strange, ugly, or experimental WWII planes

[HoHun]

Hi Krusty,

>Looks like a bf108 with panzerfausts on it.

It's a Bücker Bu 181. Operationally, it was tyically flown with only one Panzerfaust per wing because (if I remember a recent article correctly) the upper one tended to burn the fabric on the horizontal tail.

Not that they saw much operational use ... one squadron, though, made an attack on an Luftwaffe airfield already taken over by the Americans to destroy the German aircraft parked there.

I'd like to read the American report on this.

Regards,

Henning (HoHun)

[Karnak]

the JM2 (or was it J2M ?) shinden. another cool fighter

(Image removed from quote.)[/B]

That is a J7W1 Shiden.  It was just entering production (with essentially no flight testing at all beyond one flight) when the nukes ended the war.

Had either two 20mm and two 30mm cannon or four 30mm cannon in the nose and a hoped for 450+mph, but given Japanese circumstances at that time I think that fanciful at best.

[frank3]

To get back at the Boulton Paul Defiant, it was a good idea. It fooled the Luftwaffe at it's first missions.
The Luftwaffe pilots thought it'd be a fighter (thus an easy shot from the rear) They must've been quite surprised when 4 x .303's were shooting back!

After their experience with the Defiant, the Luftwaffe started attacking the Defiants from the fronts and below.
After that it was a sitting duck...

[Karnak]

Originally posted by frank3
To get back at the Boulton Paul Defiant, it was a good idea. It fooled the Luftwaffe at it's first missions.
The Luftwaffe pilots thought it'd be a fighter (thus an easy shot from the rear) They must've been quite surprised when 4 x .303's were shooting back!

After their experience with the Defiant, the Luftwaffe started attacking the Defiants from the fronts and below.
After that it was a sitting duck...

The first squadron to go into combat with it scored 17 kills on their first day as I recall.

It went rapidly downhill from there.

[hogenbor]

I always loved the idea. As a kid I never understood why they didn't do that on all planes. Of course issues like, drag, weight and available power were unknown to me then

It is my favourite 'odd one out' plane.

For those who know the Blackburn Skua (British early war dive bomber and smurfy at that), this had a turreted sister, the Roc. Performance was so poor that most (all?) of them were converted into target tugs.

[SMIDSY]

a similar thing happened with the Grumman Avenger. japanese pilots thought that the planes were a new heavy fighter and attacked it from the high six, and right into a ma duce.

[frank3]

I thought the first use of the Avenger (I believe it's first versions were called Devestators?) resulted in the loss of all 6 aircraft on their torpedo-run?

Some pics of the Blackburn Skua;





It was one ugly bastard!

[frank3]

Found another pic supporting Furball's input. It's a Heinkel He-177.

[gripen]

That is the Junkers Ju 287 V1 (in a case you are not joking...). Some parts were from He 177.

gripen

[MiloMorai]

Originally posted by frank3
I thought the first use of the Avenger (I believe it's first versions were called Devestators?) resulted in the loss of all 6 aircraft on their torpedo-run?

The Avenger and the Devastator were 2 different a/c. The Avenger was a Grumman a/c and the Devastaor was as a Douglas a/c(see pic).

[frank3]

Ah, thanks for that. Didn't know they were different!

Originally posted by gripen
That is the Junkers Ju 287 V1 (in a case you are not joking...). Some parts were from He 177.

gripen

Oops! I thought it'd be a He-177 because of it's nose, it's quite similar

[Lye-El]

[Billy Joe Bob]

what the hell is that thing in the last pic

and can someone find a pic of this russian one ramjet prop hybrid fighter?

it had a pusher prop i think like the shinden and it had 2 ramjets on the wings.

there is also a german VTOL plane that looked like a rocket called  like trifuegel or something like that (i cant spell german ok i spelled it like it sounds) the trifuegel had 3 ramjets that were started up with rockets on the end of 3 wings that spun around the middle of the plane.

and lastly the soviet flying submarine. it was a sea plane that carried 2 torpedoes under the fueselage. the point of having a flying sub was to go over the sub nets and mines then land and submerge and commence wreaking havoc. it never left the drawing board.

[AutoPilot]

http://www.wpafb.af.mil/museum/air_power/ap34.htm


Totally baddddddd    Arrrrssssssseeeeeee..........

[Lye-El]

Originally posted by Billy Joe Bob
what the hell is that thing in the last pic

Dual He111 according to the picture name