Fw190-D9

[Karnak]

Beaufighter was called the "Whispering Death" by the Japanese.

It was an early war night fighter.  The Japanese at that time didn't have any way of countering or detecting it, so to them it was a silent killer.  You'd be flying along and <BOOM>, you're dead.

Sisu
-Karnak

[CavemanJ]

the Corsair was called Whistling Death because of the way the wind would whistle through the oil coolers in the wings at high speed, like diving down to light up a zeke  

[-duma-]

Hmm, you're right, it was the whispering death.. now I remember a little though, wasn't it just that it was exceptionally quiet? I'm fairly sure the nickname came long before the nightfighter variants, and was given by the PBI rather than anything aerial.

[Nashwan]

It was because they were quiet. The Beaufighter was used mainly for ground attack in Burma.
The first night fighter variants with radar entered service in the summer of 1940 though.

[juzz]

The Bristol sleeve-valve radial engines are relatively quiet, apparently.

I don't think the nightfighter version of the Beaufighter were used in the Pacific?

[-lazs-]

gee hristo... u can allways stick ur fingers in ur ears and yell CRAAAAAP and then you will never learn anything that u don't want to hear.   The "enemy" called the 190.... "that radial engined fighter" and the D9 "that long nosed 190".
lazs  

[Sascha JG 77]

I posted something similar on AGW some time ago...

Gentlemen, may I introduce you to

 

the Butcher Bird or "Würger" (verbatim: "Strangler")

A small bird of prey that sticks its prey to thorns in order to tear it apart. The reason for this behaviour is AFAIK the fact that the Würger lacks typical bird of prey talons and/or beak.
The word/name "Würger" in German has in no way the same sound/implication as its english translation and as lazs pointed out was indeed given to the plane by its creator, Kurt Tank. Also remember that very early versions of the 190 were considered undergunned by the LW since they only carried 4x7,92 mm. It wasn't until the A-3 (A-2?) arrived, that the 190 got the fearsome armement that *seems* to be the source of its nickname. Birds were often used as source of nicknames for german planes. Me-262 "Schwalbe" (Swallow), Fi- 156 "Storch" (Stork) or the  He-219 "Uhu" (Owl) come to mind.


Sascha

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Jagdgeschwader 77 "Herz As!"

[Pongo]

cool post
Thought the spit pilots called the Fw "oh toejam"
might be wrong

[ygsmilo]

I thought Torque was whistling death.

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JG 2's current cannon magnet

Milo