The Forum's Favorite WW2 Aircraft?

[hurricane55]

My favorite is the A6M Zero because it was the dominant fighter in the Pacific until 1943 and was still a match for all allied fighters until the end of the war due to its speed and maneuverability. And it also looks very cool! Some of my other favorites are the P51, B17, and Me 262. Although I like almost all WWII aircraft.

 

[aurora-7]

Phhhht! Fighter jocks!

For overall aircraft I chose the PBY because I love flying boats and I love its parasol wing design.

As for fighers, It's the P-47

For bombers, the B-24

For attack aircraft, the Mosquito.

 

[woljags]

my fav isn't there as i would pick the short sunderland

 

[Procrastintor]

Fighter would have to be the P-40 Warhawk, shooting it only makes it angry.

 

[richard schwab]

Give me the P-47 any day!


Rich

 

[Vengeance]

Other, I'd have to agree with Wildcat, the Vultee Vengeance, great looking divebomber, plus I got a family connection to the machine, Grandfather was 12 Squadron based in Darwin and Merauke Dutch East Indies!

 

[pattle]

I have always thought of Russian, German and Japanese planes as being generally ugly, sinister and even fiendish looking machines, American planes I find as generally bland and functional while British and Italian planes are things of beauty. Just my opinion and I don't use this as a rule.

 

[Mishal Kennedy]

Honestly... This is torture... Being unable to click P-36, P-38, Dewoitine D540, FW-190, or F4F all at once... Torture! I'm sorry Hawk, Wildcat, Wuld, Dewoitin, but I had to pick Lightning...

EDIT: And the corsair, and the warhawk... My god, TORTURE!!!!

 

[pattle]

Honestly... This is torture... Being unable to click P-36, P-38, Dewoitine D540, FW-190, or F4F all at once... Torture! I'm sorry Hawk, Wildcat, Wuld, Dewoitin, but I had to pick Lightning...

EDIT: And the corsair, and the warhawk... My god, TORTURE!!!!

World War Two aircraft are the greatest!

 

[swampyankee]

I voted for the F6F, but I'm also a fan of the Westland Lysander, which was, for some unknowable reason, omitted.

 

[MSlechta]

I like nearly all planes from World War Two. If I have to chose only one, I will prefer Mitsubishi J2M Raiden. It is absolutely awesome plane, for me of course.

 

[rlgdestroyu]

Hmmm...FW190D such a beautifully menacing piece of aircraft, and the B-17F, it just reminds me of that bravery shown by the aircrews flying unescorted all that time early in the war.

 

[HBPencil]

Choosing just one is tricky but I went for the Spitfire. It has strengths and weaknesses like any aircraft does but, to me, it looks great regardless of whether it's the pure lines of the early models or the bad-ass-ness of the Griffon powered versions... although I do feel that the really late, post war models with the revised wings and big tail units ended up looking awkward. Oh, and both engine types sound great as well!

 

[bbear]

This is a fun thread, a matter of afection rather than kinetics, as i understand it. If fun is about laughter. And the key to humour is timing..

Enter stage left, a wooden aircraft with little armour and no defensive weapon - DH 98 Mosquito.
although overall the Mossie crews sufered low losses - that just meant they got given tougher and tougher missions

I went through some War Cabinet minutes last year and from what I could see the Mosquito raids got a separate line of report - in the highest body in the UK, not the Joint Chiefs, the full political body. There can't be many single aircraft type that got such political atttention.

And it got the job done, many practical, difficult, conventional, militarily important jobs. And it looks fast and powerful. And theres a heap of variants to build as models. And the mission stories and the men that flew them ... but that's divisive.

I can't say better than that - except for a Fairey Swordfish 'stringbag'. Or an air-power game changing C-47. but really the b17/P51/Lancaster/B29 were the main symphony why pick anything else? But without the carrier force and Coastal ASW they wouldn't count for beans. Spitfires are the prettiest. or ....

 

[stan reid]

The Me 163 just because it was freaky unreal.

 

[chicken]

I have to go with the yak 3 because it had exceptional agility and looks so cool

 

[GregP]

Why can't you put these things in alphabetical order?

 

[Marcel]

Maybe interesting, 2 years ago I crawled the forum to count how often an aircraft was mentioned. I made a list of about 90 single engined fighters and searched for that. The Spitfire came on top, see this wordcloud:

You can read about this action in this thread:
http://ww2aircraft.net/forum/off-topic-misc-/forums-discussed-single-engined-fighter-ww2-40007.html

 

[pbehn]

Why can't you put these things in alphabetical order?

Has it taken you 7 years Greg?

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

Might be time to see how our membership's opinion has changed over the years?