Author Topic: Best Planes of WWII  (Read 14714 times)

Offline pembquist

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Re: Best Planes of WWII
« Reply #75 on: November 04, 2015, 07:02:56 PM »
Mosquito

Pony

ILLAYAKadoodle

Zero

262

205

Pzlp

The French one that begins with a D
Pies not kicks.

Offline drgondog

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Re: Best Planes of WWII
« Reply #76 on: November 06, 2015, 11:10:08 AM »
Best for what?

I'm inclined to agree that the C-47 was one of, if not the most important tactical aircraft in WWII.  It is still in service, it is still super easy to fly and maintain, it can land just about anywhere and it was the backbone of tactical ground logistics and supply - plus medevac - plus airborne infantry operations.

Considering fighters? I would tend to think along the lines of point interceptor-but lacking footprint; best air superiority fighter with large footprint; best fleet/land all around capability.

I lean toward the P-51B/C as it was the fighter that permitted USSAFE the ability to conduct truly strategic operations that had been stopped in fall 1943 because the 8th AF could not defeat the LW nor destroy critical industry un-escorted to deepest targets.  Given Only one choice for a fighter aircraft for AAF to perform all missions, the 51B/C/D/K would have been the choice - and was, Post VE Day.  Extreme range combined with excellent performance envelope (better, as good, nearly as good in all dimensions as any other piston engine fighter in WWII), low cost, producible, easy to train, low cost to operate.

Someone above made a comment that it did pretty well with "10:1" advantage.  It, in fact, operated from December 1, 1943 through May, 1944 at a decided Disadvantage in numerical superiority as the few groups were diluted further by the necessity of performing target escort for 30-35 BG attacking distributed targets - enabling the LW to achieve numerical superiority at any point of attack.

The late model Spits could easily out-turn the B/D and outclimb them also, the 109K could outclimb and marginally out run it, the 262 was far superior in speed - but none of them could operate deep in the other's territory and do all things well at the extreme combat radius of a Mustang. This is the primary reason Gunther Rall thought the P-51 was Allies best fighter.

The Joint Fighter Conference - Patuxent River Oct 1944 when RAF, AAF, USMC, USN and Civilian pilots evaluated the P-51, P-38, P-47, P-63, F6F, F4U, Spit IX, XF8F voted the P-51D as the "Best Fighter below 25,000 feet" and the P-47D as "Best above 25,000 feet".  One can only speculate what the outcome would have been had the Axis powers competed at the Conference.

Best Bomber - B-29 but most Important is up to debate because the Mossie, Ju 88, B-17, B-24 and Lancaster all have solid reasons for the nomination.

Best Trainer - AT-6 although it would be a handful for Primary cadets.   
Nicholas Boileau "Honor is like an island, rugged and without shores; once we have left it, we can never return"

Offline save

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Re: Best Planes of WWII
« Reply #77 on: November 07, 2015, 07:26:54 PM »
Best bomber killer, the FW190A8R2, Sturmbock, very resistant to .50 fire from front arc.
Nightfighter with most kills : Bf110G, one pilot had 121 kills in 110's.

My ammo last for 6 Lancasters, or one Yak3.
"And the Yak 3 ,aka the "flying Yamato"..."
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Offline -aper-

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Re: Best Planes of WWII
« Reply #78 on: November 10, 2015, 04:48:45 PM »
Best for what?

Generic best WWII plane :

1) should be excellent in it's role

2) should be very cheap in production

3) should be very easy to fly (including take off / landing / combat maneuvering)


Yak-3 is by far the best by these criteria.

Offline glzsqd

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Re: Best Planes of WWII
« Reply #79 on: November 10, 2015, 06:09:59 PM »
Generic best WWII plane :

1) should be excellent in it's role

2) should be very cheap in production

3) should be very easy to fly (including take off / landing / combat maneuvering)


Yak-3 is by far the best by these criteria.

Booo!
See Rule #4

Offline Zimme83

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Re: Best Planes of WWII
« Reply #80 on: November 10, 2015, 09:57:14 PM »
I disagree, Yak-3 was a good fighter yes. But also had issues with reliability. When it entered service in 1944 there was several fighters in service with similar or better performance. Using plywood to make the plane cheaper and easier to build isnt that impressive either.
''The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge'' - Stephen Hawking

Offline -aper-

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Re: Best Planes of WWII
« Reply #81 on: November 11, 2015, 05:04:39 PM »
Using plywood to make the plane cheaper and easier to build isnt that impressive either.

