Absolutely. I'll also add the Bell Airacuda to the list. Curtis had some great looking airplanes back in the day as did Bell. I sorta think of them as Buck Rogers-steam punk hybrids.
Too many to count...Hawker Fury (and the Hind series), Gloster Gladiator, HP Heyford (yes, I did say that!), Vickers Wellesley. However, my ultimate favourite has to be the Supermarine S.6B.
I'm no mind reader but I think the intent was to consider aircraft that did not see their primary service in WW2.
For example, can we really consider the Nakajima Ki-43 Hayabusa, first flown in Jan 1939 or the Focke-Wulf Fw 190, first flown in June 1939 as interwar aircraft?
I'm no mind reader but I think the intent was to consider aircraft that did not see their primary service in WW2.
For example, can we really consider the Nakajima Ki-43 Hayabusa, first flown in Jan 1939 or the Focke-Wulf Fw 190, first flown in June 1939 as interwar aircraft?
That is how I see it. Any aircraft built during that time was between WW1 and WW2. All of those aircraft saw service in WW2, but they were "birthed" well in the interwar period, unlike the 190 and 43.
I get what you are saying though, and it can certainly be interpreted that way.
I guess there could be varrying definition of interwar aircraft but my first thought when i read the thread title was aircraft that saw most of there service before ww2 even if they did see some small amount of service durring the early war years.
With that definition I'd say for me the Gloster Gladiator followed closely by the p36............... A5m honorable mention
I guess there could be varrying definition of interwar aircraft but my first thought when i read the thread title was aircraft that saw most of there service before ww2 even if they did see some small amount of service durring the early war years.
With that definition I'd say for me the Gloster Gladiator followed closely by the p36............... A5m honorable mention
Yes, thank you, that was the intent. And with that intent in mind, early variants of aircraft, that, in later variants went on to be workhorses for the duration of the war, would qualify. For instance, the B-17B through D were interwar designs. An I know that all of these variants came out after 1939, but they came out before the US entered the war, so they are interwar variants. That's not just a technicality or me being US centric in my thinking, all these variants were inadequate to fight in WWII, even during the beginning of the war, as discovered by RAF Bomber Command with the C, and it wasn't until the US got into the war and got some experience that we started producing variants that were "up to snuff," so literally the early variants were obsolete interwar technology.
I like the FAA's aircraft of the early 1930s, a period when Britain's carriers fielded fighter and strike aircraft that were competitive to those in the USN and IJN. By the mid-1930s Britain was being left behind by the Grumman F3F and Japan's A5M, etc. but there was a sweet spot from 1933-1936 where Britain could at least compete.
The Blackburn Baffin could match the Martin BM and Mitsubishi B2M. The Hawker Nimrod, entering service in 1933 was a match for the USN's fighters of the time (2 seat Grumman FF and Boeing F4B), as well the IJN's Nakajima A2N. And you have to agree that the Nimrod was handsome.
Hawker Hurricane,
Flight trials in 1936 observed the aircraft to possess a maximum level speed of 315 mph at an altitude of 16,200 ft, a time-to-climb to an altitude of 15,000 ft from takeoff of 5.7 minutes, and a stalling speed of 57 mph (only marginally higher than the Gladiator biplane), the last achieved using its flaps.
And
The Hurricane first made its mark in February 1938. In this month, a Hurricane piloted by Squadron Leader J W Gillan, commanding officer of 111 Squadron, had flown from Scotland to Northholt, a distance of 327 miles, in 48 minutes at an average speed of 409 mph (admittedly with a tail wind).