What's your favorite ww2 aircraft?

[LSFL]

The B 17 is my favorite bomber. The p 51 mustang and the p 61 black widow are almost tied for fighter/bombers. The winner is the night fighting Black Widow.
My favorite pure fighter is the p40 of Flying Tigers game. Very honorable mention to the Supermarine Spitfire. It is beautiful.

[brush]

1. The P-38, the fork-tailed devil, as the Germans called them.

[LSFL]

3. Yes!

An early version of my Black Widow! Rumor has it that a crashing P38 was the first plane to break the sound barrier. I believe it.

[Aristus]

2. The P-47 Thunderbolt, also known as "The Jug".

Used largely in ground support for destroying enemy tanks.

The spiritual ancestor of the A-10 Thunderbolt II, aka the Warthog, the tanker's friend.

As an ex-tanker, I tip my hat to them...

[LSFL]

6. Who can really pick ?

They are all awesome. Point and shoot aircraft FTW!

[brush]

7. I like the "Jug" too. It was a bigger plane than most fighters.

[catbyte]

11. I don't know jack about airplanes, but I like the Spitfire, mainly because the RAF

was able to stave off a Nazi invasion & humble Goering's Luftwaffe with just grit, grim determination, and a stiff upper lip.

[Aristus]

13. Good choice!

The Spitfire is often called one of the most beautiful propeller-driven planes ever.



The Spitfire gets most of the glory, but the Hawker Hurricane (above)
actually did most of the fighting in the Battle of Britain. There were simply more of them.

[mitch96]

17. And Good radar to tell them where the "Hun" was gonna be.. Then they cleaned house... nt

[CottonBear]

4. F4U Corsair

https://m.

I got to see one of these planes up close, along many others, onboard the WWII aircraft carrier USS Yorktown in South Carolina. This amazing ship is a WWII museum with a huge collection of WWII aircraft on the lower deck, along with modern planes on the flight deck.

[brush]

9. I know the wings folded for carrier storage so where are the guns mounted?

Also, is the one shown in the video a land version, no tail hook?

[mitch96]

18. In the wings.. Plenty of room in those big gull wings.. nt

[CottonBear]

22. Guns are in the wings. Here's a picture of the one on the Yorktown hanger deck.

The guns are in the wings.

I highly recommend visiting the USS Yorktown Aircraft Carrier, along with and the USS LAFFEY Destroyer, and the USS CLAMAGORE Submarine at the Patriots Point Naval & Maritime Museum in Mount Pleasant, SC. I went with my kid’s Cub Scout Pack. We actually stayed on board for two nights over Memorial Day weekend several years ago. We slept in WWII bunks! We explored all 3 ships and had a memorable experience.

https://www.patriotspoint.org/plan-your-visit/

Here’s a F4U Corsair on the Yorktown during WWII:

[brush]

30. Thank you. And speaking of museum ships. The Intrepid, WWll carrier...

Last edited Sun Nov 15, 2020, 03:12 PM - Edit history (1)

is permanently docked in New York City with many planes on display, as well as the ship (the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum). I was fortunate to have gotten the hook-up from a buddy at work and was on board when it was towed by tugs from it's Staten Island dry dock in 1982, past the Statue of Liberty, to it's dedication at Pier 86 on the Hudson River/Manhattan.

It was quite a day with a Navy band and speeches from officers and city officials. Going past the Statue of Liberty was a stirring sight, to see it in full round as we rode past at sea level.

https://www.intrepidmuseum.org/

[CottonBear]

31. What an experience that must have been!

When we can travel again in some future time, I’ll put the Intrepid on my NYC bucket list.
My son loves history, especially WWII history. There’s no better way to make history come alive than to go onboard one of these magnificent ship museums!

[Lugnut]

14. My cousin flew these.

He was a Navy pilot back in the early 50s.

[CottonBear]

24. Wow! Very cool!

This was such a powerful airplane. The design is so beautiful.

[dchill]

5. P-51D Mustang...

The only propeller-driven plane to ever shoot down the jet-powered Messerschmitt Me-262 fighter-bomber.

[OneBlueDotBama]

36. First ME 262 "downed" was by a P-47 Thunderbolt.

First to be shot down was by a RCAF 401 squadron,

[applegrove]

8. My dad had a friend who trained pilots in WWII. By the end of the war he was flying in Europe

I think. When he died i heard a local pilot flew his spitfire over the church in Ottawa.Very touching.

