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WW II Planes


Sgt Doomball

Favorite World War Two Planes  

35 members have voted

  1. 1. What is your favorite WWII Plane? (not required)

    • Vought F-4U Corsair
      7
    • Focke-Wulf FW 190 D9
      5
    • Lockheed P-38J Lightning
      14
    • Messerschmitt Bf 109K
      5
    • Mitsubishi A6M Zero
      2
    • North American P-51D Mustang
      5
    • Republic P-47D Thunderbolt
      3
    • Soviet Yakovlev Yak-3
      2
    • Supermarine MKs 24 Spitfire
      4
    • Grumman F-4F Wildcat
      4
    • Hawker Hurricane
      3
    • Grumman F-6F Hellcat
      3
    • Messerschmidt Me 109
      3
    • Curtiss P-40 Warhawk
      1
    • Messerschmidt Me 262
      2
    • Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress
      2
    • Boeing B-29 Superfortress
      3
    • C-47
      1
    • Avro Lancaster
      2


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You need to edit the poll.

Vought F4U Corsair

Grumman F4F Wildcat (my favorite)

Not listed:

Grumman F6F Hellcat (great aircraft)

 

The navy labeling scheme includes the manufacturer. F = Fighter, 4 is 4th fighter procured from F=Grumman.

F4U is the 4th fighter from U (Vought)

F6F is the 6th fighter type from F (Grumman).

Note that the Japanese Navy used the same system for their aircraft: A6M (6th fighter type ("A") from M=Mitsubishi). B6N is the 6th Bomber from Nakajima, 

Also, the F8F barely saw service.

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They both won the BoB, IMHO. People remember the Spit as it's a much, much prettier airplane, and was a more modern design. It;s like the B-17 vs B-24, no one remembers the B-24, even though there were more of them than the B-17s.

How about the WW2 fighter with the best kill to loss ration of any type in the war, the Brewster Buffalo (as flown in the export version, by the Finns).

Also, for such a broad poll, it might be best to ignore the sub-types explicitly. Why only the K version of the 109, or the J P-38, or only the bubble 47 and 51s, but not the razorbacks? The USN and IJN aircraft also had marks as well, the F4F-3, vs the -4, or the same aircraft built by General Motors (Eastern) called the FM-2, ditto the F6F and F4U subtypes.

Edited by tater
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2 minutes ago, tater said:

They both won the BoB, IMHO. People remember the Spit as it's a much, much prettier airplane, and was a more modern design. It;s like the B-17 vs B-24, no one remembers the B-24, even though there were more of them than the B-17s.

Fair enough. It was the workhorse though, and it scored more victories than the Spitfire did.

2 minutes ago, tater said:

How about the WW2 fighter with the best kill to loss ration of any type in the war, the Brewster Buffalo (as flown in the export version, by the Finns).

Well, yeah, if we line out it's abysmal showing at Midway.

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F4U Corsair! 

Fun fact: One of Grumman's planes  (think the Wildcat) was going to be called "Tomcat", but it was felt that the name was too suggestive for the time. Thirty years later, this name was bestowed on the F-14, one of the best fighters ever flown by the US Navy. 

 

My second would be the P-47 Thunderbolt,  but mainly because it had another amazing plane named after it...

Edited by TheKosanianMethod
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23 minutes ago, TheSaint said:

Fair enough. It was the workhorse though, and it scored more victories than the Spitfire did.

Well, yeah, if we line out it's abysmal showing at Midway.

That was literally a handful on both sides. The few the Marines had (they were heavier than the export version), the ones the RAF flew, as well as the Dutch in the NEI, and the other small handful the Finns used to unbelievable effectiveness vs the VVS. It was the Finnish successes, averaged over the tiny, tiny number that saw combat, period that resulted in the great stats.

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F4U Corsair. "Baa Baa Black Sheep" was one of my dad's favorite shows when I was a kid, I remember sitting and watching it with him and thinking that the inverted gull wing Corsair was the coolest looking plane I'd ever seen.

Plus it was one of the most feared fighters of the war, an excellent close air support craft, and one of the few wartime production aircraft to continue production and combat use after the war, some of them were still being used by third-world air forces well into the 1970s.

