What is your favorite WW2 plane? (WW2 discussion)

If anyone has Amazon prime check out the documentary, 'One more Walkaround' about the career of four star General Alton Slay who started his flying career in '44'. It's a long documentary but well worth the attention.

BTW: His favorites P-51, F-86 and the F-15 that he and his team helped design
 
That does not in any way square with what happened, which is reported in detail many places. It strikes me as a shameful and politicized armchair quarterback opinion.

...

Neither of the other two crewmen were seen again. Mr. Bush landed in the water and swam to a life raft.”

The mission is detailed starting at 1:45.


Side note, my brother married the daughter of one of the perished crewmen. He got invited to the White House and several reunions. Bush did training at Charlestown, RI. airbase.
 
That does not in any way square with what happened, which is reported in detail many places. It strikes me as a shameful and politicized armchair quarterback opinion.

Keep in mind he was a 20 year old volunteer pilot who was not particularly skilled, and volunteered for torpedo bomber duty when it was known that was one of the most dangerous occupations in the military.

How George H.W. Bush survived a harrowing brush with death in World War II

A Navy animation shows his plane was hit as he began his run into the target. But he stayed with it until he dropped his bombs, before trying to get back over water.

Cox explained fliers who parachuted down onto the island were executed [And there were reports of Cannibalism - Which turned out to be true] . So out over the water, Mr. Bush told his crew to bail out.

"Two parachutes came out of the aircraft. One opened, which was presumably Lt. j.g. Bush. The other, what's called a streamer — the parachute didn't open," Cox said.

Neither of the other two crewmen were seen again. Mr. Bush landed in the water and swam to a life raft.”

The mission is detailed starting at 1:45.


Yeah, I know, I was referring to the conflicting accounts by Bush himself, and the tail gunner of the plane in front who claimed only Bush bailed, and his plane wasn't on fire. We'll never know, and I liked the guy so I give him the benefit of the doubt.
 
So many to choose from...

#1 Northrop P-61 Black Widow
#2 Martin B-26 Marauder
#3 Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress
#4 Consolidated PBY Catalina
 
P51 and Corsair for me. I also loved building WWII Plane models as a kid and used to draw planes with color pencils out of a book that I bought at the Smithsonian gift shop when I was like 13. It had colored pictures of all the combat aircraft from WWI all the way up to the publish date which was mid 70s. I also own a copy of the AH game Luftwaffe and played it many times with my cousin as a teen.
 
I like them all,but my favorite is the P47 Thunderbolt That thing is just a tank with wings.original.jpg
 
I like them all,but my favorite is the P47 Thunderbolt That thing is just a tank with wings.View attachment 285004

My high school shop teacher flew with Charles Lindbergh in the Pacific - can’t remember if it was P47s, he said the Japanese planes flew circles around them. He said Lindbergh was a genius, taught them so much about flying.
 
My high school shop teacher flew with Charles Lindbergh in the Pacific - can’t remember if it was P47s, he said the Japanese planes flew circles around them. He said Lindbergh was a genius, taught them so much about flying.
P38.

Lindbergh was regarded with suspicion due to his isolationist views. He was an “America First” member, and while living in Britain was attacked by the administration for his views, and resulted in his resignation from the Reserves. The good news was that the Nazis very happily “opened their Kimono” to him and showed him Aviation technology that he fully debriefed the Army about.

After Pearl Harbor he returned to the US. The government intervened to keep him from working as a consultant, but Henry Ford said “FU” and hired him to help with Bomber production. He worked primarily as a test pilot and flew everything.

By 1944 the Marines and Navy were anxious to get his help solving some problems with the F4U and he shipped out to the Pacific. He flew 14 combat missions from Quadalcanal. It is little known that Lindbergh was an expert marksman: he shot a flying fish in the air with a .45 from a moving PT boat. Think about that. .... He was allowed to use his guns “For defensive purposes.” ;-)

His stock rose further when he reported to a P38 Squadron. On his first mission he flew over a ridge (clearing it by an estimated 10 feet) strafed two Japanese ships, then pulled up over the adjoins ridge: at 250 knots.

Mechanics reported to Command that he was returning from missions with as much as 1/3rd more fuel remaining than other planes. As a distance flier of vast experience, he intuitively tuned the plane for maximum cruising range by lowering rpms, increasing pitch, etc.

“The second and critical passage made by the group concerned fuel consumption. With additional fuel cells in the J model P-38, Satan's Angels had been making six and one-half and seven-hour flights. On I July Lindbergh flew a third mission with the group, an armed reconnaissance to enemy strips at Nabire, Sagan One and Two, Otawiri, and Ransiki, all on the western shore of Geelvink Bay. Already Lindbergh's technical eye noticed something. After six and one-half hours flying time, he landed with 210 gallons of fuel remaining in his Lightning's tanks....

