What was the worst Aircraft of WWII?

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In regards to the Devastator, it can be easily argued that it was a lousy aircraft given it's performance at Midway. For it's time however, it was a good aircraft, but like so many other aircraft of it's day, it became obsolete too fast when WW II broke out. Another point is that the Japanese fighters were brought down to sea level to attack the Devastators, which allowed the SBD Dauntless dive bombers to attack and sink the Japanese carriers virtually unmolested by fighters.
 
My choice for worst aircraft would be the Boulton Paul Defiant. Basically, when they designed and built the fighter, they did everything wrong. No forward armament, not manueverable, slow, and short range.
 
Has anybody considered what the Finns did in the Buffalo? Eino Juutilainen scored 34 kills in a Buffalo (one possibly over a Spitfire!) and Hans Wind had 39 kills in a Buffalo. Don't ask me to explain it ('cause I can't) but pretty impressive considering the thumping the Buffalo took everywhere else.
 
My choice for worst aircraft would be the Boulton Paul Defiant. Basically, when they designed and built the fighter, they did everything wrong. No forward armament, not manueverable, slow, and short range.
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i've said it before, and it looks like i'm gonna say it again, obviously you don't know about the blackburn B-25 Roc, it was the same concept as the defaint, but allot worse, it was designed to intercept bombers, with a top speed of 198mph, both planes were not manouverable, but the defaint was more manouverable then the Roc, the Roc had a shorter range, and at least the defaint could hit 300mph, so i don't think the defaint was thet bad when compared to a Roc................
 
I agree that the Roc was a lousy plane, but it was lousy because it was built to meet a lousy specification. I think it was pretty much recognized as lousy and never really saw service, I may be wrong on that point.

The Devestator did have some early war success during the early carrier raids and at Coral Sea. The carrier raids, however, were launched against targets where Japanese defenses were minimal and at Coral Sea it had the benefit of fighter escort and dive-bomber support. I just can't get around the Midway debacle.
 
you're right, the Roc was identified as a crap plane, and after some early success, so was the defaint, but the defaint was considdered good enough to be used as a night fighter..............
 
Because it had a crew of two and, while it's performance was nothing to right home about, it was better than the Blenheims that were being used.
 
The Beau was the best to see service during the Blitz. But it wasn't in action when the Defiant was switched to nightfighter duty was it?
 
I have to agree with Lanc on the worst aircraft being the Blackburn B-25 Roc...although the P-26 'Peashooter' for me comes in second.
 
They were both pretty crummy planes. Did the P-26 see any action? I know a few were still in service but I don't remember if they ever got into combat.
 
They fought with the Chinese airforce in 1937, and with the Philippines air force against the Japanese in December 1941 but apparently they got shot down after a few days. I can't find the exact date but apparently it was one of the first, if not the first American stressed skin monoplane to see combat.
 
If they saw any service during the war, the Phillipines was probably the place so that makes sense to me.
 
Yes, I've read in many places the Phillipines air force used it, along with the Chinese. I've never read the squadrons or groups they were assigned to in these countries.
 
Same here, the Guatamalien (Spelling?) air force flew 'peashooters' up until 1957.
 
Why would it be hard to agree? I saw it, read the stats and I was swayed very, very quickly.
 
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