Plane Aces

Does anyone know of statictics on the number of victories scored by specific aircraft? For example how many aircraft were brought down by SE5As.

[leo]

I remember seeing something on the WEB about SE5's in connection with an article written about the Camel. Try http://aviation-magazine.com/sopwith/losse...s.html.
This article speaks highly of the SE5.

[stephen]

And remember, that is the number of victories credited to the aircraft type, not the actual number of enemy a/c shot down. Big difference.

[Barrett]

According to the raw data in Grub Street's seminal ATT, some 112 Camel aces destroyed (that's DESTROYED or captured) 1,010 enemy aircraft while about 90 SE-5 aces destroyed (that's DESTROYED or captured) 975 e/a. (We all know that OOCs, DDs, ETC are vastly irrelevant and that many Destroyed credits weren't, but we gotta start somewhere.) Note that this means the best pilots accounted for 78% of the e/a credited as destroyed by all Camel merchants (c. 1,294). I have never seen a figure for total destroyed credits for SE-5s.
Frank Olynyk reckons that D.VIIs were credited with some 2,500 victories (destroyed or captured) in far less time than Camels & SEs.

[leo]

Both the Camel and the SE%-SE%A were outstanding aircraft. The former in the hands of an expert pilot and the latter for just about everyone else.
The web site I quoted above claims that British claims were exaggerated by a factor of 6X. The author of this site thinks that Camels wew responsible for only 445 or 13% of the acknowledeged German losses. He further indicates that 789 pilots were lost in the war, 413 in combat and 385 in accidents. SE5-SE5A losses were 286, 207 in combat and 79 in accidents. He further states that the Fokker DVII and the Albi DIII, DV, DVA(Albi collectively) shot down more than did the Camel.

I honestly don't know about the validity of British claims againt the Germans, but do have some feel about what they claimed against Austrian Forces. Austria lost 300 planes to combat during the 1914-1918 war. The British, who were in action on that front from late 1917 on, made claims in excess of 600. I forget what the Italians claimed, but it would seem they would have gotten some victories.

I guess it all boils down to 1. Who do you believe and 2. What are your prejudices.

leo