Fastest piston fighter

I want these speeds clarified are we talking A/S True A/S or Groundspeed.

While I can't be certain of other sources I am of the belief that the ones I have posted are IAS or Indicated Air Speed. This is the standard measure of an aircrafts air speed, groundspeed is always much lower and therefore rarely quoted in my experience.

Yes, the Vampire, Venom, (another favorite) , Metor, and p-80 displaced them. followed by the long line of jets. sad, but time marches on.

Yesterday, I red a book which told Me-109V felw at 755km/h speed in 1939 and keep this fastest record for 30 years. Who could improve or against this expression?

The Me 109V actually bore no relation to the Bf 109 fighter that is so well known, it only carried this designation for propaganda reasons and was also known in house as the Me 209. It was not a fighter by any stretch of the imagination but was basically the biggest possible engine that Messerschmitt could fit into the smallest possible aeroplane. In aerodynamic terms is is most comparable to the GeeBee racer.

Originally posted by waynos
The Me 109V actually bore no relation to the Bf 109 fighter that is so well known, it only carried this designation for propaganda reasons and was also known in house as the Me 209. It was not a fighter by any stretch of the imagination but was basically the biggest possible engine that Messerschmitt could fit into the smallest possible aeroplane. In aerodynamic terms is is most comparable to the GeeBee racer.

Not true,
or maybe i should say that it is true but you don't need to mention it (most of the WW2 fighters were built using that scheme)
The Bf is the same as the Me designation. It only changed because the Firm changed its name but you are right about the Me 109V and the upper series being so much further advanced that they could pass as a new fighter.

PS: The Me 209 is something totally different - it was a reckord plane but never became a fighter(technologically impossible)

[edit on 30-4-2005 by vorazechul]

According to the Guinness book of world records the fastest piston -engine aircraft was a Grumman F8F piloted by Lyle Shelton on August 21 1989 in Las Vegas Nevada it set an air speed record of 528.31 mph.

The Fastest propeller-driven aircraft is the Russian Tu-95/142 with a maximums air speed of 575 mph.




West Point, Out.

[edit on 30-4-2005 by WestPoint23]

Originally posted by waynos
The Me 109V actually bore no relation to the Bf 109 fighter that is so well known, it only carried this designation for propaganda reasons and was also known in house as the Me 209. It was not a fighter by any stretch of the imagination but was basically the biggest possible engine that Messerschmitt could fit into the smallest possible aeroplane. In aerodynamic terms is is most comparable to the GeeBee racer.

They were still the same plane, they changed the Bf to Me because the firm changed its name. Me-109Vs had been fitted with bigger engines, but for shooting down allied planes instead of just for German pilots to go on a flying joyride, and had been designed for use as an interceptor and not just a racer, so I belive it still counts as an actual fighter. On the other hand, the F8F which held the record had paint stripped down, guns removed etc, making it more like a fighter which had been adopted just for the sake of breaking the record.

dont know if this is meeting your criteria waynos but

Grumman F8F Bearcat........528.33 mph.....21st august 1989

www.aerospaceweb.org...

Regards.

dam...edit......sorry...didnt realise id missed that already being posted......well any way the link might be of help and intrest to a few?.....apologies.

[edit on 2-5-2005 by optimus fett]

But was that F8F in 1989 modified for high speed, or was it actually designed to be a fighter?

I would also like to know if it was modified. I have a feeling that it probably was for air racing which is a whole different ballgame. They dropin a one off hand built race engine, clip the wings, gut the thing of everything non essential to save weight and use special coatings to increase aerodynamics.

On the topic of air racing I remember seeing an article in Wired a while back about this guy who is going to try and break the speed of sound in a turbine powered prop plane Money has been the biggest hurdle and his plane sits unfinished. Does anyone remember seeing the article or know the guys/planes name? I would like to read more about it.

Thanks

I think there is a little confusion about the Me 209 here.

The plane that held the speed record for so long was designated as either the Me 109r or the Me 209 v1 (for obvious propaganda purposes).

This is not (and clearly is nothing at all like) the same aircraft as the later Me 209 which was designed to replace the Me 109.

The record breaking aircraft -


The Me 209 fighter -

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........and finally for those interested there was a Me 309 -


there was also a Me 409 which was basically an Me 209z (the zwilling - twin - idea).

There was also a concept for a Me 509 -


and finally a Me 609 which was a Me 309z type idea -



[edit on 2-5-2005 by sminkeypinkey]

That photo of the record breaker really resembles a modern day air racer IMO.

Here is a picture of the F8F Grumman plane, I do not know if it was modified when it set the record.

Thanks sminkey, I typed two replies after warlords last post and they both got zapped into cyberspace, I lost the will to try again.

The record aircraft is clearly the one emile, and I, was talking about, definitely not a fighter.

Westy, yes, the Bearcat which currently holds the record was considerably modified, as were many Mustangs, Sea Furies etc since the war. Just to clear it up I was after the fastest piston fighter in the sense of an 'operational' standard rather than a special mod, complete with guns, armour etc.

I think we established the P-47J as the fastrest of them all, which surprises me immensely, closely followed by the P-51H, CA-15 and Spiteful.

Wikipedia, Me 209 I
This first Me 209 project was soon cancelled, and though it never went into wide-scale production, Messerschmitt's design did make its mark with its impressive speed record(470 mph), which was not broken by another piston-engined aircraft until August 16, 1969, by Darryl G. Greenmayer's highly modified F8F Bearcat.

[edit on 8-5-2005 by Citrakite]

Found this web page if your interested in speed records.

www.aerospaceweb.org...

There was a prototype curtiss design in WWII that used an engine in the h format this aircraft is the XP-55 Ascender with that engine the plane was supposed to reach 507 @ 30,000 ft but the engine never entered production and th XP-55 was canceled after 3 prototypes

what the unit of 507 is? You should mean MILE to accord with the topic

The fastest mass produced fighter in the war was the bearcat. There should be no disputing this. Thousands were produced, prototypes dont count, not even small numbers. Bearcat hands down.

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