Did ww II pilots were the best pilots ever?

Question

Compare them with today fighter pilots: Navy, Air Force, Marines, Isrealis, Russians, etc.

Who are the best of the best? The World War II Aces or today fighter pilots in their F-15's, F-18 Super Hornets, F-22 Raptors, F-117, etc.

You can add to the comparison the Vietnam War Aces or even the WW I pilots, what the heck.........I want to know who is the best of the best of the best!

Discuss.

Answer 1

You might compare the different individual pilots from the same Era. but trying to compare different pilots of different eras is MEANINGLESS.

A WW2 pilot had to be strong to fly the plane. A Bomber could enter a dive that a pilot could not physically pull it out of as it took strength to deflect the control surfaces into the airstream to control the plane.

Modern jet fighters have no such trouble with "Fly-by-wire" and hydraulically controlled control surfaces.

However modern planes can far outperform their WW2 ancestors and must have "Flight limiters" to overide the inputs from a pilot who overcontrols his fighter. otherwise a simple flick of the wrist on the control stick could send the plane into a turn that would cause a rapid onset of G forces that would black out the pilot and even rip the plane itself apart.

WW2 pilots had to use only their eyeballs to watch for enemy planes and to monitor a handful of gauges.

Modern pilots have sooooooooo much to monitor both in and out of the cockpit as well as numerous radios and controlling authorities RADAR, FLIR, RWR, and many many other sensors, weapons, defensive systems, Airspace management. and dozens and dozens of other things a pilot must CONSTANTLY be aware of far outstrips anything a WW2 pilot had to deal with.

It's called "Task Saturation" or "Information overload"

WW1 had it's Manfried von Richthofen
WW2 had its Yeager, Sakai, Boyington
Korea has its aces as well (Sorry cant think of names off-hand)
Vietnam has it's Randy "Duke" Cunningham and Robin Olds and even Col. Tonb of the North Vietnamese Airforce

Modern Combat has its aces in the Israeli AF and most all of our Top Gun and Red Flag Agressor Squadron instructor pilots

You CANNOT compare pilots from different eras as the situations they faced, the physical and mental callenges, are completely different.

If I had to pick just one however it would be Chuck Yeager. HE not only got "Ace in a single mission" shooting down five Me-109's over Germany in his P-51 Mustang during WW2. He flew combat in Korea as well in the F-86 Sabre. HE broke the Sound Barrier in the Bell X-1 (With broken ribs suffered the night before while horseback riding in the desert) He was an Accomplished Fighter Pilot and Test Pilot.

Charles Elwood "Chuck" Yeager (born on February 13, 1923, in Lincoln County, West Virginia) is an American former general officer in the United States Air Force and a noted test pilot.

His career began in World War II as a U.S. Army Air Force P-51 fighter pilot, and after the war, he remained in the Air Force and became a test pilot of many kinds of aircraft and rocket planes. He is considered a living legend of aviation, for he became the first pilot to travel faster than sound Mach 1 in level and ascent. Though Scott Crossfield was the first man to fly faster than Mach 2, Yeager shortly thereafter exceeded Mach 2.4.[1] He later commanded fighter squadrons and wings in Germany and in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War, then was promoted to Brigadier General. Yeager's flying career spans more than sixty years and has taken him to every corner of the globe, even into the Soviet Union during the height of the Cold War.

Yeager possessed outstanding eyesight (rated as 20/10, once enabling him to shoot a deer at 600 yards[5]), flying skills, and combat leadership; he distinguished himself by becoming the first pilot in his group to make "ace in a day": he shot down five enemy aircraft in one mission, finishing the war with 11.5 official victories, including one of the first air-to-air victories over a jet fighter (a German Me-262). Two of his "ace in a day" kills were scored without firing a single shot; he flew into firing position against an Me-109 and the pilot of the aircraft panicked, breaking to starboard and colliding with his wingman; Yeager later reported both pilots bailed out. An additional victory which was not officially counted for him came during the period before his combat status was reinstated: during a training flight in his P-51 over the North Sea, he happened on a German Ju-88 attacking a downed B-17 Flying Fortress crew. Yeager's quick thinking and reflexes saved the B-17 crew, but because he was not yet cleared for flying combat again, his gun camera film and credit for the kill were given to his wingman, Eddie Simpson (Yeager later mistakenly recalled that the credit had given Simpson his fifth kill).

