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WWII era Mustangs would have no way to target a modern fighter at all unless the pilot of the modern fighter was acting like a kid playing a video game. All t
by ben7799 8y ago
WWII era Mustangs would have no way to target a modern fighter at all unless the pilot of the modern fighter was acting like a kid playing a video game. All they could do is spray in it's general direction with a hope and a prayer. Mustangs had no targeting except the pilot's visual efforts. Human visual aiming does not work well at the speeds jet operate at most of the time. This was a huge problem by the Korean war.
The F-35 would fly by unnoticed most likely to go hit it's target. If it was noticed the F-35 would not engage the enemy fighters. The Mustang could get to ~40,000ft but wouldn't perform at it's best there, it can't travel anywhere near it's max speed at that altitude and it won't be able to maneuver very well at all. Any modern jet fighter could just sail on by even at 40,000ft without a concern.
Mustangs held about 1800 rounds of ammunition. If they were trying to "fill the sky with lead" they'd expend all their ammunition in about 30 seconds. 72,000 rounds doesn't fill that much sky either.
- massivecali 8y agoAnd WW1 biplanes would travel too slow for the modern jet to engage with no heat signature for a2a missiles. I feel I saw this in a movie.
- lostlogin 8y agoJust flying near one would rip it to shreds.
- adolph 8y agoWhich makes North Korea's fleet of 1947 AN-2 biplanes a potent threat [1]. 1. https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/13851/north-koreas-recent-drills-featured-one-its-most-dangerous-weapons-the-ancient-an-2-biplane https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/13851/north-koreas-rec...
- baseballdork 8y agoThen you shoot at it with a radar guided missile instead.
- dragonwriter 8y agoWW1 biplanes, IIRC, were mainly wood frames with cloth coverings. I imagine the radar returns are going to be minimal.
- baseballdork 8y agoI think you'd be surprised how much of a return machine guns and radial engines will create...
- stcredzero 8y agoWWII era Mustangs would have no way to target a modern fighter at all unless the pilot of the modern fighter was acting like a kid playing a video game I think two Tuskeegee Airmen shot down German jet fighters with their guns and K-14 gyro compensated gunsights. But to get that shot, they had to be in a "furball" and they were shots of opportunity.
- ben7799 8y agoBig difference between the first Jet fighter which was barely operational and a modern fighter. IIRC quite a few Me-262s were shot down by P-51s. But Me-262s had a bunch of weak points and were very immature.. IIRC some of the shoot downs were when the Me-262s were taking off or landing or otherwise vulnerable. Real life the better plane doesn't always win. P-51s would have no trouble shooting down a marine F-35 if they snuck up on it while it was trying to do a vertical takeoff or landing.
- stcredzero 8y agoIIRC some of the shoot downs were when the Me-262s were taking off or landing or otherwise vulnerable. My understanding was that stalking the Me-262s on landing was kind of a "thing."