Your favorite WWII Aircraft

[Stealhead]

Some recent threads related to aircraft and military equipment got me thinking about this...What is your favorite WWII era aircraft(specific model or series) and why?

My favorite would be the FW-190 family.(and it is very difficult for me to choose one favorite)

I have always been fascinated by the FW-190 line myself mainly because it was such a versatile design it took on many roles very effectively and was also very popular with most pilots who flew them.(not so with every aircraft design) I also just happen to like the way they look.

Another aspect that the FW-190 introduced was its ease of maintenance/construction it was designed to be easily produced in components(a great benefit to Germany late war) and the designers put much thought into making the 190 easy to keep flying the wing(port and starboard) for example was one complete unit so if damage to the wings occurred the entire wing section was simply removed and replaced with a new one the damaged one if possible was repaired if possible.

The radial BMW 801's used in the A,F,and G series 190s was a respectable engine(it did have its teething troubles early on)later war A-8's could reach 400mph depending on how they where set up.Some people mistakenly think that the BMW 801 was an 18 cylinder it was actually a 14 cylinder engine.

Even towards the end of the war the "Dora" with the Jumo 213A1 inverted V-12 pushing out 1,600HP @ 18,000ft was a force to reckoned with and was more than a match for any allied fighter.Adolf Galland wanted RLM to procure only Doras as the only prop powered fighter after he flew one.

Last of the breed the insane Ta152H its Jumo 213E could produce 1700HP at 41,000ft with Nitrous oxide boost t that rate its top speed was 472mph the fastest piston powered aircraft to ever see combat during WWII.

For those who have wondered why some German WWII aircraft have the exhaust so low on the fuselage it is because the engine is an inverted "V" and the exhaust ports are naturally near the bottom of the engine unlike a standard "V" type where the ports are near the top of the engine.

I assume many of you know the aircraft I speak of for those who do not here are some profiles(not to scale)

Fw190A8(could be an A6)


Fw190D9


Ta152H

[CaptainMattJ.]

No competition, the P51D Mustang

Ive been enfatuated with it since i was about 11. Beautiful aircraft. very powerful too. Many of my profile names on multiple sites are actually XP51MustangX or some variation of that. Aside from that i love B-29s, SBD Dauntless, F6F Hellcats, Me-262s, F4U Corsairs.

And more importantly, the C-47. My grandfather was a flight engineer aboard a C-47, and i like to think about how im here because the aircraft was so good to him, and indirectly good to my father and then to me. Had it been a lousy aircraft i might not be here, and even worse he dodged reassignment to the 8th by the skin of his teeth. I'm very fortunate he didn't, he had a very good chance of never making it out of there.

[MH]

p 38 lightning

[Stealhead]

I guess you guys are not gear heads like I am I was hoping to hear a little bit about your love for the technical bits you know like guys talking about their hot rods.

for example on the P-38 above did you know that the counter balance on the tail actually did not have any effect? It was thought to help with the loss of control during high speed dives.Kelly Johnson(I hope you know who that is) felt that it was a waste of time and that the issue was caused by vortexing something that was only theory at the time(he was correct) How about the fact that the Allison engines made for the P-38 where specific port and starboard?

Treat it like a question on a job interview for a job where you are the host of a TV show about WWII aircraft. short answers wont get you hired.

Mosquito

[Cybermat47]

Messerschmitt Bf-110 C-4




This one is a particular favourite of mine. M8+EP was part of II/ZG76, the 'Haifisch (shark) Gruppe'. I made a model of M8+EP, in fact. Beautiful aircraft. Deadly as well, considering the four 20-mm cannons in the nose. And it's powerplant, was of course, the DB-601.

[MH]

Originally Posted by Stealhead

I guess you guys are not gear heads like I am I was hoping to hear a little bit about your love for the technical bits you know like guys talking about their hot rods.

for example on the P-38 above did you know that the counter balance on the tail actually did not have any effect? It was thought to help with the loss of control during high speed dives.Kelly Johnson(I hope you know who that is) felt that it was a waste of time and that the issue was caused by vortexing something that was only theory at the time(he was correct) How about the fact that the Allison engines made for the P-38 where specific port and starboard?

Treat it like a question on a job interview for a job where you are the host of a TV show about WWII aircraft. short answers wont get you hired.

I:have like 1000 pictures of this plane lots of books and it looks great inside out...hehe
Since I can't bulid real life model of it at the time I'm working on 3d model that includes internal structure...call me nut that lost some bolt.
Kelly Johanson....hmmmm

[donna52522]

BF 109F and G's

The aircraft got better, but Germany started running out of trained pilots. The ****e-Wulf 190's series may have been the best they had at the end of the war, but their fate was sealed.... I still love the Me-109 for it's sleek look.

[CaptainMattJ.]

Originally Posted by Stealhead

I guess you guys are not gear heads like I am I was hoping to hear a little bit about your love for the technical bits you know like guys talking about their hot rods.

for example on the P-38 above did you know that the counter balance on the tail actually did not have any effect? It was thought to help with the loss of control during high speed dives.Kelly Johnson(I hope you know who that is) felt that it was a waste of time and that the issue was caused by vortexing something that was only theory at the time(he was correct) How about the fact that the Allison engines made for the P-38 where specific port and starboard?

Treat it like a question on a job interview for a job where you are the host of a TV show about WWII aircraft. short answers wont get you hired.

Well then allow me to elaborate.