On March 1, 1975, following assignments in Germany and Pakistan, he retired from the Air Force at Norton Air Force Base, but still occasionally flew for the USAF and NASA as a consulting test pilot at Edwards AFB. For his consultant work to the Test Pilot School Commander at Edwards Air Force Base, Yeager is paid one dollar annually, along with all the flying time he wants. The $1 allows him to be covered by workers compensation.

In 1990, Yeager was included with the first class of inductees into the Aerospace Walk of Honor.

On October 14, 1997, on the 50th anniversary of his historic flight past Mach 1, he flew a new Glamorous Glennis III, an F-15D Eagle, past Mach 1, with Lt. Col. Troy Fontaine as co-pilot. The chase plane for the flight was an F-16 Fighting Falcon piloted by Bob Hoover, a famous air-show pilot, and his wingman for the first supersonic flight. Had Yeager gone to the flight surgeon with his broken ribs before the X-1 flight, he would have been grounded and Hoover would have flown the supersonic flight test, with Bud Anderson flying chase. This was Yeager's last official flight with the Air Force. At the end of his speech to the crowd he concluded, "All that I am...I owe to the Air Force." In 2004, Congress voted to authorize the President to promote Brig. Gen Yeager to the rank of Major General on the retired list. In 2005, President Bush granted the promotion of both Yeager and (posthumously) air-power pioneer Billy Mitchell to Major General. Few Presidents have authorized retirement promotions: Mitchell was first posthumously reinstated as a brigadier general by President Eisenhower, and Academy Award winning actor/Air Force Reservist Jimmy Stewart was promoted in retirement from Brigadier General to Major General by President Ronald Reagan.

He is now fully retired from military test flight, after having maintained that status for THIRTY YEARS after his official retirement from the Air Force.

Answer 2

its almost impossible to compare modern pilots with those through history for a lot of reasons. First of all, modern fighter pilots do not have the opportunity to test their skills against an enemy. They train to fight everyday but they do not see the kind of action that the pilots of the World Wars saw.

Secondly you have to consider the different airframes that the pilots flew. The pilots of WWI and WWII had very simple aircraft in terms of what they had to know before they flew. Some pilots would be in their airframe and fighting in as few as 7 flights over the course of about a month. Modern fighter pilots train and learn to fly for at least a year and a half before they get to strap into something like an F-15. Modern pilots could pretty easily hop into a WWII aircraft and fly it around, but there is no way a WWII pilot could hop into a modern airframe and fly it without extensive training. Does that make modern pilots better?

You also have to consider their enemy. Some of the WWII aces were shooting down recon aircraft, balloons, or the poor guy who went up for the first time after his 7th training flight. While they had very high numbers allowing them to be the Aces of Aces and such, do you consider shooting down a balloon or an unexperienced adversary when you are on your 200th sortie something that would be extremely difficult for the best of fighter pilot?

All that being said, my own personal opinion is that the pilots of the 332d Fighter Group are some of the best the world has seen. They never lost a bomber they were escorting to enemy fire even though they were often outnumbered by the germans and they shot down over 100 aircraft including several Me-262s which was a more advanced airframe. So my vote goes to the Redtailed Tuskeegee Airmen of WWII.

Answer 3

The Best of the Best were actually the Polish pilots who flew Spitfires for the RAF during the "Battle of Brittain" which saved Brittain from any Nazi invasion!

They had more "kills", flew more successful missions, had less plane losses, lost less pilots, flew more sorties on average per pilot, brought back more planes that were totally unable to fly, than any other pilots in the Second World War!

There were over a total of 3,000 Polish pilots, plane maintenance, and plane mechanics that volunteered with the RAF!

And despite the fact that the Messerschmidt 109 was one of the fastest fighter planes at the time, they were able to "out fly" the German Messerschmidt 109 by flying in tight right circles when they were attacked from the rear by the Messerschmidts because despite the fact that the Messerschmidts were behind them to start with - after three tight circles to the right - they ended up gaining 200 feet per circle on them - the Spitfire ended up behind the Messerschmidts and was thus able to shoot it down.

Answer 4

My grandfather survived a crash in a small plane in WW2 an was awarded the purple heart. (I inhereted it which I display proudly) I would say that WW2 pilots were some of the top pilots in their field, but they were trained differently then the pilots of today, and in other wars. Each war is different because of technology.

Answer 5

Computers fly today's planes and operate weapon systems once locked on target. Today's pilots are more like computer nerds and/or video game operators. WWII pilots involved in dog fights were better pilots.

Answer 6

the black pilots from tuskeegee were the best

Answer 7

ww II because they had the worst planes and in ww I they didnt really fight they just did recon

Answer 8

Best of the best? German fighter pilots of WWII.