Your favorite WWII Aircraft

[eddie]

My favorites- from the ETO it would be the Beaufighter



And the JU 88 G6 Night Fighter



From the PTO- I always liked the looks of the "Birdcage" Corsair


and the F6F Hellcat

[fireftr18]

Originally Posted by eddie

From the PTO- I always liked the looks of the "Birdcage" Corsair

Why is called the "birdcage" Corsair? It looks to me that the cockpit is further back. Why is that?

[eddie]

It was the first version of the Corsair to become operational. From what I gather, the framework around the canopy gave them the impression of being inside a birdcage.

Later versions of the Corsair would have the clear canopy we are used to seeing.

[Stealhead]

Originally Posted by fireftr18

Why is called the "birdcage" Corsair? It looks to me that the cockpit is further back. Why is that?

The more common term for a framed canopy at the time was "greenhouse" either term describes the framing.As the war progressed blown and bubble plexiglass became more common.Most Corsairs kept the fuselage shape and received a blown canopy that was either a solid unit or had minimal framing. Some aircraft like the P-27 and P-51 that eventually where equipped with a full 360 view bubble canopy to fit these canopies part of the rear fuselage was cut down for this reason earlier models where known as "razorbacks" because they had a raised rear upper fuselage that sloped downwards from a high point much like a male boar aka razorback.The birdcage nickname was unique to the F4u-1 with the original canopy design.

The P-47 had the most Razorback like stance though P-51B and C models where also called razorbacks when compared to D and K models.It was not uncommon for a unit to fly differing models of the aircraft while they converted to a newer model.Usually the newer model was more popular but that was not always the case the P-51D was actually better than the P-51K the K was designed to lighter one way they made it lighter was by giving it a propeller that had hollow blades these props vibrated badly so they removed them and replaced them with the same prop that the D used.P-47s on the other hand by late 1944 most units flying them where using them mainly for ground attack so many of the older razorback Ds lasted a long time and would fly along side newer bubble top Ds.

P-47D "razorback"


P-47D bubble canopy