lol! there is merit in that, can't argue that about the lanc, however i personally would discard the .303s in exchange for .50s. my personal favorite plane of all time has to be a tie between the beaufighter and the p-47 (which made me feel really bad playing il-2:fb last night when i came across some while flying the ta 152 campaign :-S, i'd been really looking for some mustangs to blast instead *sad sigh*). though i'm stalwart in my stance that the mosquito should be right at the top of the list. the problem with a best aircraft of ww2 list is that frankly...aircraft roles in ww2 were so diverse, liason, light bombers, heavy bombers, fighters, attack planes, cargo planes, interceptors...and most planes were made to be the best at one to two roles. so for me, to pick a plane to be the "best" should be the planes that were not only extremely adaptable to many different roles, climates, etc, but excelled at many different roles and such. which to me means planes such as the mosquito, ju 88, lancaster, halifax, spitfire (some squadrons used them to ferry kegs of beer for pete's sakes) fw 190, p-47, B-24, the Yak series, and the Pe-2/3 series. although i have to say that hands down the best aircraft built for a specific purpose in the war had to be the fieseler storch for liason/artillery spotting. excellent visibility, decent speed for its size and power, actual defensive armament, incredible take-off/landing capabilities (rumour has it Fieseler himself could land them almost vertically in the right conditions :-S). but i can't count it as one of the best overall, as pretty much that was all it was good at. but it was definitely the best aircraft built to one purpose in my mind.