What is your favorite WWII Fighter Plane and Bomber? (1 Viewer)

[Ray Chuang]

True, the Merlin was a Rolls-Royce designed and built engine, but at the beginning of World War II Rolls-Royce licensed the Packard Motor Company to build this famous engine.

The Packard-built Merlins first showed up on certain production models of the P-40 Warhawk, but the Packard Merlin didn't really come into its own until it was fitted to the North American Mustang (the version found on the Mustang was essentially based on the supercharged Merlin 60 series) and turned the Mustang into the best piston-engined fighter of World War II.

 

[Don_Houle]

I'd have to go with the P-38 as the coolest Allied fighter. It's just such an unusual form! Something about the double tail and the little cockpit "pod" just appeals to me.

I guess I have a thing for "double tails" because I the B-24 was definitely my favorite WWII bomber!

 

[Nathan*W]

Fighter:

Bomber:

 

[Randy_Sh]

Ok. I'll chime in...

Fighter. Gotta love the P-38. Many of the reasons that have been said. Looks incredible sitting on the ground...My Dad's fav as well.

Bomber. I'll gotta go with B-17. At local Airshows I've had a chance to tour through a couple. Also, a co-worker of my Dad's was a B-17 pilot who was shot down & in a German POW camp for a couple of years...many years later at one of the Bomber group reunions they managed to track down of the Germans that they "encountered" at the camp. Made for a pretty special moment...

I'll have to go pour over my Grandfather's spotter cards to see if I can think of any others...he was too old for the war but was a Air Raid warden in our hometown. Still have all of his Warden gear at home...

 

[Stacy Huff]

P-51 Mustang, Cadillac of the Sky!!!

And I'll take the B-29.

Special mention for the F-4U Corsair, made popular for me by the old "Baa Baa Black Sheep" TV show.

As for the P-38, there is one in a hanger 30 miles from my house. It was part of a flight that had to ditch on a glacier in Iceland (or maybe Greenland). About 10 or 15 years ago a guy decides to go looking for the squadron only to find that the planes have been buried under a couple hundred feet of ice in the intervening years. So, he does what anybody would do. He digs down and pulls one up piece by piece, and then goes about rebuilding it. They finally got it finished about a year ago and flew it around a bit. Turned into a big show. Harrison Ford, Tom Cruise, and John Travolta were all reported to be present. A&E or a similar station did a show (which I missed, along with the flight). Very interesting story. Google Glacier Girl. All I can say is in person the Lightning is a beauty, although I guess you wouldn't think so if your name was Yamamoto.

 

[Philip Hamm]

Another "Empire of the Sun" fan I see. Great movie.

 

[Stacy Huff]

You're right. I've always loved that movie, and that scene is one of my favorites. Always gives me chills when it goes slow motion and the pilot waves to Jim.

 

[Kelley_B]

Fighter: Me 110 Although she wasn't a very good one, I just like the way she looks.
Bomber: He 111

 

[PhillJones]

I know the Spitfire is more famous but weren't the Hurricane's more effective?

Anyway, they're the planes that won the Battle of Britain.

The British give their fighters much better names. Birds of prey, natural disasters etc, that's how you name a plane.

 

[Matt Stryker]

F6F Hellcat or the later F8 Bearcat, which i think only saw limited action. The Hellcat has a classic look to it without looking portly like the P-47.

The stuka was hard to beat, it was a plane built for a singular purpose. The dive sirens and rakish nose only added to its power as a terror weapon. Some of the later ones that were fitted with the anti-tank guns are awesome.

 

[Lew Crippen]

A subject of some considerable debate—I offer a quick summary:

The Hurricane was more rugged (could withstand more damage), larger, cheaper to produce (it used a lot of existing components) and more sluggish, compared to the Spitfire, which was a plane designed from scratch, and was considered very much more stylish.

Hurricane’s were credited with more kills than Spitfires, but then there were more of them in the Battle of Britain (no doubt because they were cheaper and easier to produce)—I don’t know the ratio on kills per 100 planes or anything like that.

Both planes were designed after the ME-109 proved to be a far superior plane in the mid-30s (at air shows and such).

My vote on sexiness was for the Spitfire, but I’m with the majority in thinking the P-51 the best of the war.

 

[Philip Hamm]

That rooftop scene is one of the most powerful cinema moments I've ever experienced. Speilberg's greatest work. After 2 hours of going through this kid's life what he says to the doctor is just heartwrenching. As powerful as the D-Day sequence from Saving Private Ryan IMO.

 

[Walt N]

I'm a big fan of the Hawker Sea Fury with it's humongeous 5-bladed prop and ridiculous horsepower.


