Your Favorite Aircraft from WWII?

[theultimateend]

Now I searched the forums for "Favorite Plane" and "What is your Favorite Plane" and went a few pages deep and didn't see anything. So if this IS a duplicate I apologize but I assure you that I did search I just am apparently technologically incompetent. But I digress.

I noticed a lot of threads about, the best, the worst, vs, and so forth but I was curious for what Aircraft in WWII does your heart truly go out for?

Why do you love that plane? It doesn't need to be the best, it could be the cruddiest bomber to ever have flown but if you just love the architecture that's cool. Alongside that question what plane do you feel is the weirdest? What aircraft was so odd that only bloated military budgets could justify its existence.

My first plane, of which there are quite a few, is the Kalinin K-7 Soviet Heavy Bomber . I just love the audacity of it. I may be falling into the world of Hyperbole but it just felt like the Russians thought "Why not strap the biggest wings we can imagine to the biggest chassis we can image and fly that sucker." AFAIK there are no more in existence but I'd be incredibly happy to be wrong about that. I'm sure someone here is far more versed in this aircraft than I am.

It just fills me with a sense of wonderment, how something so massive could even lift off the ground, especially propelled by...well propellers. I've read that this monster could carry between 120 and 150 people. I'm not sure if that was assuming you didn't load it with bombs or not.

So that's my first entry . I honestly don't know the names of many of my favorites (I'm a young ignorant lad what can I say) so I'm going to need to start doing a few google runs to get pictures and names lined up. But I'd love to hear about everyone elses' .

 

[herman1rg]

Hawker Hurricane, without it during the Battle of Britain us in the UK would be talking German now.

 

[renrich]

The fact is that Hitler never seriously intended to invade England and even if he had the RN not the RAF would have been the critica factorl in stopping the invasion. The popular notion that the BOB and or Hurricanes or Spitfires saved England from invasion is a myth.

 

[herman1rg]

The fact is that Hitler never seriously intended to invade England and even if he had the RN not the RAF would have been the critica factorl in stopping the invasion. The popular notion that the BOB and or Hurricanes or Spitfires saved England from invasion is a myth.

Whatever

 

[Marcel]

Fokker G.1, brought me into the warbird stuff. Beautiful aircraft, great firepower for it's time, and of course the mysterious 'what-if' part of it's history.

 

[tomo pauk]

Tie between P-47 Mosquito.

 

[Thorlifter]

F4U Corsair and the P-61 Black Widow....in that order.

As Marcel said, the F4U got me into WWII history and aviation, thanks to the 1977 show, "Baa Baa Black Sheep"

Plus its the bestest, most coolest plane like ever! hahahaha.

 

[fastmongrel]

Fairey Swordfish. How could something that looked it should have fought the Red Baron in WWI still be flying and sinking U-Boats in 1945.

 

[BombTaxi]

My personal favourite is the Hurricane, unsung workhorse of the BoB (although ren's comments about the implausibility of a German invasion are quite correct). I'm also a big fan of the P-51 and the Fw190, which, IMHO, were the best fighters produced by each side during the war.

 

[michaelmaltby]

'... The popular notion that the BOB and or Hurricanes or Spitfires saved England from invasion is a myth."

ESPECIALLY TO THOSE BRITS WHO EXPERIENCE IT FROM THE GROUND.

MM

 

[ToughOmbre]

All time favorite B-17

Medium B-25

Fighter P-38

Axis Fw 190

Dive Bomber SBD

TO

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

Whatever

Renrich is right, don't get your panties in a wad over it.

 

[Juha]

Hello there are so many a/c I like very much, maybe the absolute top are
Spitfire LF VIII/Spitfire XIVE, Bf 109F-4/Bf 109G-10, Fw 190A-5, Curtiss Hawk 75A-4, NA P-51B with Malcolm hood and Mossie. And if I really have to choose only one, today it is probably Spitfire XIVE. Why? Combination of its looks and deadliness.

Juha

 

[hawkeye2an]

US - P-51D
UK - Mosquito
Germany - FW-190
Japan - N1K1
Italy - Fiat G-55

 

[Wildcat]

Vultee Vengeance and P-40

 

[renrich]

TO, you would have been in hog heaven this weekend if you had been in my shoes. I now live in Prescott, AZ. Great place except windy. Friday while playing golf at a muni next to the airport, I kept hearing big round engines and periodically a B25 and B17 would be in the pattern. Saturday and Sunday they were flying over my house and every time I would hear the engines I would run out with my binocs. Yesterday they came over in formation.

My favorite is the F4U. When I worked at Temco Aircraft, which was right next to Vought, in 1955, There were still a few Corsairs at the plant and at the NAS. My neatest experience with a Corsair was in about 1980 something I was taxiing in a Piper Tomahawk out to takeoff from Addison Airport and a bright shiny Corsair was about two planes in front. I watched him takeoff and felt kind of like I was in the same game as he was in. After turning into the wind and running the checklist I called the tower for clearance to takeoff. They said hold as we have a Corsair doing a flyby. I am sitting there right next to the active and look to the North and here comes the Corsair balling the jack about 100 feet off the ground. He went screaming down the runway and I guess they took pictures and I was having fantasies.

 

[Jerry W. Loper]

Hawker Hurricane, without it during the Battle of Britain us in the UK would be talking German now.

Tony Holmes, the author of Hurricane Aces 1939-40 and the Osprey Duels series book Spitfire vs. Bf-109, has an Osprey Duels series book about the Hurricane vs. Bf-110 coming in October. Looking forward to it.

 

[claidemore]

The Spitfire has always been my favorite WWII plane. It's an icon.

Second choice for me would be the Yak series, with my favorite being the Yak 1b. Simple, elegant, effective.

I'm also quite fond of the Beech 18/C45/Expeditor. It's just a cool lookin plane.

 

[RAM]

Fw190. If I had to go for a definite model of the series (that saw some meaningful combat), Fw190D9.

-Meanest looks in a WW2 fighter
-Hard hitting, highly reliable, easy to maintain weaponry.
-Adaptable to a lot of weapon configurations in mere minutes.
-modular construction, easy to build in mass numbers.
-design focused on easiness of mainteinance/repair allowing for very good serviceability rates.
-highly adaptable to any role (from recce to bomber destroyer)
-High performance challenging or surpassing the best fighters of the opposition until the end of the war.
-Highly maneouverable at high speeds
-best roll rate of any fighter of WW2
-Light, well harmonized controls.
-Very good cockpit layout
-Very good visibility for the pilot
-automatic engine control, allowing the pilot to focus on flying the plane, undisrupted by the needs to vary rpm or fuel mixture depending on the moment
-good to very good acceleration/climbrate (depending on the version)

It also had some weaknesses, such as the high wingloading (poor low speed maneouverability), and the general loss of performance over 18500 feet in the A series (later fixed by the D series, and completely solved by the Ta152 variants). All in all it was a supreme fighter and one of the best, if not the best, fighter of WW2.

Is my plane of choice in WW2 air simulators (Ranging from Aces High to Il-2 series). And I simply love it

 

[Gnomey]

Spitfire got me started with it all so it is definitely up there for me. As for the rest the Fw-190D9/Ta-152 are a close second with many others following on after that.