5 most influential fighters of WW2

[Wilbus]

Stuka (short lived career but it definetely contributed a LOT to conquering almost all of europe!).

Wouldn't agree on short lived career, atleast no shorter then other german plane. JU87 servered threw out the war, on all fronts and was feared (loved my enemey pilots) by ground forces. Russians hated it so much that they killed most JU87 crews they got thier hands on.

First german photo ever taken during the war, was on a Ju87, last photo ever taken, was also a JU87 outside berlin strafing Russian ground forces (have the film of it).

[hazed-]

your 5 fighters are pretty good but the spit wasnt the so much influential in stopping the invasion as producing an icon for us brits and a feared fighter for the LW.The hurricane was the real workhorse of the battle of Britain. two thirds of the kills were by hurricanes i think(from my seive memory )

heres what i think:

P51d because it was the first fighter to escort the bombers into the heart of Germany.Without this range the bombers would have taken far too many losses to be a viable weapon.Powerful, fast and desperately needed.It crushed the Nazis morale.

109 because in the beginning of the war 1939/1940 it was undoubtedly the best fighter in active service in the world.Later it was adapted again and again and stayed in service throughout the war, although it was outclassed later in the war it was a true workhorse for Germany and it was easy to build.
 
Spitfire because it earned an incredible reputation and gave Great Gritain hope during the darkest of times.The designer worked himself to death because he knew it would save Britain.Many doubted his design could be adapted from seaplane racer to fighter but he would not be swayed.Thank god that he succeeded.Such a pity he died before he could see what his aircraft did for his country.A true hero for Great Britain.

Zero. Again a spectacular early war aircraft that allowed japan to almost conquer the pacific.It may not be the best fighter Japan produced but it certainly encapsulated the Japanese Ideals of the samurai's.No protection but deadly.The pilots of it almost left their fate in the hands of their gods.You would catch me in one of them in the war though

Focke Wulf 190 Undoubtedly if the LW didnt have this aircraft the war would have ended a LOT sooner.Need anything more be said? .When it appeared it struck a new fear into the British/Canadian/Polish/Czech etc pilots who faced it.It was the scourge of the russian forces, the allied bombers.The sheer variety of roles it performed is a true testiment to its excellent design.And that roll rate is truely phenominal when compared to other aircraft flying at the time it went into operational use.It also carried among the heaviest firepower seen on a SE fighter.

Honourable mentions : P47/Typhoons/P40 and all ground pounders for doing the dirty work 'in the trenches' as it were.

[Doberman]

Originally posted by fats
Me 262

it wasn't said influential on what, just WWII or the aviation afterwards for example.


// fats

  Actually, the 262 wasns't particualrly influential on anything.  It was a compromise airplane that didn't pioneer any particular aerodynamic ways of thinking.

  D

[Wilbus]

Quite Wrong Doberman, was the first plane in the world with Swept wings which alowed for higher speeds, the thing even went supersonic in 44/45.

[Steven]

1. Zeke
2. Mustang
3. Wildcat
4. ?
5. ?

I personally think the Wildcat is more important than the Hellcat because it was involved in fighting the best pilots the Japanese had to offer and in dealing directly with the mystique of the Zeke.  By the time the Hellcat and Corsair are making their names known, a good many of the experienced Japanese pilots are already dead.  At the battle of Midway alone, the Japanese lost four carriers and a good majority of the experienced pilots that were on board (maybe that is more attributable to the SBD.)  

The match-ups that illicit more fancies of imagination to me are the Spitfire vs 109 and of course the Wildcat vs Zeke.

Just my $.02

[Doberman]

Originally posted by Wilbus
Quite Wrong Doberman, was the first plane in the world with Swept wings which alowed for higher speeds, the thing even went supersonic in 44/45.

  There's never been any actual proof that it went supersonic, has there been?

