Do you have favorite WW2 aircraft

Vote for Ur Favorite World War II Aircraft...

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I have always liked the P-47. Perhaps I was influenced by the book "Thunderbolt" by Robert Johnson. The sheer power and overwhelming firepower of this plane was just awesome. It could also take an incredible amount of punishment and still bring the pilot back alive. It excelled both as a fighter and a ground-attack aircraft. When the Korean war broke out, the Air Force wanted to use T-Bolts as a ground attack weapon, but had to settle for the vulnerable (for this role) P-51, dooming a lot of pilots to death or capture from ground fire.

tom
 
Beaufighter - excellent aircraft over Burma (as were the Hurribomber and Vultee).
 
There's isn't a single machine that I don't like in the poll, but since we only could pick one of them.....Ta 152H-1.
I believe that if the four horsemen of the apocalypse weren't riding those horses, THAT is what they would be flying....

Adler: I personally think that all the variants of the 109 looks menacing(?), I've always liked the F-4 and the G-6 best though.
Fw 190's great looking as well. I remember that I HATED the Doras when I first saw them, they were ugly. Now, I prefer them almost over the A to F models....go figure.
 

I have a book that has a picture in it of some 109s. The caption mentions the "sinister" looking Messershmitts. I think it is an apt description.

Think I can find that darn pic???

tom
 
Favourite aircraft of the war? Well, it changes from time to time, but at the moment:

Hawker Typhoon Mk IB, with bubbletop canopy.

For me it is the most aggressive looking of all fighters of the war. A marvelous combination of clean, elegant lines with the soildity of a heavy weight prize fighter to back it up.

Second place goes to the FW-190A series, followed by the MiG-3U, Mosquito and the Spitfire XII.
 
I reckon that the British make the coolest planes. The mossie, beaufighter, spitfire and Tempes/Typhoon are awesome. Seeing as Tempest wasnt there I voted beaufighter.
 
Spitfire you could through around more and it had Hispano cannons as opposed to the 6 machine guns in Mustang. Mustang fantastic range though its hard call in a lot of respects though.
 
In 1943, the Spitfire Mk.IX was a superior dogfighter than the P-51Bs and Cs in service. In 1944, the Spitfire Mk.XII and Mk.XIV were superior at their corresponding altitudes than the P-51D/K. And in 1945, you can choose between the Spitfire Mk.XIV, XVIII and F.21 to eat the Mustang...
 
There were hardly any P-51B/Cs in service in 1943. They didn't fly their first operational sorties until December. Before that the Allison engine Mustangs entered service with 14 RAF squadrons, and were genuinely well liked by thier pilots.

The Allison engined Mustangs were significantly superior to the later variants of Spitfire V and IX in terms of speed at all altitudes below about 16,000 feet. Some variants, with higher rated engines (1500-1600 hp), were capable of about 375 mph at sea level, which is almost as fast as late war monsters such as the Tempest V and FW-109D, and faster than the Spitfire XIV or Bf-109K4, on far less power.

A very clean airframe, backed up by an excellent radiator design and fewer drag blackspots than the Spitfire.

By comparison, Spitfire Vs in 1942-1943 were capable of about 330-335 mph at sea level with a 1,550 hp engine, provided they had clipped wings and a cropped supercharger. Spitfire IXs had a little better performance, although later war models, with higher boost, got up to about 355-360 mph at sea level.

However, the Mustang's major problem was its rate of climb and relative sluggishness (compared to a Spitfire at least) in the turn.

With an Allsion engine, the Mustang peaked at about 3,200 feet/minute. On the other hand, Spitfire Vs and IXs were doing between 4,700 and 4,800 ft/minute and sustaining a higher rate of climb for longer.

So, it comes down to your preferance really: do you want speed to dictate the fight or climb and turn to manouver you into the best firing position? With speed you can run away and come back to play later, while with a more manouverable fighter, you have to outturn, outclimb or outwit your opponent. One is 20-45 mph faster at low alt, or the other is 1,500-1,600 ft/minute better in the climb.

I'd agree that the Spitfire was certainly a better defensive dogfighter than any model of the P-51, but on the offence, the P-51s range and speed make it the better weapon to go on the offensive with (although it never could of done it without the Spitfire protecting the home fires) even if it isn't as nimble or heavily armed.
 
That's great, Jabber...but since the Spitfire would be high a lot quicker, and a better performer at altitude ... it rids the Mustang of its speed advantage at sea level, since the Spitfire can dive on the Mustang ...
 
Jabberwocky, besides the fact that the low drag low lift laminar flow wing of the Mustang contributed alot to its speed the extra 300 or so worth HP added by the radiator - giving it in effect 2,080 HP - the speed at SL was no greater than that of the 1,975 HP Bf-109 K-4 which did 607 km/h at SL. And the FW-190 Dora-9 which benefitted from no meredith effect at all did 615 km/h at SL with 2,065 HP.

Although it is clean, the P-51 isn't an extraordinarily clean design.
 
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