was the worst one simply because it was the most specialized.
As I see it, if a type can operate only with complete air superiority, it has no true tactical value. It’s a weapon you can use only when you’re already winning the battle.
The A10 is totally incomparable, being technologically in a different world. However, its real value in a symmetrical battle, with real air opposition, was never demonstrated.