During total war it is quite important to use wisely strategic materials (like aluminium)considering increasing production of planes from year to year. Utilizing wood is an excellent solution. The other good examples are La-7 and Mosquito.

On the other hand total war requires big number of new pilots to be trained quickly and thrown into combat on regular basis. Yak-3 was still quite outstanding plane for this role  as it was very forgiving and  easy to fly and very agile in combat maneuvering. It gave the best chances for young pilots to survive their fist sorties until they developed good enough ACM.

Offline save

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Re: Best Planes of WWII
« Reply #82 on: November 12, 2015, 12:57:49 AM »
Mosquito took way too many man-hours to build.
My ammo last for 6 Lancasters, or one Yak3.
"And the Yak 3 ,aka the "flying Yamato"..."
-Caldera

Offline WaffenVW

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Re: Best Planes of WWII
« Reply #83 on: November 12, 2015, 09:38:16 AM »
While its handling may have been forgiving Soviet aircraft had far too high cockpit workloads to be anything like noob friendly. Just about everything needed manual operation and adjustment.

Offline Karnak

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Re: Best Planes of WWII
« Reply #84 on: November 12, 2015, 10:14:30 PM »
Mosquito took way too many man-hours to build.
Nonsense.

The reason being that the man hours used were largely not available for any other benefit to the war industry.

Spitfires used too many man hours.  Ki-43s used too many man hours.  N1K1s used too many man hours.

Mosquitoes sourced production capacity that would otherwise have been completely untapped.
Petals floating by,
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Offline bozon

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Re: Best Planes of WWII
« Reply #85 on: November 13, 2015, 04:34:44 AM »
Mosquito took way too many man-hours to build.
Yes, but the difference is which men.
Mosquitoes kept a lot of carpenter furniture and piano makers busy. I know that  many grand pianos were destroyed in the blitz and needed replacement, but come on...
Mosquito VI - twice the spitfire, four times the ENY.

Click!>> "So, you want to fly the wooden wonder" - <<click!
the almost incomplete and not entirely inaccurate guide to the AH Mosquito.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGOWswdzGQs

Offline Zimme83

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Re: Best Planes of WWII
« Reply #86 on: November 13, 2015, 07:59:22 AM »
de Havilland was an aircraft manufacturer so the Mossie still took up a lot of production capacity. It wasnt build by the local carpenters...
''The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge'' - Stephen Hawking

Offline bozon

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Re: Best Planes of WWII
« Reply #87 on: November 13, 2015, 09:15:08 AM »
de Havilland was an aircraft manufacturer so the Mossie still took up a lot of production capacity. It wasnt build by the local carpenters...
It is about which skilled laborers DH hired and the raw materials required. DH hired wood workers, not metal workers - these are not the same people and there was much less demand in the market for the formers. Britain had a shortage in metals that was significant while the battle for the Atlantic was in progress. Finally, hundreds of small companies and workshops were sun-contracted to manufacture the parts, which were then assembled in the DH factory at Hatfield. Many of these sub-contractors were furniture and piano makers. This pool of resources and manpower was almost entirely outside the resources lists of other aircraft and weapons manufacturers.
Mosquito VI - twice the spitfire, four times the ENY.

Click!>> "So, you want to fly the wooden wonder" - <<click!
the almost incomplete and not entirely inaccurate guide to the AH Mosquito.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGOWswdzGQs

Offline MiloMorai

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Re: Best Planes of WWII
« Reply #88 on: November 13, 2015, 09:28:42 AM »
de Havilland was an aircraft manufacturer so the Mossie still took up a lot of production capacity. It wasnt build by the local carpenters...

Women helped build the Mosquito.


Offline Zimme83

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Re: Best Planes of WWII
« Reply #89 on: November 13, 2015, 09:36:45 AM »
A lot of manufacturers had female workers so I dont see why its relevant. Mosquito wasnt the only wooden plane around during WW2 either.
It was a very good plane but the design still had some serious drawbacks that were shown when it was used in the far East for ex.
''The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge'' - Stephen Hawking