Most "Bad Ass" looking Aircraft of WW2

[windswords]

Ok. The Most Beautiful Aircraft of WW2 has been a popular thread. What about the most "bad ass" looking plane? You know, the one that looks like it means business just sitting there on the hardstand or grass field?

My vote is for the P-47 Thunderbolt or a Hawker Typhoon loaded up with bombs and rockets. What do you think? What others would you nominate?

Wind Swords

 

[vikingBerserker]

For me it is between 3:

Beaufighter: The engines always looked like massive shoulders and the cockpit a tiny head
Do 335 & Kyushu J7W: Both remind of a eagles or hawks, tiny spindly legs but with lots of power to take out other aircraft.

 

[Peter Gunn]

Tough call, depends on what you mean by "Bad Ass", just hanging a bunch of ordinance under it is one thing, an inherent bad ass look is another, really and eye of the beholder kind of thing.

To me, Bad Ass means not just how much mudslinging ordinance is under it, but its ability to kick the ever living sh!t out of you.

US - AAF Holy Trinity of P-51, P-47 and P-38 with honorable mention to the Corsair
UK - Spitfire
Ger. - FW-190 and Bf-109
Rus. - Mig 3 and La-5

There are others but those are my top "Bad Ass" looking birds.

*EDIT* Forgot to add the Hellcat as US honorable mention, that condescending smug grin yo...

 

[windswords]

Tough call, depends on what you mean by "Bad Ass", just hanging a bunch of ordinance under it is one thing, an inherent bad ass look is another, really and eye of the beholder kind of thing.

Yes, definitely an "eye of the beholder" thing. I will say that a P-47 with the 4 guns per wing or the Typhoon with those big 20 mm barrels looks pretty mean without any ordnance at all.

 

[MIflyer]

Ju87G-1 with the big 37MM cannon. The Stuka looks predatory in any case and adding those big guns makes it look even more so.

 

[Capt. Vick]

One of those massively armed B-25 straffer jobs, Pappy Gun deluxe.

 

[Dawncaster]

Corsair - the beauty, but rugged.

I like the early Corsairs with rough surfaces, of the Solomon Islands.

Shining sun, clear sky, glittering sea of emerald blue, white sandy beach, palm trees swaying slowly in the wind, and the powerful sound of the Corsair's R-2800-8.

It evokes something to me.

I am happy that there is someone who shares this feeling.

ps. of course, I also very like the graceful line of Corsair with a good surface condition. Corsair has the dynamic attraction of coexistence of ruggedness and graceful, for me.

 

[fubar57]

Bf 109F or any 109 for that matter. Watch any video of them flying in formation at low level and it always seems to me like they are looking for trouble and hoping they find it

 

[redcoat]

Beaufighter: The engines always looked like massive shoulders and the cockpit a tiny head

The Beaufighter has been described as "two engines closely followed by an aircraft".

The Beaufighter has also always been a favourite of mine because my granny on my mothers side helped build them in WW2

 

[MIflyer]

The way I just read about it was, "Two engines hotly pursued by a fuselage."

My favorite artwork of an Me-109. "Time to take this argument outside, chaps!"

 

[Capt. Vick]

Oh man, I remember that box top!

 

[tyrodtom]

Poor old Aurora, back in the 1950s and early 60s when I built a lot of models they were worse out there.
I remember a Bf-109E I built from a Aurora kit, it came in dark maroon plastic.
It had 2 little bombs you hung out near each wing tip.
Seems like about every Aurora model you got in that era had those 4 little bombs for the outer wings.
Zero, Avenger, P-47, even a very inaccurate copy of what was supposed to be a Mig 19 had those 4 little bombs.

 

[michael rauls]

For me, if it's looks alone were talking its got to be a tie between the bf 109 and the p40f. Especially if you get the obligatory sharks mouth on either of those. Now theres a plane that looks like it means buisness.

 

[michael rauls]

Bf 109F or any 109 for that matter. Watch any video of them flying in formation at low level and it always seems to me like they are looking for trouble and hoping they find it

Yes I now the vidioes to which you refer and thats as perfect a discription as ive ever heard.

 

[GrauGeist]

The Me262 - it has a predatory look to it.

The Fw190A-8 also has a savage look to it, like that one guy in the corner of the bar that everyone avoids, because he has a reputation of throat-punching people that annoy him...

 

[michael rauls]

The Me262 - it has a predatory look to it.

The Fw190A-8 also has a savage look to it, like that one guy in the corner of the bar that everyone avoids, because he has a reputation of throat-punching people that annoy him...

I didn't think about the 262. I may have re-evaluate and make it a 3 way tie. If were talking most badass looking just sitting on the ground. Then ya, the 262 walks away with that one. In my opinion.

 

[Timppa]

the one that looks like it means business just sitting there on the hardstand or grass field?

This:

 

[CORSNING]

Just a few nasty duel engine A/C

 

[MIflyer]

Yeah, no.2 after the cannon-armed Stuka would be the B-25H

By the way I took the photos at New Smyrna Beach, FL in April of 2016

 

[BiffF15]

Corsning,

Any idea where the P38 shot was taken as it looks like the US?

Cheers,
Biff