A poll.

[Nimrod45]

For sure no US birds.  We need more Italian planes.

[Karnak]

I would compose two polls to be run at the same time.  I will base my two lists on prior contestants in AH polls as well as my own ideas of what would be interesting choices, even if I'd oppose them myself.

Poll 1 1st round:

A-26
L-2
P-36
P-61B
PBY-5A
PV-1
SB2C
TBD-1


Poll 2 1st round:

Beaufighter
G.55
He177
Il-4
J2M
Meteor
SM.79
Tu-2

The winners of poll 1 and poll 2 both get added.

[Nimrod45]

I would vote P-36, and G.55.

[Karnak]

I would vote P-36, and G.55.

I'd probably vote for the TBD-1 and J2M.

In my prediction for the final poll of both I'd vote for the P-61 over the A-26 and the Tu-2 over the He177.

[Volron]

I'd probably vote for the TBD-1 and J2M.

In my prediction for the final poll of both I'd vote for the P-61 over the A-26 and the Tu-2 over the He177.

Based off your lists, we know what the winners will be.  A-26 and Meteor.

As for what I would choose myself, the TBD and the SM.79.

The likely runner up of each; I agree with you about the first poll, P-61.  However I would predict the Beaufighter being the runner up over both the Tu-2 and He-177.

[Karnak]

Based off your lists, we know what the winners will be.  A-26 and Meteor.

No, I don't think we do.  Meteor barely edged the Beaufighter and lost by a landslide to the Me410 and Yak-3.  I suspect many of the Me410 and Yak-3 voters would vote for the Beaufighter over the Meteor.  I don't think the Meteor would even make the final round.  A-26 might win, but the P-61 could challenge it.  I don't think you can have a poll that doesn't have obvious leader candidates.  HTC themselves ran a poll with the B-29 on it, which ended up slaughtering the Me410 in the final round 61% to 39%.

As for what I would choose myself, the TBD and the SM.79.

The likely runner up of each; I agree with you about the first poll, P-61.  However I would predict the Beaufighter being the runner up over both the Tu-2 and He-177.

Beaufighter might, but it is British and that is a bit of a disadvantage in the polls here.  Not as much as being Italian or Japanese, but worse than being German.  Final poll might be Beaufighter vs He177 in which case the He177 would easily win.


As a note, I had a hard time coming up with eight American airframes that aren't in the game.  I had to leave off many, many non-American airframes to cut the second list down to eight.

[Slade]

G.55 and PBY-5A

Not enough Italian planes.

[LCADolby]

What does AcesHigh need to fill in gaps in the plane set... hmmm

Russian Bombers

[Karnak]

G.55 and PBY-5A

Not enough Italian planes.

Two is as much as any non-American nation got.  With only a field of eight and so many aircraft to list it is pretty much impossible to justify listing three aircraft for one nation.  Italy only has two aircraft, but it was such a minor player compared to the big 5 that the idea that it should have any much representation as, say, Russia is silly.  Two more Italian aircraft, the C.200 and SM.79-II, would pretty much give full coverage for Italian related events.  More would be nice, but they wouldn't be plugging holes at that point, but rather adding diversity.

[Rich46yo]

What does AcesHigh need to fill in gaps in the plane set... hmmm

Russian Bombers

+1. Glaringly obvious.

[R 105]

  The G.55 and the SM.79 Italian war birds would be my vote.

[Arlo]

As for what I would choose myself, the TBD and the SM.79.

Same here.

I'd go with a Soviet level bomber after that.

[HighTone]

Russian bomber, Italian anything or Japanese anything would get a big +1 from me