Best Aircraft in many different roles

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I will have to go with the Fw-190. It could be used as a fighter, night fighter, ground attack, fighter bomber, photo recon, torpedo fighter, attack, tank buster and hell it was even used to carry the Mistel's. Here is a list of the non straight up fighter versions.


So yes based of this, my vote goes for the Fw-190 as the best single engined aircraft of WW2.
 
It was. What is also funny is British intelligence mistook it for captured Mohawks, when the first reports of a radial engined aircraft came back to Britain in June 1941.
 


Curtiss P-36 Mohawk. The French had them, and British intelligence thought this was what the Germans were using...when in actual fact, it was a Fw-190.
 
There is a world of difference between the P-36 and the Fw-190.

The Corsair had one major advantage over the 190 in versatility, carrier-capability.

I've also noted that the Germans seem to built a specialized version for EVERYTHING. Do you guys think this helped or hurt their war effort?
 
I suppose that the Fw-190 had it in terms of ALL the variants they used, it was indeed the best of German craftsmanship, testimony to that is Flugwerk making new ones now [get your order in today!!!]...
- But my personal feeling is that with the Corsair first flying around 1940 odd, it did end-up surprising alotta folk with it's robust performance and durability, it's armament, ordinance-carrying and dogfighting ability, and it's overall tour of duty, as they didn't stop making them until 1953...

Both were superb, and a credit to both Rex Beisel and Kurt Tank respectively, [and lately, Flugwerk...]

Actually, it's hard to choose between them...I chose the Corsair purely on patriotic grounds......
 

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I dont think it hurt them really that bad. A lot of the specialized versions were actually just standard aircraft with field conversion kits. For instance the Fw 190F-8/R15 Torpedo-fighter, equal to the Fw 190F-8/R14, but with the standard 1 × BMW 801D-2 engine and a 3,086 lb (1400 kg) LT 1400 torpedo-bomb was just a Fw-190F-8 that was field converted with the conversion kit to make it a torpedo bomber. Yes they did make specialized versions two but I dont really think it hurt them. As stated fuel shortages hurt them the most.
 

That is awesome I just checked out the Flugwerk website. They are actually building Me-109's and Fw-190's for private use with modern built parts made to the manufactureres specifications. They also do restorations of actuall WW2 aircraft including the Me-109, Fw-190 and P-51. I wonder how much one would set you back?
 
It was the radial engine that got them confused, LG. The pilots even said that it wasn't a Mohawk because a Mohawk couldn't handle like that. British intelligence had no clue about the Fw-190, so they carried on claiming they were just captured Mohawks.
 

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