Talk:Spring 2016 Event/@comment-108.82.111.58-20160512063553/@comment-25174240-20160512072946

Yes, there is a large difference. Fighters shooting down fighters are designed for dogfighting, optimised for turn rates, sometimes energy retention from dives and turns.

Land based interceptors that specialise to fight bombers need to climb fast to shoot bombers down.

Remember for WW2, by the time radar in those days detected incoming bombers, your pilots need to run from the standby room to their aircraft, take off, climb to the altitude that the 2 or 4 engine high altitude bombers are flying at and shoot them down before they reach their target (city or base). How much of a time window do you have? If you're lucky - 10 minutes, usually 4 or 5 minutes.

So, land based anti-bomber interceptors sacrifice other things for climb rate. A bomber is much less manoeuvreable than a fighter, so turn rate can be sacrificed.

Your statement: "I would think if you can shoot down a fighter you can shoot down a bomber". On the ground yes. Flying in the air, it's two totally difference games we're talking about.