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All sides in WW2 captured airplanes and had dedicated technical staff to evaluate them. Here's an interview with a German ace who evaluated several Allied plan

All sides in WW2 captured airplanes and had dedicated technical staff to evaluate them. Here's an interview with a German ace who evaluated several Allied planes (he preferred the P-51): https://www.historynet.com/aviation-history-interview-with-world-war-ii-luftwaffe-ace-gunther-rall.htm https://www.historynet.com/aviation-history-interview-with-w... Britain mostly was on the lookout for fighters and fighter/bombers with novel antennas, since they could be used to understand new radio navigation and radar electronics. (One of the most advanced landed near shore, but the Navy guarded it in salt water instead of handing it over for timely study.) During the Korean War after a MiG-15 was "donated", the issue was how to verify it wasn't booby-trapped before entering it, since test pilots are valuable (Chuck Yeager was one of them.) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Moolah https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Moolah At the end of the Vietnam War, the north captured an entire fleet of US aircraft (87 F-5s, plus more types) that were used successfully against air battles with China.

BuildTheRobots 5y ago
Thank you for the interview link. It was rather surreal reading an interview from the non-allied side. Even more surreal, the amount of respect he had and has for his enemies. Very interesting.
- redis_mlc 5y ago
  FYI: I study WW2, and basically everything you've read about the Allies almost equally applied to the Axis: - Germany read Allied encryption, which greatly enabled the Atlantic U-boat attacks, and Rommel in Africa. - Germany was far ahead initially in radio navigation (they had the Rolls Royce engine factory dialed in until Britain started jamming), but Britain was ahead later in airplane-portable radar - All the film footage you've seen of CHAIN-HOME and plotting rooms had analogs in Germany The real difference was that the US and Britain greatly cooperated, and Germany and Japan had limited cooperation (Japan received sample tanks and a Bf 109 for evaluation.) Ultimately the Allies won by stopping oil, incinerating the cities and killing the pilots of both Germany and Japan.

BuildTheRobots 5y ago

Thank you for the interview link. It was rather surreal reading an interview from the non-allied side. Even more surreal, the amount of respect he had and has for his enemies. Very interesting.

redis_mlc 5y ago
FYI: I study WW2, and basically everything you've read about the Allies almost equally applied to the Axis: - Germany read Allied encryption, which greatly enabled the Atlantic U-boat attacks, and Rommel in Africa. - Germany was far ahead initially in radio navigation (they had the Rolls Royce engine factory dialed in until Britain started jamming), but Britain was ahead later in airplane-portable radar - All the film footage you've seen of CHAIN-HOME and plotting rooms had analogs in Germany The real difference was that the US and Britain greatly cooperated, and Germany and Japan had limited cooperation (Japan received sample tanks and a Bf 109 for evaluation.) Ultimately the Allies won by stopping oil, incinerating the cities and killing the pilots of both Germany and Japan.