[LSFL]

10. I am 2 generations removed

From the machines I love. I would have loved to see that Spitfire splitting the Canadian skies. What a send off!

[applegrove]

12. The same spitfire owner offered to let my dad's friend fly it a few years before. My dad's

friend was in his mid 90s. His wife was not amused.

My dad was a decade younger and would go to the military air base in Ottawa and listen to the planes during the war. They had one of every kind of plane there - even captured German ones as they used the base to train the canadian troops to know what plane it was by sound only. My dad and his friends, as tweens, would buy pop to sell to the soldiers and my dad would show off his ability to identify each plane by sound. I took my dad to an air show a decade ago and sure enough he knew alot of the planes by name. Thankfully he was too young to fight. His father did though.

[UTUSN]

15. Am water not air (USN) but my 1st ship was built for WWII & used 30 yrs later

[lapfog_1]

16. ME 262

I think we were very lucky that Germany did not make more of these and that they entered the war too late.

[bluedigger]

19. C-47/DC-3

Still in commercial service within the last few years. For fighters, I've always been a Corsair guy.

[brush]

28. The C-47 is quite a bird, the first modern cargo/airliner design.

Wonder how many are still flying?

[jmowreader]

37. No one actually knows...

...but the best-guess estimate is 400 to 500 of them are still in revenue service.

[mitch96]

20. There were so many beautiful deadly planes back then.... Hard to choose.

Best performance? for what application.. Best looking?? Most shoot downs?
So many category's hard to pick...
Years ago I got to fly front seat in a WW2 primary trainer.. PT-17 Stearman.. What a hoot. When the owner/pilot found out I use to fly gliders/sailplanes he said "you take it" What a thrill. Very docile to fly.. A "two finger" stick. Easy stall.. Probably nothing like a high performance fighter these young pilots were going to get into..
m

[panader0]

21. My dad flew fifty combat missions in WWII.

He was on the first group of B-17s flown to England and was on the first daylight bombing mission.
He also flew in B-24s. After 25 missions he had fulfilled what was thought to be the limit and went
back to San Francisco, only to be told to do 25 more. For those he was in a Douglas A-20 Havoc, a three
man bomber. He was stationed in Tunisia then, and bombed in N Africa, Sicily and Italy.
I think he liked the A-20s best, although he hated the facilities in Tunisia compared to England.

[Fortinbras Armstrong]

25. Spitfire n/t

[abqtommy]

26. Lockheed P-38 Lightning

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_P-38_Lightning

[OneBlueDotBama]

27. Beaufighter

Not well known, my dad flew them out of Scotland, attacking shipping until D-Day, when they moved south attacking targets in the Channel, rail lines in France & the Bay of Biscay.

[Happy Hoosier]

29. Hard to pick...P-51 or Spitfire.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

32. de Havilland Mosquito, just because it was made of wood.

https://www.historynet.com/the-miraculous-mosquito.htm

[jrandom421]

33. Hawker Hurricane

The true hero of the Battle of Britain, shooting down 60% of the Nazi aircraft attacking Britain. Over 14,000 were built, including a version carrying 2 40mm cannon and going after tanks and trucks in North Africa.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawker_Hurricane

[Paladin]

34. B-17. It would have been an honor to serve in a crew. (nt)

[Kaleva]

35. Tupolev Tu-2

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tupolev_Tu-2#/media/File:Tupolev-Tu-2-at-War-Eagles-Air-Museum-NM-USA.jpg

[jmowreader]

38. Having been in the 101st Airborne, I must choose C-47

It was as versatile then as the C-130 is now.

[malthaussen]

39. Douglas SBD Dauntless

Responsible for victory in the Battle of Midway and sinker of many Japanese ships before we had such superiority that it didn't matter what we flew.

Also used as an anti-torpedo CAP aircraft, also responsible for removing Sakai Subaru from the war for two years.

-- Mal

[bif]

40. B-29. My dad flew one in the Pacific Theater.

As the war was winding down. He didn't actually see any combat.

[LeftInTX]

41. Same, except my dad was too young for WWII, he flew them in Korea