P51-D Mustang was one of the greatest comeback designs of the war, with the assistance of Rolls-Royce Merlin being the final piece of the puzzle that made the P51 come out in flying colors. Just because it's the most cliched aircraft of the war doesn't make it any less fantastic. It had a superb climb rate, and armed with drop tanks the fuel efficient design helped carry these agile and heavily armed fighters right into Germany. It also doubled as an effective CAS fighter-bomber. Not to mention it is simply beautiful.



The B-29 was a very sturdy piece of engineering, and it was a fantastic advancement in aerospace technology, with remote controlled turrets, advanced bomb sights, pressurized cabins (with heating), and a massive payload and range. it's range of 3250 miles was previously unmatched, as was it's bomb capacity of 20000 pounds of bombs.

The SBD Dauntless dive-bombers were the planes that turned the tide in the pacific (whilst not discrediting whatsoever the role of the avengers). It's reliability, ruggedness, great payload, great handling, defensive armament, and success allowed it to still be the dive bomber of choice for pilots after the SBD-2 helldiver was comissioned (the pilots referred to the SBD-2 as the Son-of-a-*redacted* second class because it was a comparably piss poor flyer). Its role in Midway, along with TBF avengers, were incalculable to the success of the U.S military in the pacific.

the F6F Hellcat was not as fast as the F4U, and not quite as manuverable, but it was a monster and a VERY capable aircraft. It was faster than the zero, had a fantastic rugged quality to it, and claimed 56% of all U.S Navy/Marine air victories of the war, attesting to it's qualities as a fighter and a flyer.

Adding on, there's definitely a noteworthy mention of the Nakajima Ki-84 'Frank", the best fighter to see large scale operations for the Japanese during the war. Captured planes showed it to be faster than the P-51 and P-47, and it was comparable to some of the other top allied fighters, and also was able to reach B-29s at their maximum altitude. It was formidable, with 20mm (room for up to 30) cannons and multiple 50 cal machine guns, and design improvements over the oscar, made it a great design and a great aircraft.

The ME-262 was revolutionary in it's jet propulsion technology, and was all around a good fighter with unmatched speed and fantastic armament, though it's impact on the war was too late and it's use was limited by Hitler's vision of it being a bomber rather than a fighter.

the F4U Corsair was pretty much the best fighter aircraft used in WW2. Although i consider it a tie with the P51, it is an outstanding aircraft with a gull-wing design, the ability to be a great fighter-bomber, and it's outstanding qualities as a fighter, very fast, very agile, rugged, dependable, and powerful, it really was one of the best

And of course, i've already explained why the C-47 is important to me, but it's ruggedness, dependability, range, and role in providing the allies with a great transport aircraft make it the best transport of the war. Dropping troops into the enemy's backyard night and day, delivering supplies, commandos, and filling the ever expanding role of paratroopers, while also being the aircraft which my grandfather served in as a flight engineer, i can't help but put it on the list.

And some worthy notations to the 8-ton P-47 thunderbolt, the P-61 black widow, the Vought V-173 flying pancake, the spitfire, and the P-40 Warhawk.

[Stealhead]

Originally Posted by CaptainMattJ.

Well then allow me to elaborate.

That was pretty good your hired.

[Oberon]

Originally Posted by CaptainMattJ.

The ME-262 was revolutionary in it's jet propulsion technology, and was all around a good fighter with unmatched speed and fantastic armament, though it's impact on the war was too late and it's use was limited by Hitler's vision of it being a bomber rather than a fighter.

Once they'd gotten around the little nuances like the engines spontaneously detonating if they got a little too hot or if you advanced the throttle too quickly. She was not a great dogfighter either, and attacking bombers was difficult because of the closing speed, with R4M rockets it became a bit easier but like many WWII German weapon projects (thank God) it was too little too late. If you ran into P-51s in a 262, your major advantage was (naturally) speed and avoidance, because if you got drawn into a turning battle, you'd had it. For the Allies though, the 262 was a sod to actually catch once the Luftwaffe figured out how to use it, no prop fighter could keep up with it and if the Luftwaffe pilot didn't want to engage in a dogfight then all you could hope to do was flush them away from the bombers. That's why the Allies put so much into identifying 262 bases and hitting them as much as possible to try to catch the 262s at their weakest moment...landing.

I think the most important thing to come from the 262 was the wing design. Dr Adolf Busemanns theories on swept wing designs and supersonic drag and compression would become common building practice for jet aircraft right up to the present day. When you compare the 262s wings with the Gloster Meteor and the P-80, you can see Busemanns work. He is one of those people who did a lot for modern aviation but whose name is often forgotten. Indeed, I hadn't heard of him until relatively recently when I read a book dealing with British post-war jet designs and how the design of aircraft like the Hawker P.1052 which would later become the Hawker Hunter. Likewise in America, the F-86 was redesigned during its development stage when a flight engineer who could read German read Busemanns reports into swept wing designs, unfortunately for Korean war pilots, the F-86 design was kicked into the long grass until the Soviet MiG-15 which had been designed from captured examples of Busemanns designs, burst onto the scene and outperformed all the straight winged jet fighters in the threatre which were then relegated to ground attack by the swept wing F-86.

I think August has a winner there.
The DC3 was used by all the allies plus the axis and was used in all theatres throughout WW2

[Hottentot]

The one that can be recovered more intact than the others.

[AVGWarhawk]

Originally Posted by Tribesman

I think August has a winner there.
The DC3 was used by all the allies plus the axis and was used in all theatres throughout WW2

P-40 got around as well.

[fireftr18]

After giving it much thought, I have to go with the B-17.
The B-17 was designed specifically to fight WW2. Looking at history, I don't think it was coincidental.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_...lying_Fortress