Let’s Settle This. What Was the Fastest Piston Fighter Ever?

LOL I am once again corrected, so well done to everyone who pointed out that the Saab 21 is a great example of a pusher type that did get into service. 😁

Me163 by miles. Amazing what that little prop on the nose could push out ROFL - Great video 🙂

Oh how I love it when an Ed Nash video lands.

I'd say you showed saintlike restraint, amazing patience and the utmost tolerance in another stellar video. Thanks.

The Christmas Bullet is a clear contender, in my opinion. It exited flight testing so quickly, hardly anyone noticed it whiz by.

This is the best day ever, Ed puts a video out on fast piston engine fighters and starts with the XP47J. Anything P47 is my favourite, automatically.

I enjoyed that. I had the wonderful experience of standing next to Yale English professor Norwood Russell Hanson’s F8f Bearcat. He kept it at Tweed New Haven Airport in Connecticut, USA. It was painted black with white eagle claws painted on that long legged landing gear. Flying magazine did an article on it; and stripped of guns and armor, it was reported to go 500 mph. When it entered the pattern it sounded like a jet, beautiful. As a kid it was a wonderful time. We would ride our bikes to the airport and sit on an old picnic table outside the FBO and just take it all in. Unfortunately, Hanson flew the ‘Cat into a Pennsylvania hillside in bad weather. Both pilot and aircraft died.

As soon as you cited Aircraft/Warplanes of the Third Reisch by William Green, I grabbed my copy, turned to the Dornier 335's entry, and can confirm that Green claims the maximum speed of the Do335A-1 to be 474 m.p.h at 21,325 ft

03:48 01. XP-47J 04:04 19. Grumman Bearcat F8F-1 04:34 18. Grumman Tigercat F7F-3 04:58 17. Hawker Tempest 2 05:35 16. CAC Ca-16 Kangaroo 06:10 15. Supermarine Spitfire Mk.21 06:34 14. North American F-82G 07:07 13. Martin Baker MB.5 / Hawker Sea Fury / FMA I.Ae30 08:38 12. Focke Wulf Ta 152H 09:42 11. Yakovlev Yak-3M-108 10:37 10. Kyushu J7W Shinden 12:05 09. F4U-5 Corsair and P-57M 13:32 08. De Havilland Hornet F.Mk.3 14:03 07. Mitsubishi Ki-83 15:18 06. Dornier Do 335 17:37 05. Hawker Fury Mk.1 / Supermarine Spiteful F.Mk.14 18:45 04 North American P.-51H Mustang 20:04 03. Republic XP-72 20:53 02. Supermarine Spiteful F.16

Ed, that was an excellent review of piston engine aircraft. Excellent job.

11:35 Slight correction: Sweden did adopt a push design in the SAAB J 21

Ed: 'Anyone for tennis', while rolling a hand-grenade (minus pin) into the room 🤣🤣🤣 But in all seriousness, a well-researched and thoroughly enjoyable run through the archives - thank you 😀

I love these super prop designs. Its also pretty neat just to see how long the idea of trying to get a propeller driven aircraft to go even faster stuck around for. With stuff like the thunderscreach and tu-95 later coming around. Maybe one day you could make a video about the fastest military propeller driven aircraft.

It's such a complex and difficult field, the rate of change was insane in the 1930-1945. Great video, love it

When I was in tech school, we had a Sea Fury park in our hangar for the night on ferry from an airshow. The following morning (prob as a treat more than anything) they did a power check on our apron with the aircraft tethered to a forged steel ring tied into the concrete. It was a rush for sure....and actually bent the ring. The amount of power available almost instantaneously to a single operator blew my mind.

the army tested the xp-47 J to ONLY 484 MPH ! wow thats still pretty crazy

Ed. I think you hit gold with this one . And it's a comfort to know the Spiteful was the top dog . Thanks Ed . (Of course we both know someone will always contest the claim!)

This was very entertaining, but at the same time, precise, thorough, and compelling. Well done.

With 500+ built, I'd have to go for the P-51H as the fastest 'fighter'- as you said, prototypes are almost always lighter and cosseted in some way that makes the top speed unrealistic in service. Other then that, it seems to me that the Spiteful F Mk 16 probably has the most reliably recorded highest speed of an aircraft designed to be a fighter.

great work as always - thanks for all your work on this.