Your favourite open cockpit monoplane fighter?

[Admiral Beez]

My pick? Polikarpov I-16. Though it must have been freezing cold in the Russian winter.

 

[SaparotRob]

I love the low wing radial engined monoplanes of the inter-war period but the open cockpit requirement makes it tough. The P-26 and A5M come to mind immediately and they were actual service models. I guess my favorite is the P-26. It is what I thought of without looking up arcane or prototype only designs

 

[buffnut453]

Have to agree with the P-26...just so many colourful schemes.

 

[GregP]

Like the I-16 Ratta, but gotta' go with the MC.200 Saetta. There were open-cockpit variants of this aircraft.

On the eastern front, the type had 66 losses against 88 victories in 17 months of action. All in all, not too shabby.

 

[buffnut453]

Also have a soft spot for this puppy...Bristol M1C Bullet:


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tqdz9dPh1tw


I know it's not WW2 but I just don't care...it's cool!!!

 

[buffnut453]

And the Etrich Taube is just incredible...

Amazing birdlike aircraft.

Ok...I'll shut up about WW1 aircraft (and I didn't even mention the Fokker Eindecker!!!).

 

[Admiral Beez]

Like the I-16 Ratta, but gotta' go with the MC.200 Saetta. There were open-cockpit variants of this aircraft.

View attachment 720398
On the eastern front, the type had 66 losses against 88 victories in 17 months of action. All in all, not too shabby.

The Italians were fans of the format, here's the Fiat G.50 Freccia

 

[BarnOwlLover]

Oddly, the G50 and C200 were intended to be closed cockpit with a sliding canopy (both were somewhat similar to the A6M Zero's arrangement, both even featuring near 360 degree visibility), but they went to the open/semi-enclosed cockpit as most pilots didn't initially like the fully enclosed sliding canopies. The C202/205 and G55 got slide hinged canopies when they got built.

Also, the MiG-1 prototype was flown with an open cockpit because test pilots hated the side hinged canopy, before a sliding canopy was installed and standardized on the production MiG-1s and the MiG-3.

 

[MIflyer]

That's easy!

P-59

 

[tyrodtom]

What was the reasoning for that?

 

[GrauGeist]

I'd go with either the Consolidated P-30 or the Heinkel He112A.

 

[SaparotRob]

What was the reasoning for that?

Who needs a reason?

 

[Admiral Beez]

Heinkel He112A.

Nice choice. It sort of reminds me of the Supermarine Type 224.

 

[Timppa]

Fiat G.50
In the Continuation War it had better air-combat win/loss ratio (44:1) than the Brewster and the Bf109 (although there is a couple of reasons why, independent of the plane performance).

 

[MIflyer]

What was the reasoning for that?

Can't put the second cockpit aft of the pilot's seat, given that design. I think they needed someone to take some instrumentation readings and added that forward seat for that purpose. After that, I guess they used it as a way just to give people rides and thus support their lucrative "I Rode in a Jet!" T-shirt sales.

Personally, I've done some open cockpit flying and even sometimes fly my Ercoupe with the pilot's side window down, (cute blonde girl pilot who was riding with me said, "That is so cool!") but you would not get me in that P-59 for $1000.

 

[SaparotRob]

Can't put the second cockpit aft of the pilot's seat, given that design. I think they needed someone to take some instrumentation readings and added that forward seat for that purpose. After that, I guess they used it as a way just to give people rides and thus support their lucrative "I Rode in a Jet!" T-shirt sales.

Personally, I've done some open cockpit flying and even sometimes fly my Ercoupe with the pilot's side window down, (cute blonde girl pilot who was riding with me said, "That is so cool!") but you would not get me in that P-59 for $1000.

The bidding starts at one thousand. Do I hear two thousand?

 

[BiffF15]

The bidding starts at one thousand. Do I hear two thousand?

Is the T shirt included?

 

[Admiral Beez]

Can't put the second cockpit aft of the pilot's seat, given that design.

But you can here. You reminded me of the twin seat, open canopy Hawker Hurricane the Soviet's bodged together.

There can't be many other open cockpit, single engine, twin-seater monoplane fighters in WW2 service. The Russian Hurricane reminds me of the WW1 Taube.

 

[GrauGeist]

The P-30 I mentioned earlier was a two-seat fighter, by the way.

 

[Admiral Beez]

The P-30 I mentioned earlier was a two-seat fighter, by the way.

But isn't in a close canopy design? Was there an open variant?