Greatest Aircraft of World War Two.

DerAdlerIstGelandet · Jul 13, 2006

And I agree Eric that the C-47 was the best aircraft overall of WW2.

EAF51_Bear · Jul 15, 2006

What about FIAT G.55?

(OK, you know, I m Italian... )

FLYBOYJ · Jul 15, 2006

EAF51_Bear said:
What about FIAT G.55?

(OK, you know, I m Italian... )

Great airplane amico , but all round, the C-47 - you guys even flew them after the war...

EAF51_Bear · Jul 16, 2006

Yes, I agree (What I was mentioning above was only a kind of nationalistic air-lover behauviour )

The Dakota was (do we have to say "IS"?) a weird plane, probably the plane most used plane all around the world in her different versions: C-47 as well as DC-3 (civil airliner).

Quite possbily the most successful aircraft ever developed, approximately 13,000 C-47 variants were produced including more than 2,000 built in foreign countries under license. At one time the DC-3 or C-47 was in service in more than 40 countries.
SOURCE: AC-47

It was also manufactured by Soviets (LI-2) and Japanese (L-2D)

I also remember some version operating in Vietnam as flying gunship (AC-47 "Spooky")

During the Vietnam War, C-47s served as designed and also as the first gunship-the AC-47 or "Puff the Magic Dragon," which was fitted with 7.62 mm miniguns. These weapons fired up to 6,000 rounds per minute and the aircraft carried 54,000 rounds. The AC-119 and the AC-130 succeeded the AC-47 in the gunship role with their greater capacity and better design for gunship use. As it pioneered in cargo and passenger transport, the C-47 also pioneered in development of the gunship, which became so important to special operations.
SOURCE: Douglas Skytrain Transport - Military and Civilian Aircraft

The following are the only pic I was able to find about the C-47 gunship version. Does anyone have any picture of that?

evangilder · Jul 16, 2006

I have 2 from my archive. I apologize for the quality of these images, they were on a camera that I had a long time ago that was maybe 1 megapixel. The third shot is I believe either from the site for John Levitow or from the USAF Museum archive. I can't recall.

DerAdlerIstGelandet · Jul 17, 2006

EAF51_Bear said:
What about FIAT G.55?

(OK, you know, I m Italian... )

Good decent aircraft but when compared to other fighters such as the Spitfire, Bf-109, P-51, P-38, and P-47 it was a step behind.

Im still with the C-47 being the best aircraft as well guys.

freetech · Jul 31, 2006

Greatest aircraft of WWII has to be the P51 Mustang, IMHO. Although that's like asking what is the best car or what is the best dessert. Each plane had its assigned task(s) and many of them carried out their missions with great success, some did not.

FLYBOYJ · Jul 31, 2006

freetech said:
Greatest aircraft of WWII has to be the P51 Mustang, IMHO. Although that's like asking what is the best car or what is the best dessert. Each plane had its assigned task(s) and many of them carried out their missions with great success, some did not.

And the C-47 performed its task(s) and them some. Without it there would of been many P-51s grounded in England. The P-51 has its place in history as one of the best, it's contribution to the daylight bombing of Germany is evident, but it was also obvious that there were many other fighters way better than it.

This is an "outside the box" poll. The C-47 was in every theater of the war, supporting all branches of the US military as well as our allies it transported troops continually with unsurpassed reliability and was still doing it 50 years later, that's way it is recognized as the greatest aircraft of WW2.

DerAdlerIstGelandet · Aug 1, 2006

Agreed FBJ. The P-51 was good at what it did in escorting bombers but was overated as well.

C-47 all the way!

DerAdlerIstGelandet · Aug 1, 2006

Basically there is more to WW2 aviation than fighters and more than just fighters and bombers that won the war.

the lancaster kicks ass · Aug 1, 2006

good God i thought he was gonna be annother newbie coming on claiming the mustang was the best plane ever simply because it's all they've ever heard of, but he just about managed to salvage it at the end............

plan_D · Aug 1, 2006

The Mustang was within the top five best planes of the war.

DerAdlerIstGelandet · Aug 1, 2006

Ill agree because of what it was able to accomplish in numbers, but by itself it was just an average really good fighter.

plan_D · Aug 1, 2006

Not just in numbers. Reading about 2nd TAF has brought the light how effective the Mustang was on the armed-recon sorties they flew over France and Germany in 1943 and 1944. The Mustang I and IAs were causing considerable trouble for the German units, as they would often appear all over the place unexpected. Often catching single or couples of planes completely unawares. These would go out in pairs generally flying at extreme low level.

FLYBOYJ · Aug 1, 2006

the lancaster kicks *** said:
good God i thought he was gonna be annother newbie coming on claiming the mustang was the best plane ever simply because it's all they've ever heard of, but he just about managed to salvage it at the end............

YEP!!!

Wildcat · Aug 2, 2006

Yep I agree 100% with the C-47, but I'm also gonna give a very honourable mention to the PBY.

plan_D · Aug 2, 2006

1. C-47 'Skytrain' - It carried the war effort of so many countries in it's hold.
2. Spitfire - Was on the front from day one until the end, on every front.
3. Fw-190 - Held its own against any Allied fighter.
4. P-51 'Mustang' - Carried the bombing campaign on it's shoulders.
5. B-29 'Superfortress' - The 'Nuke' bomber, need I say more?

102first_hussars · Aug 2, 2006

To me, what separates the Spitfire between the Mustang was, that though the Spitfire was an amazing plane, the pilots needed to be trained hard on how to use it properly,usually pilots flew the Hurricanes before they ever caught a glimpse of a Spit, whereas with the Mustang, you could put a rookie pilot in the cockpit of a p-51 and buddy could go into a dogfight and do some serious damage, that is a big deal.

DerAdlerIstGelandet · Aug 3, 2006

I like pDs list up there. The only thing I would change would be swapping the Fw-190 over the Spitfire and only for the reason that I believe they were pretty much equal and well I am biased to the Fw-190!

Great list there pD.

Gnomey · Aug 3, 2006

Yep it is a good list, I would leave it as it is because I am the opposite of you Adler being biased towards the Spitfire...

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