What was the worst Aircraft of WWII?

i like your sig now jj 8) a nice respectful spit

great thankyou guys......i dont know what happened there......went on a nazi loving trip....must be cos of all the mini hitler mods in here!

Spit? .........oh hang on you meant Spitfire!

riechfurher hot space

yah in jj's, your are wildcats ait they?

i havent a clue....possibly some obscure plane that only three people in the world happen to know exist!

See the Amiot 143 yet JJ?

they're boeing P-26 peashooters, it's ironic, i was reading about them in a book this morning

You're correct 8)

I happen to think they're one of the best looking planes in WW2, they weren't bad planes to fly too - the Americans loved them (hence the effectionate nickname "Peashooter") - the Chinese thought they were pretty cool too - the Americans had them at Pearl Harbour and the Chinese used them against the Japanese (so i bet the Japanese didn't think they were lovely!)

I have seen quite a few pictures of them flying in mass formation like this and i think they look beautiful

i must say in the past i said i didn't like American planes and i still stick by that to the most part (not sure why, i think its their looks... ) but i do love the P-26 peashooter - well done Lanc, that was a scary coincidence wasn't it?! have you been following me??

cool 8) i wouldnt say they look great, radial engines spoil the look of fighters

Not on the Tempest II/ Sea Fury they don't!

My loyal follower (s) [In case there IS more than one]

I have become conflicted,

On the one hand I still think the Brewster Buffalo was the absolute pits

But

Recently I have been reading about the Fairey Battle <sob> I can't choose which is worse</sob>

Your beloved Leader

FVS Kiwimac

These are an exception 8)

I have a new candidate for worse aircraft (based on what Kiwi said)......drumroll please

Next to the Amiot 143....The fairey Battle!

An absolute disaster of a plane it was equipped to No 63 sqaudron in 1937 and designed as state-of-the-art at the time it was built...in Sept 1939, Fairey Battles were sent to France and in May 1940 they suffered appauling losses in attempts to bomb enemy columns and bridges. On May 10th of the same year whilst desperately trying to destroy the french bridges before the germans could cross 35 out of 63 Fairey Battles failed to return home - It was hopeless at defending itself from enemy fire and after that fiasco it was quickly relegated to secondline duties - mainly as trainers in commenwealth countries such as Canada and Australia.
In fact the only mild usage the Brits found for the Battle was to bomb German invasion barges in night-time raids in occupied ports in France etc.

The Amiot 143

This plane was developed from the design of the Amiot 140 (the 143's predessesor) it was first put into service in the French airforce in 1935

It was big, slow, cumbersome and a very easy target and has been described as 'a luftwaffe pilots dream!' but despite this the French flew many bombing missions against the advancing Germans in broad daylight! and as i'm sure you can imagine by looking at it - the French lost many aircraft - after the invasion the French resistance still had fifty Amiot 143s left and still used them against the Germans! towards the end of the war any remaining Amiots were used as transports - it amuses me somewhat to discover that for defence the Amiot 143 was armed with four .30in machine guns designed in 1934 still based along the lines of WW1 machine guns and had the ammunition fed to the guns through drums fixed to the tops of the weapon (similar to a British Lewis Gun) as opposed to bullet belts - drums didn't hold much ammo so you had to change them regularly and they had a nasty habit of jamming - all in all not really ideal for battling the Luftwaffe....the mind boggles

However...once the French finally got the idea that daylight raids in old knackered box-bombers like the Amiot 143 was practically suicide they switched to night raids the Amiot 143 crews flew 197 night raids against the invading Germans and dropped 338,626lbs of bombs and only lost 4 aircraft in total Now despite all those odds thats bloody impressive and certainly more than the Battle could boast...maybe i was too harse on the French airforce...

So I think the crown has to go to.....isn't it exciting??

The Fairey Battle!!

My reckoning is that at least the Amiot was useful to the French in their desperate resistance struggle against the Germans which i think proves the Amiot may have been crap but it was enduring - however the Battle was supposed to be state-of-the-art and it wasn't - in fact the complete opposite!

and just to show how boxey the Amiot 143 was...

http://www.aviafrance.com/images/10.jpg

Hmmm,

Looks like a chicken-coop with wings and engines!

Kiwimac

yeah, i've known about the battle for a while and it was BAD, then again so was the Blackburn B-25 Roc

and just to show how boxey the Amiot 143 was...

Click to expand...

i heard a rumor/joke that says that the frogs picked it because it ws the ugliest of the three competing designs!

Reichsmarschall Batista

I must say after Lancs persistance I did a little reasearch on the B-25 'Roc' and yes it was alot worse than i ever thought it was! - it was so god-awful in fact that the Brits only made 136 of them and despite the fact they were designed as carrier-based fighters they never actually took off from a carrier - only coastal bases! they weren't even capable of 200mph and couldn't even adequetly perform the dive-bomber role let alone the fighter role! it suffered from much the same problem as the Boulton Paul Defiant...but the reason i haven't said its the worst (IMO) is because at least it was pulled out of service before hundreds of airmen where killed in it...unlike the Fairey Battle

thank you, that's why i hate people saying the defaint was crap, cos compared to planes like the Roc, it was pretty good....................