Comparison between early jet fighters

[tonytales]

I have not seen any comparisons in fighting qualities between early British jet fighters, Vampires and Meteors, and the early American ones, P-80 Shooting Star and the P-84 Thunderjet. I have excluded the Bell XP-59 Aitacomet which was a failure. I don't believe the P-84 was very good as an air-to-air combatant but I might be wrong. I suppose I should throw in the ME-262 too.
Four of these aircraft stayed in production for years in various forms and modifications speaking well of their original forms. In a beauty contest, I think the P-80 wins but the real question is: How do these five fighters stack up against each other?







[DownWest]

How about the Mig-15? It was in action against others.

[Asturias56]

For the early jet fighters you can only match their performance against the Me-262 and the MiG-15 as the US & UK ones never saw action against each other in 3 party air forces IIRC.

I knew (quite well) two RAF officers who had flown Meteors (Australian) and F-86's (US) against MiG-15's in Korea

They thought that an F-86 in the hands of an "average" pilot could beat any MiG-15 most days but that an "average" Meteor pilot would be in trouble against an "average" MiG 15 pilot most days

[rich34glider]

How about the Mig-15? It was in action against others.

It may have been in action against most of them, but not really comparable technology, which is the point of the question I think.

In fact the Me-262 is the only swept wing in the group .. amazing technology for 1942!

Severely underpowered compared to the Mig 15 with it's gift of the British engine though.

[Less Hair]

Chuck Yeager test flying the MiG-15.

https://youtu.be/gIUQB3XptKA

[chevvron]

I have not seen any comparisons in fighting qualities between early British jet fighters, Vampires and Meteors, and the early American ones, P-80 Shooting Star and the P-84 Thunderjet. I have excluded the Bell XP-59 Aitacomet which was a failure. I don't believe the P-84 was very good as an air-to-air combatant but I might be wrong. I suppose I should throw in the ME-262 too.
Four of these aircraft stayed in production for years in various forms and modifications speaking well of their original forms. In a beauty contest, I think the P-80 wins but the real question is: How do these five fighters stack up against each other?


Check back issues of 'Aeroplane Monthly' circa 1980/1985; they did a whole series of profiles of all these types.

[brakedwell]

I flew Vampires and Meteors in the 1950's and looking back at them, neither was very impressive.

[longer ron]

In fact the Me-262 is the only swept wing in the group .. amazing technology for 1942!
.

The Me 262 ended up with 'Swept Wings' more by accident than design,the 18.5 deg of 'sweep' did not really add much to the performance envelope - it was adopted as a crude 'fix' for other problems as the design 'matured' into a production aircraft.