WWII's ugliest fighter (of these options)
- Thread starter Oreo
- Start date
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parsifal
Colonel
probably was
DarrenW
Staff Sergeant
They were a bit strange looking to me at first too but after a while their "unique" looks started to grow on me....
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Freebird
Master Sergeant
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Hansie Bloeckmann
Senior Airman
Would appreciate seeing photos of this SUKA fighter plane. Not one bit familiar with it at all. In the ETO, my 2 top picks for best fighter planes are the P-47 and the P-51, for the USAAF, and the Spitfire for the RAF.
Just google Skua aircraft pics. Named after a predatory sea bird.
Typhoon from my perspective. Great ground attack plane but that intake on it is just by-God hideous and the wings; the plane is an abortion! Gear is too long. It's looks like a retarded Chicken-lady with a jacko-jaw!
It's like when your brother brings a fat-girl to Thanksgiving Dinner. "Sweet Jesus! You can do better than that! What's wrong with you?"
It's like when your brother brings a fat-girl to Thanksgiving Dinner. "Sweet Jesus! You can do better than that! What's wrong with you?"
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From the graphic novel - Dive Bomber! The true story of Bill Martin and how he overcame life's adversities to strike hard at the hearts of the Nazis!
Shortround6
Major General
Looks like Bill's cartoon plane carried a much bigger bomb load than the real plane did, unless those are really fat 20lb bombs 
I still hold out that the Typhoon, and it's Ruprecht brother the Tempest, are the worst offenders in the actual "Fighter" category. They are an officers interpretation of the Spitfire. They only worked because the rebel ethos was so strong in the alpha-source.
Freebird
Master Sergeant
The Skua was designed as a dive bomber, not a fighter.
As it had decent speed (for 1937) the British thought it might double as a fighter, but by 1940 it was outclassed.
The Skua's claim to fame is that two FAA Skua squadrons made the first ever sinking of a ship by dive bombing, the German cruiser Konigsberg in Bergen Harbour in 1940.
German cruiser Königsberg - Wikipedia
buffnut453
Captain
The Skua also achieved the UK's first fighter kill of WW2, on 26 September 1939.
Shortround6
Major General
true but then the DO 18 wasn't a particularly hard aircraft to shoot down.
No disrespect to the men involved, I am sure the Germans were shooting back and the Skuas had nothing in the way of armor or protected fuel tanks.
But the Do 18 topped out about 155mph and the early ones had a single 7.9mm machine gun in the bow and dorsal positions.
Being able to deal with 'snoopers' is not the same as dealing with attack aircraft let alone enemy fighters.
No disrespect to the men involved, I am sure the Germans were shooting back and the Skuas had nothing in the way of armor or protected fuel tanks.
But the Do 18 topped out about 155mph and the early ones had a single 7.9mm machine gun in the bow and dorsal positions.
Being able to deal with 'snoopers' is not the same as dealing with attack aircraft let alone enemy fighters.
fastmongrel
1st Sergeant
A bit like a Fungal infection
buffnut453
Captain
I wasn't making any claims about the Skua's abilities as a fighter, simply that in addition to being the first aircraft to sink a ship by dive bombing, it also achieved the first fighter air-to-air victory by UK forces. Nothing more, nothing less.
Shortround6
Major General
True, but while such marks of distinction are interesting they often don't point to any quality of the aircraft, although they do point to the quality of the men flying them.
I believe the first RAF Victory of the war went to a rear gunner of a Fairey Battle (Sgt. F. Letchard) who managed to shoot down a Bf 109. Sure didn't mean you fly Fairey Battles without escort into defended airspace.
The Skua was one of those comprises forced on the RN by the restricted numbers of aircraft on each carrier. Each aircraft had to perform several roles and so was not the best at any one role, although better at some than others. I don't know if the Skua had any 'stretch' in it. Like a few other British aircraft they abandoned it after the MK I and went after shinier new toys that took too long to get into operation.
One wonders how the Dauntless would be remembered if production stopped after the first few hundred and limited them to the original 1000hp engine and no armor or selfsealing tanks.
I believe the first RAF Victory of the war went to a rear gunner of a Fairey Battle (Sgt. F. Letchard) who managed to shoot down a Bf 109. Sure didn't mean you fly Fairey Battles without escort into defended airspace.
The Skua was one of those comprises forced on the RN by the restricted numbers of aircraft on each carrier. Each aircraft had to perform several roles and so was not the best at any one role, although better at some than others. I don't know if the Skua had any 'stretch' in it. Like a few other British aircraft they abandoned it after the MK I and went after shinier new toys that took too long to get into operation.
One wonders how the Dauntless would be remembered if production stopped after the first few hundred and limited them to the original 1000hp engine and no armor or selfsealing tanks.
