Best WW2 Aircraft Manufacturer/Designer

[dreadnought]

Hawker and Sidney Camm, and Supermarine and R.J.Mitchell (unfortunately dead before he could see how brilliant his design was), kept Britain in the war with their superb aircraft during one of the country's most difficult times, the Battle of Britain. In my opinion they were the best aeroplane designers and manufacturers of the war as they produced some of the allies most important aircraft.
Of course this is only my opinion and I would like to know those of others.

 

[FLYBOYJ]

Based on innovation and product line I'd go with Willie Messerschmitt. Honorable mention to Hugo Junkers and Kelly Johnson.

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

I go with Willi Messerschmitt, Kelly Johnson and Kurt Tank.

 

[trackend]

Douglas/Arthur Raymond

 

[Gnomey]

I like Reginald Mitchell, it would of been really interesting to see how the Spitfire would of developed with him in charge. I would also say Willi Messerschmitt, Kelly Johnson and Kurt Tank were excellent as well.

 

[timshatz]

I'm with Trackend, Douglas. Their birds are still being used.

 

[davparlr]

Don't forget North American, B-25, P-51, T-6, followed up with the F-86. Not many losers there! And a nice spread of categories.

 

[Thorlifter]

Messerschmidt, Boeing, Focke Wolf, North American are a few that come to mind.

 

[Gimmeacannon!]

So many people give all the credit for the original Spit design to reg Mitchell and as head of the department I suppose this is natural but he had a damned great design team behind him that did most of the work then took it to him for yea-or-nea decision on whether it would be used.
The design of the wing is always mentioned but if it was for Reg Mitchell it would have had a straight taper like his earlier designs, it was an aerodynamicist named Beverley Shenstone on his team that came up with the idea of an eliptical wing and designed it after stidying the He 70(?) single engined civil aircraft.
In an interview Shenstone said that Mitchells comment when asked about the eliptical wing concept 'he just said as long as it kept the plane in the air and covered eight machine guns he didnt give a sod what shape it was'.

 

[bigZ]

For me the 2 best designers of WWII are James Martin and Kurt Tank. Although none of the Martin Baker planes were put into production.

Not only were their planes excellent. But as an overall package they had also put more thought in for pilot ergonomics, maintenance, ground handling and ease of manufacture than any other design team. Kurt Tank proberly takes the lead due to his range of aircraft from the Condor, Owl, 190/152.

Love the Spit but look at how little thought has been given to the office typical of most British designs.

 

[renrich]

How about Rex Beisel and Ed Heineman. Is it just a conicidence that they(and many others appear to have German names?)

 

[Aggie08]

Messerschmidt, Boeing, and North Atlantic, to name a few.

 

[davparlr]

Messerschmidt, Boeing, and North Atlantic, to name a few.

I plain overlooked that North Atlantic manufacturer. Are they based in Greenland or Iceland?

 

[pbfoot]

Greenland.... Bluie West

 

[Aggie08]

Oopsie... North American. I mean, uh, haven't you ever heard of the legendary North Atlantic PBY Frozen Guppy?

 

[Civettone]

(It's not Messerschmidt but Messerschmitt.)

The answer should also depend on the number of engineers and other employees. One cannot compare a million dollar company like Boeing with a small company like Fletcher. So for that reason I'll leave out American companies like North American although they had great aircraft. Instead I would go for Caudron and Reggiane.

Kris

 

[FLYBOYJ]

One cannot compare a million dollar company like Boeing with a small company like Fletcher.

Million?!? - add several more zeros...

 

[dreadnought]

For me the 2 best designers of WWII are James Martin and Kurt Tank. Although none of the Martin Baker planes were put into production.

Not only were their planes excellent. But as an overall package they had also put more thought in for pilot ergonomics, maintenance, ground handling and ease of manufacture than any other design team. Kurt Tank proberly takes the lead due to his range of aircraft from the Condor, Owl, 190/152.

Love the Spit but look at how little thought has been given to the office typical of most British designs.

the spitfire was designed to fight during periods when materials were in short supply, not to be an armchair

 

[lesofprimus]

Without the brains and innovation of Willi Messerschmitt and Dr Kurt Tank, Germany would never have been able to be as aggressive or as dominating as they were...

Those 2 men made the Luftwaffe what it was...

 

[bigZ]

the spitfire was designed to fight during periods when materials were in short supply, not to be an armchair

Where in specification F.37/34 does it say that strategic materials must be conserved or substiuted? If your refering to "Pans to Spitfires" this was the doing of Lord Beaverbrook who understood the need of making the public feel involved(Aircraft manufactures already told him the recycled material would hamper the effort).

I am not talking about making it an "armchair". Merely pointing out the fact that although a superb plane its cockpit could have been better. The trend for poor layout design would be a feature of British aircraft several years after the war ended. Ergonomics is nothing new and serious atempts to improve cockpit layout had been atempted by various nations long before the war.