First one, then two pilots reported dwindling fuel and broke off for home. MacDonald ordered the squadron back but because Lindbergh had nursed his fuel, he asked for and received permission to continue the hunt with his wingman. After a few more strafing runs, Lindbergh noticed the other Lightning circling overhead. Nervously the pilot told Lindbergh that he had only 175 gallons of fuel left. The civilian told him to reduce engine rpms, lean out his fuel mixture, and throttle back. When they landed, the 431st driver had seventy gallons left, Lindbergh had 260. They had started the mission with equal amounts of gas.“

The Commander of the 475th, the famously hard-charging Colonel Charles McDonald, then had Lindbergh brief the other pilots. His techniques added 400 miles of range.

Lots more

So: P38J. There is one on display at the Smithsonian.

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Cool, that must have been it cause my teacher talked about how he taught them all these tricks to improve their range. I think my teacher may have flown against the Japanese early on as well when he talked about they initially flew circles around our planes.
 
We fairly quickly overcame the advantages the Zero possessed. The Japanese conducted operations in the Aleutians as a diversion from Midway. Unfortunately for them, we’d broken their codes and knew their intentions.

The following month July ‘42), a crash-landed Zero was found on Akutan Island in the Aleutians. It was flyable by September. Data was transmitted to Grumman, who used details to finish design of the F6F Hellcat.

Along with better aircraft, aircrews used the “Thach Weave” to defeat them. Thach Weave - Wikipedia This proved supremely effective, as it put a pursuing Zero under the guns of a wingman at relatively close range.

Along with better aircraft and tactics, the US regularly rotated experienced combat pilots back to the US to train new ones. The Germans and Japanese kept their best pilots on the front line indefinitely. While this resulted in some impressive kill scores, there was no knowledge transfer and each major battle resulted in pilot losses that could not be made up.

My dad, on the USS Wasp, said that once the F6F hit the fleet, the pilots felt they had a plane that was a more even match.

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Was the ball turret more dangerous than the rest of the plane? Can't imagine anywhere was safe from flak or German fighter cannons & machine guns.

I haven't seen anybody answer this, so... Yes, the ball turret was considered exceptionally dangerous. Its design meant that the gunner had to get in after the bomber was airborne, and the turret had to be in a specific position for him to do so. If the bomber got shot up and the hydraulics that moved the turret were damaged or destroyed, there was no way for the gunner to get out of the turret. That meant he couldn't bail out. For extra nightmare points, if a bomber returned to base with shot-up hydraulics and crippled landing gear, so that it had to make a belly landing ... guess what part was first to touch down?

Brave, brave young men.
 
Saw a few of my favs at WPAFB airforce museum this year.

Ahh, the Air Force Museum! Such a great place to spend time ... and you can spend a lot of it. Exhibit 1 for time warps: you can think you've been there for an hour, then walk outside and find you've spent the whole day.

What model of camera were you using, may I ask? Those are damned good quality for the AFM, which is lit only slightly brighter than a cave.
 
I haven't seen anybody answer this, so... Yes, the ball turret was considered exceptionally dangerous. Its design meant that the gunner had to get in after the bomber was airborne, and the turret had to be in a specific position for him to do so. If the bomber got shot up and the hydraulics that moved the turret were damaged or destroyed, there was no way for the gunner to get out of the turret. That meant he couldn't bail out. For extra nightmare points, if a bomber returned to base with shot-up hydraulics and crippled landing gear, so that it had to make a belly landing ... guess what part was first to touch down?

Brave, brave young men.

Unquestionably brave.

But ball turrets did have hand cranks to be used when the hydraulics failed, and in the unlikely event both systems went down, the gunner could pop the clutch and disconnect the turret from the gearing. At which point, the guys in the bird could move it around by hand (fighting the slipstream) and hold it in place to get the gunner out.

It required a VERY rare combination of bad luck to defeat all the fail-safes and completely trap the gunner inside the turret, but that’s the kind of combination people like to write stories and movies about.
 