  And as I said, it was a compromise.  The 262 was orginally designed with a straight wing.  Late in the design stage, it came to light that the engines were going to be significantly heavier than originally proposed.  Instead of a major redesign to fix the center of gravity & center of pressure problems that the engines now created, they simply swept the ends of the wings backwards.  The swept wings were not done to increase speed or high speed handeling.  In fact, tests showed the 262 to be extremely unstable at near supersonic speeds.

D

[Lephturn]

I'd place the P-47 on that list... and probably above the Pony.  Name a fighter that contributed more to the overall war effort considering all the different roles the Jug had.  I can't name any.

[niklas]

a) ME109
consequent light construction, small sizes, strong engine, good aerodynamcis. First design where speed and climb was considered more important than turning, though it turned quite good for the wingload. A radical break-through in aircraft design. New application of high-tech, like slats, forward-rearward cooling flaps, trimmable stabi. In other aspects very archaic, though

b)FW190
True multirole function. Highly flexible. Compare it to todays effort for multi-rold aircrafts under the aegis of the JSF. Jabo, fighter, with various Rüstsätze, nightchase, longrange, shortrange, reconaissance. Very easy to control for the pilot, who can bring his full attention to the situation happening around him-ergonomics, very important today. "Electrical aircraft" pioneer. Nearly all subsystems operated though a 24V system. Pioneer in radio equipment like two-way VHF radio, FuG25a Identification Friend or Foe (IFF) radar transponder or FuG 10P radio direction finder, FuG 217 Neptun, FuG 350 Nexus... . Excellent flight controls, a new level especially in aileron control. very easy to maintain and supportable in the field. Designed for efficient decentral production. First application of a jettinsonable hood. One of the first applications of a short-span wide chord prop, later to become a common feature on modern turbo-props.

c)Me262
Demonstration of speed and climb, or better, the introduction of a new age. Enough said

d) P51 - the importance of range was demonstrated, including the importance of "excellent" aerodynamics instead of "good".

For the last one i have already problems speaking about "influence". It used rather primitive weapons, and numbers were more important than innovative technics. I also thought about B17, B24, B29, but looking at the precise bombing from safe altitude today i can´t say that their carpet bombing on cities influenced the development very much. On the other hand carpet bombing was used in Vietnam and Irak.

e) Fiesler Storch. First STOL-aircraft

niklas

[Nashwan]

4 of the 5 most influential planes German?
The side that lost?
Didn't influence it much then, did they

[midnight Target]

1. Pony
2. Jug
3. Pony
4. Jug
5. Il2 - as a consession to our Russian Allies

[fdiron]

I respect all of your opinions, but this stuff about "All the good pilots were dead by the time of [P51,F4U,F6F]" is just plane silly.  Some of the BIGGEST air battles of the war were fought by these planes.  Now I may be wrong on this, but I heard that the P51 shot down 50% of all Luftwaffe fighters downed by allied aircraft in the ETO.

[DarkglamJG52]

First german photo ever taken during the war, was on a Ju87, last photo ever taken, was also a JU87 outside berlin strafing Russian ground forces (have the film of it).

 can post that?

[niklas]

Originally posted by Nashwan
4 of the 5 most influential planes German?
 

You´re right, i take the P51 out of my list and replace it with the german "wing-only" design like the me163 or some design of the Horton brothers. Those design were really way ahead compared to a P51 that was basically a good looking standard design.

So we have 5/5 german design

Worth mentioning is also the tricycle gear of the P39 and the first application of boosted controls in the P38 and F4U

I´m talking about the influence on following aircraft designs btw, not about the influence they had in the war or the succes they had.

niklas

[Hristo]

109

Yak

p47

a6m

f6f

[Wilbus]

I only have the film on VCR I am afraid, no TV card so can't record it to the computer

Doberman, you're right about the swept wing and it wasn't made like that because they thought it would give it a higher speed, but it did have a swept wing and they quickly found out that it was revulutionary and it was the first swept wing plane ever.

As for proof that it broke the sound barrier, yes there is, I posted it a few weeks ago.
Here it is again.

http://www.luftwaffenschmiede.de/mach1/index.htm

Have fun