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5 minutes ago, TheSaint said:

F4U Corsair. "Baa Baa Black Sheep" was one of my dad's favorite shows when I was a kid, I remember sitting and watching it with him and thinking that the inverted gull wing Corsair was the coolest looking plane I'd ever seen.

Plus it was one of the most feared fighters of the war, an excellent close air support craft, and one of the few wartime production aircraft to continue production and combat use after the war, some of them were still being used by third-world air forces well into the 1970s.

I liked that show AS a kid. I drew F4Us constantly.

The F4U was part of the same specs BuAer was looking for before WW2 as the F6F. BuAer normally took 2 entries to completion, so that they could see in actual use which design would be preferable (hence the F2A (Brewster) and the F4F both existing---the F4F was decided to be the better aircraft, and as usual, the Marines got the remaining F2As dumped on them. The same happened with the F4U, though it was actually superior to the F6F. The issue was that even with the gear at the bottom of the wing bend, there was concern about carrier landings pranging the prop.

I should reiterate to dump the F8F, there was one squadron (VF-19), and it never fired a shot in anger.

Edited by tater
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1 minute ago, tater said:

I liked that show AS a kid. I drew F4Us constantly.

The F4U was part of the same specs BuAer was looking for before WW2 as the F6F. Bureau normally took 2 entries to completion, so that they could see in actual use which design would be preferable (hence the F2A (Brewster) and the F4F both existing---the F4F was decided to be the better aircraft, and as usual, the Marines got the remaining F2As dumped on them. The same happened with the F4U, though it was actually superior to the F6F. The issue was that even with the gear at the bottom of the wing bend, there was concern about carrier landings pranging the prop.

Yup, which is why the USN didn't fly any off their carriers, only the Marines flew them off of land bases. The major concern flying them off of carriers was visibility, apparently it was difficult to see the carrier deck with the wing and cockpit configuration. It was actually the British who figured out how to land them on carriers, it was a combination of clipping off the wingtips and modifying the approach technique. The Argentine Navy was actually flying them off of their carrier well into the 1960s. 

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10 minutes ago, Spacetraindriver said:

Why u no bomber???

I am trying to keep it simple Ill make a new topic some other time.

 

11 minutes ago, TheSaint said:

Yup, which is why the USN didn't fly any off their carriers, only the Marines flew them off of land bases. The major concern flying them off of carriers was visibility, apparently it was difficult to see the carrier deck with the wing and cockpit configuration. It was actually the British who figured out how to land them on carriers, it was a combination of clipping off the wingtips and modifying the approach technique. The Argentine Navy was actually flying them off of their carrier well into the 1960s. 

The Navy did fly them off their carriers it just wasn't at first.

 

13 minutes ago, Spacetraindriver said:

Why u no bomber???

And the P-47 was a fighter bomber

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2 hours ago, TheSaint said:

Yup, which is why the USN didn't fly any off their carriers, only the Marines flew them off of land bases. The major concern flying them off of carriers was visibility, apparently it was difficult to see the carrier deck with the wing and cockpit configuration. It was actually the British who figured out how to land them on carriers, it was a combination of clipping off the wingtips and modifying the approach technique. The Argentine Navy was actually flying them off of their carrier well into the 1960s. 

Actually, they were released for carriers, but VF-17 was pulled off Bunker Hill and put ashore for operations from land bases. This was really a good thing, as the VF and VMF units ashore had many more opportunities to make kills :) .

2 hours ago, Sgt Doomball said:

And the P-47 was a fighter bomber

With the exception of the F4F (though variants carried rockets or small bombs), every single US fighter of the war was also a fighter-bomber. 

The Jug was not primarily a fighter bomber, either, it was far better in thin air. The USAAF units liked it on the deck compared to P-51s primarily because it had a better engine for that---the same as the F6F and F4U, in fact. The USN used radial engines because you could still fly home with a couple cylinder heads blown completely off, whereas a single bullet could put a liquid-cooled engine out of business in a matter of minutes after it lead out coolant or oil.

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