Technically it's a WWII "Era" machine since it wasn't quite ready for action when the war ended, but it's a monster that always shows well at the Reno Air Races.

The P-51 Mustang is IMO the sexiest looking airplane from the war and of course an awesome speed king.

For innovation, the P-38 Lightning represented quite a feat and is my favorite in many regards. Lockheed designer Kelly Johnson of later Skunk Works U2 & SR-71 fame designed this airplane with counter-rotating props to eliminate P-factor making it relatively tame to fly given it's size and power, and with it's tricycle gear it was less prone to ground looping. All good things. Major Dick Bong scored 40 victories in this aircraft becoming the highest scoring ace of the war. Few aircraft could touch that thing in terms of climb and altitude performance, maneuverability, and overall utility.

 

[Claude M]

that's like the A1 Skyraider





SPECIFICATIONS
Span: 50 ft. 1/4 in.
Length: 40 ft.
Height: 15 ft. 9 5/8 in.
Weight: 24,872 lbs. max.
Armament: Four 20mm cannons and a wide assortment of bombs, rockets, mines, grenades, flares and gun pods.
Engine: Wright R-3350 of 2,700 hp.
Cost: $414,000
Serial number: 52-132649

PERFORMANCE
Maximum speed: 325 mph.
Cruising speed: 240 mph.
Range: 1,500 miles
Service Ceiling: 26,200 ft.

 

[Ray Chuang]

The Hawker Hurricane was a good fighter for its time but it was rapidly phased out of the true fighter role even by 1940 because it could not keep up with even the Me 109E series (the RAF told Hurricane pilots to avoid the Me 109's and go after the bombers only). The Hurricane, however, did do yeoman service as a low-altitude fighter-bomber, especially on the Eastern Front where Soviet pilots loved the plane.

What kept the Spitfire going was the fact Supermarine installed increasingly more powerful versions of the Rolls-Royce Merlin engine on the plane, then switched to the Rolls-Royce Griffon engine in early 1944.

The Mustang lucked out because the basic aerodynamic design of the plane was superb to start with, even with the low-rated Allisons of the early versions (the P-51A was amazingly fast at low-altitude operations in 1942). It was when they fitted the Merlin 60-series engine that turned the P-51 into the best piston-engined fighter of World War II, especially when the Merlin-engined test plane had an amazing top speed of 441 mph during its initial flight tests in late 1942! (In contrast, the top speed of the Spitfire Mk. IX fitted the same engine was only 408 mph.)

One of the things that Focke-Wulf designer Dr. Kurt Tank should have pushed for in the latter half of 1942 was to replace the original BMW 801 engine with the Junkers Jumo 213 or Daimler-Benz DB603 engine by the late fall of 1943, especially in light of the fact the Fw 190A series had poor altitude performance above 20,000 feet. Imagine if the Luftwaffe had the Jumo 213-engined Fw 190D series by the end of 1943; the top speed of Fw 190D series (428 mph) and its generally superb manueverability would have allowed Luftwaffe fighter pilots to fight on even terms against the Merlin-engined P-51's.

 

[Peter Winton]

Bit late to join this thread, but hey....

Top dog has to be the Spitfire. Revolutionary aircraft that inspired most that followed it. P51 Mustang comes close, but it only really came into its own as a great plane with the Merlin engine fitted.

Close second, the De Havilland Mosquito. This aircraft was considered a double-kill by most German flyers up against it. Superbly manouvarable and fast, the fighter-bomber versions were outstanding.

Hawker Hurricane comes third - not as fast as a Spitfire, but more manouvarable, and could take more punishment.

ME109 - the aircraft that spurred on Mitchell to beat it. Only thing that lets it down is it's cockpit - not the best vision for a fighter pilot. Apparently, it was a beast to land as well. Many novice pilots were killed when trying to land the aircraft first time.

Best bomber - can't call it between the Lancaster and the B27.

 

[Holadem]

No love for the FW-190D?

--
H

 

[Rudi]

Fighter(piston) TA152
Fighter(turbojet)ME262
Fighter(night)HE219

Bomber(dive)JU87
Bomber(medium)JU88 and B25
Bomber(heavy)B17

Ground Attack JU87G (even though the IL2 was a better aircraft the Stuka had Rudel in it)

 

[Rudi]

Well the TA152 was a developement of the longnose.

 

[Peter Winton]

It was a fine aircraft - but not on my all-time great list. In my limited view, there was always something that matched it.

Some versions had cannons on them that were angled 2 or 3 degrees upwards to encourage night fighters to sneak up on targets from below. Never quite saw the point in that...

I agree that it's performance was good, and it's cockpit visibility was much much better than that of the Me109.