As a huge airplane geek (I had the privilege of working on A-4 Skyhawks, AV-8 Harriers, and Hueys in the Marine Corps), it's really tough for me to pin just one WWII aircraft down as a favorite. So many great aircraft from that era (Spitfire, Mustang, Lighting, Corsair, Thunderbolt, ME109, etc) that it's tough to choose, but being a Jarhead, I'd have to give the nod to the Corsair. I could be just slightly biased though. :D
 
As a huge airplane geek (I had the privilege of working on A-4 Skyhawks, AV-8 Harriers, and Hueys in the Marine Corps), it's really tough for me to pin just one WWII aircraft down as a favorite. So many great aircraft from that era (Spitfire, Mustang, Lighting, Corsair, Thunderbolt, ME109, etc) that it's tough to choose, but being a Jarhead, I'd have to give the nod to the Corsair. I could be just slightly biased though. :D

First, thank you for your service.

I don't think I could pick even if you allowed me "just one from each major combatant." There are great planes even among the dull unglamorous ones that rarely get a mention outside of "the air war" history books. Somebody uptopic mentioned the DC-3/C-47 Gooney Bird. The SBD Dauntless was the best dive-bomber of the war; the PBY Catalina was a magnificent example of a long-range flying boat; the Lancaster was a hugely adaptable bomber, doing everything from maritime patrol to specialty strikes like the Tirpitz and Dambuster missions; the Ju88 was also amazingly versatile... And we mustn't forget the Swordfish aka the Stringbag - a biplane that was still flying and fighting effectively when the war ended.
 
Heard a first-person account at Phillips Academy in Andover by a WWII Navy night fighter pilot. Corsairs and Hellcats were painted black, had special exhausts, and were fitted with radar and 20mm cannons. It is little known that by 1945 night fighters were shooting down about half of Japanese planes, because they couldn’t mount large scale day time raids.

He describes being in the cockpit when ship radar reported bogies. 40-50 miles away. He was scrambled off the deck and vectored to intercept. Alone. He described his feelings: sheer terror, adrenaline, and determination to protect the ship. The unidentified aircraft veered off and he was recalled. When he landed, he was so wound up that his crew chief had to light a cigarette and put it in his mouth for him: his hands were shaking so much he couldn’t hold it, let alone light it.

hellcat-001.jpg


As a huge airplane geek (I had the privilege of working on A-4 Skyhawks, AV-8 Harriers, and Hueys in the Marine Corps), it's really tough for me to pin just one WWII aircraft down as a favorite. So many great aircraft from that era (Spitfire, Mustang, Lighting, Corsair, Thunderbolt, ME109, etc) that it's tough to choose, but being a Jarhead, I'd have to give the nod to the Corsair. I could be just slightly biased though. :D
The irony was the Marines wound up with the Corsair because the Navy was having trouble landing them on carriers due to the long nose.

But we’d given some to the Brits. They made a turn to come in for landings, allowing the pilot to see. So the Navy started using them again.

I worked with a late war USMC Corsair Pilot. He said most of his missions were flying beer and spare parts to remote island airfields.
 
Another cool German job. It competed against the 109 and saw limited flight. But a cool aircraft anyway.
Heinekel HE-100

That’s one weird-looking bird. Though if it had been “the one” instead of the 109, I’ll bet we’d be talking about how weird the 109 looks.

It’s got an “insect” vibe about it, to me.
 
Speaking of night fighters, they were the most expensive fighter aircraft of the war.

My dad told me they were in an invasion convoy and landed an entire squadron of night fighters, which were on the flight deck to be stowed or deployed as appropriate. . Shortly thereafter, another carrier in the fleet was hit by a Kamikaze and couldn't land their planes.

Without hesitation, the entire squadron of brand-new, expensive aircraft were pushed off the stern to land the planes.

Boston Navy Yard, April 1960. USS Wasp CV18, USS Macon (CA-132), Destroyer USS Hugh Purvis (DD-709), Guided Missile Light Cruiser USS Springfield (CLG-7), Destroyer USS Perry (DD-844), Destroyer Leader USS Mitscher (DL-2), Guided Missile Heavy Cruiser USS Albany (CG-10), and support ships of various kinds.





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My favorite photo from WW2 is probably this one of the Pacific Fleet's fast carriers at anchor in Ulithi Atoll, which the Navy titled "Murderers' Row":

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This one is a close second, though:

Task_Force_38_off_the_coast_of_Japan_1945.jpg


Task Force 38 maneuvering off the Japanese coast, Aug 17th, 1945. Even more impressive is that this photo only captures half of the full Fast Carrier Force.

Whatever happened to the United States that built (and manned, and supplied) that awesome fleet?
 
Task Force 38 maneuvering off the Japanese coast, Aug 17th, 1945. Even more impressive is that this photo only captures half of the full Fast Carrier Force.
My dad’s ship CV18 was one of the carriers. TF 58 was redesignated TF 38. Wasp was in TG 38.1. Not sure if she is in that picture.

 
Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry.

EDIT see below: Stuka and Spitfire.
 

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