Red Tails (2012)

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by Growler

And it had a radial engine with dangerously exposed cooling systems that turned it into a lawn dart if they were holed.

It was an inline V-12. Radial engines have no liquid cooling system. Radials are used by the P-47 and all US Naval Aircraft. But you're right that the Mustang had the liquid cooling with all its problems and dangers. So did the Spitfire, the Hurricane and the Bf-109.

The early models had rotten visibility

As did the early Spitfire, the early Bf-109 and all Hurricanes.

and an even worse engine.

The Allison wasn't that bad. Just not as good as the Merlin. P-38's did alright with them. Not great, but alright.

No one seems to remember that it was a British engine that turned the 'stang from a mediocre performer to a superstar...

Now you're condescending. Everyone who loves aviation history knows that.

...that owes part of its fame to the fact that it could escort the heavy bombers all the way to Germany and back, which no other single-engined fighter could do.

Fixed

If I had to pick an a/c to fly, it'd be the FW-190 D-9... for whatever reason, I always thought of that a/c as the Porsche of the sky.

I'd pick any of them. I love them all.