to avoid excessive clutter of the
mother thread .
ı chanced upon a PDF file on the Lend Lease fighters and their service in Russia . One thing that gets repeated for every type is the clear vision provided by the Western canopies . Meaning the Lend Lease fighters could be flown with the hood closed ; considering Russians are humans just like all of us and they get cold too this is something in the comfort scales . As Russian engines were behind compared to world standarts in many cases the aircraft designers had to to cut down fuselage size and the bigger Western cockpits are second on the comfort list , which would have been an even greater concern had Russians been flying long range missions .
then of course it is the radios , of excellent quality and in every fighter , compared to one in third in Russian production . An experienced pilot remarked a radio was a second set of eyes for a pilot and in the confused fighting of the WW2 the capability of giving and receiving warnings about the enemy was of paramount importance . One must again remark the optically superior Western canopies would have been really important in visual searches .
of the types Hurricanes get knocked a lot . There have been pilots who would favour the I-16 over the British type , while it is said to be better than the Lagg-3 . P-40 pilots on the hand rated their mounts differently : in mathematical terms it was P-40 > Lagg-3 > Hurricane > I-16. The Hawks had "outstanding" range and were immensely strong , one pilot rammed a Me-110 and a 109 on the same sortie . Though the P-40 apparently was not a cold weather friend . In the winter of 1941 Russian mechanics are reported to be searching for silver spoons in local villages to repair cracked radiators . Now that English is a second language to me and ı had always assumed silver spoons were a sign of real affluent life , those Russians in the search must have had a hard time . Indeed all those thousands of Lend Lease aircraft seem to be poorly supplied spares wise .
then it is the turn of the P-39 , and it is a jaw dropping moment for this poster to read that they were first line fighter equipment in 1945 , Pokryshkin the Russain ace flying from an autobahn in Germany and it is the same machine he has since 1943 . But wait he has been offered never Russian planes and he has enough clout to refuse it . Remember the Russian airfields are supposed to be poor grass strips and nothing else .While P-39 was the first fighter in the world to have the now standart tricycle landing gear . And one also reads P-39 could fly the Alaska route for delivery , something the P-40 was advised not to . This adaptability to harsh life on the steppes must a reason for the longevity of the P-39 . Western accounts of it are unanimiously horrible as far as ı have seen . Considering the Russians took 3000 meters as an acceptable ceiling it would perform creditably enough and obviously did not develop the hiccups it would in a Western setting . Washington emasculating anything that stood in the way of the P-38 has long been a pet theory of mine and disregarded as long . It is not a sinister move , a kick below the belt , against the F-35 . Lockmart should have never got it in the first place 'cause of what they did with the forked tail .
regarding the P-63 it seems ı have been disproven as no P-63 made it to the front with deliveries starting in June 44 as the transit route took sooo long . Whatever . Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof , ı have learned on my sojourns on the net .
though American intel jumped up and down with black 63s in Korea , how they did see 'em as Russians certainly didn't is yet another Cold War mystery .
with these 4 major types we see Lend Lease types were a major part in the Red Air Force . Though what extent is indeed debateable . Indeed with maybe 100 in the firing line in 1945 out of 2400 the P-63 should be discounted from the war with Germany . Maybe for the duration . So from approximately 14000 fighter aircraft 16 % missed part of the war under discussion . As 70% of the Spitfires were in existance in PVO regiments at the end of the war one can surmise they weren't that much active . As the corresponding Hurricane ratio was 25% and it was 37% for the P-40s . All the types were rapidly taken out of service at the end of the war . A major point for the essentiatility of the Lend Lease planes has been the higher proportion of their use in the PVO , explained as they were more capable bomber destroyers and the drawdown would indicate a problem . ı would hazard He-111s and B-29 were quite different animals . With Yak-9U / P in improved subversions on the way in the Lend Lease types would be a drag on the resources . As every anti-Communist knows "the war" didn't end in 1945 .
there were of course more worthy contenders in the Lend Lease contingent . That could have survived post war . The Spitfire as already mentioned and the Thunderbolt but they definately didn't cut the grade in Russian eyes . Russians had actually wanted the Spits instead of Hurris . They got MkVs in 1943 when the 109F that was outclassing the British mark in 1941 had already disappeared from the Luftwaffe ranks and MkIXs had to compete with more modern Russian types . Thunderbolt was on the hand was a political liability , designed by Alexander Kartveli an escapee from the clutches of the Bolshevik revolution . It was totally disparaged from the start . A test report had it that " the P-47 is not a fighter . It is bigger and heavier than our standart frontal bomber [the Pe-2] and has a longer range. It carries more bombs and is more heavily armed ." Designers were involved as well . Yakovlev added the Hellcat to the pot and declared the R-2800 powered duo were not fighters . Strangely enough ı haven't seen anything bad from Russian sources against the Corsair , likewise engined and designed by Igor Sikorsky . The guys probably needed new contracts after the war , as the P-47 would have made a hell of a threat for the B-29s with some tweaking after reverse engineered like the trio of B-29s that strayed into Siberia .
so if we remove the Lend Lease planes do the Russians loose air superiority on the front ? And the war ?