Just Schmidt
Senior Airman
It recently struck me that this long lived and legendary plane served long enough and appeared in enough iterations, that it might have qualified as several distinct types (somewhat like the Yak family became).
Favorite in this context can mean both the aestethically most pleasing and the 'best' fighting machine, relatively or technically. Just make clear what criteria you choose, and at least I will not deem anything a wrong answer. Include the Spanish and Czech variants if you like. here i will only consider the four I know anything but the merest basics about, E, F, G and K. You can also just criticize my generalizations below, I'm sure there's room for improvement. And please supply any detail you feel pertinent, also about the more obscure variants, as for an example the T which i do believe saw service in Norway.
E: A classic aircraft in every sense, participating in all the early epics. Arguably second to none at its time, though not overshadowing all opponent in every respects. It's looks are somewhat crude, nearly a kind of Frankenstein's monster with odds and ends glued on here and there. One of the early exponents of cannon, motor or not, it poses a lethal danger to contemporary fighters and bombers both. saw quite a number of variations through its comparatively long service.
F: A radical redesign and clean up, looks like an entirely new type. Briefly a candidate for worlds best fighter, but soon replaced, and never anything to brag about armaments wise. The large spinner and clean up makes it look like a shark.
G: The hammer shark, to stay in the metaphor. A very varied range of aircraft spanning pretty much the last half of the war. Saw mostly defensive work, and the successive additions often shows. Beulen and stuff does make it look more meaner, and Galland-hood does introduce a new kind of sleek. But as with most heavily upgraded planes, handling (or at least manouverability) suffered, still it would probably have fared better had it enjoyed the same milieu as the Emil.
K: The pinnacle of development, at least of what saw anything but the briefest service. It literally looks like it's stretching itself to do the impossible job facing die Luftwaffe in the final months of the war. It may be considered an evolved Gustaf, in raw performance it seem more or less the equal of the best operative piston fighters. Even more challenged than the G by detoriating production quality, lack of oil and collapsing logistics, it faced overwhelming numbers in impossible strategic context.
I pick the Friedrich. Admittedly it had no business tangling with boxes of heavy bombers, but I'll pretend that Germany could afford to use it as top cover for Fw 190's and heavy fighters of different provenance. That is probably not the case, but it may not have worked out worse than the historical situation, and at least it actually enjoyed its share of successes in the relatively brief period it saw extensive combat. Where i won't budge is on the looks. It's just so slim and graceful, and while I really think the add-ons of the other models add charm and make them look more muscular, something that elegant, in my eyes, just takes intimidation to the next level.
Favorite in this context can mean both the aestethically most pleasing and the 'best' fighting machine, relatively or technically. Just make clear what criteria you choose, and at least I will not deem anything a wrong answer. Include the Spanish and Czech variants if you like. here i will only consider the four I know anything but the merest basics about, E, F, G and K. You can also just criticize my generalizations below, I'm sure there's room for improvement. And please supply any detail you feel pertinent, also about the more obscure variants, as for an example the T which i do believe saw service in Norway.
E: A classic aircraft in every sense, participating in all the early epics. Arguably second to none at its time, though not overshadowing all opponent in every respects. It's looks are somewhat crude, nearly a kind of Frankenstein's monster with odds and ends glued on here and there. One of the early exponents of cannon, motor or not, it poses a lethal danger to contemporary fighters and bombers both. saw quite a number of variations through its comparatively long service.
F: A radical redesign and clean up, looks like an entirely new type. Briefly a candidate for worlds best fighter, but soon replaced, and never anything to brag about armaments wise. The large spinner and clean up makes it look like a shark.
G: The hammer shark, to stay in the metaphor. A very varied range of aircraft spanning pretty much the last half of the war. Saw mostly defensive work, and the successive additions often shows. Beulen and stuff does make it look more meaner, and Galland-hood does introduce a new kind of sleek. But as with most heavily upgraded planes, handling (or at least manouverability) suffered, still it would probably have fared better had it enjoyed the same milieu as the Emil.
K: The pinnacle of development, at least of what saw anything but the briefest service. It literally looks like it's stretching itself to do the impossible job facing die Luftwaffe in the final months of the war. It may be considered an evolved Gustaf, in raw performance it seem more or less the equal of the best operative piston fighters. Even more challenged than the G by detoriating production quality, lack of oil and collapsing logistics, it faced overwhelming numbers in impossible strategic context.
I pick the Friedrich. Admittedly it had no business tangling with boxes of heavy bombers, but I'll pretend that Germany could afford to use it as top cover for Fw 190's and heavy fighters of different provenance. That is probably not the case, but it may not have worked out worse than the historical situation, and at least it actually enjoyed its share of successes in the relatively brief period it saw extensive combat. Where i won't budge is on the looks. It's just so slim and graceful, and while I really think the add-ons of the other models add charm and make them look more muscular, something that elegant, in my eyes, just takes intimidation to the next level.
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