"Me & my Messerschmitt" thread

[Blazer]

The Bell Airacobra (about as successful as a Gibson 20/20)

You're wrong the Bell Airacobra was THE saving grace for the USSR airforce.

http://www.acepilots.com/planes/p39_airacobra.html

[Barklessdog]

Funny, I never read that as kid, but reading it, it was not until the 80's when the soviets released info on them in the war.

I always heard the US version of it being under powered.

Still a cool looking plane

[TBird1958]

 No Blackbird at Seattle's Museum of Flight, instead we have an A-12/M-21 drone launcher, one of only two made. Yeah, it's kinda chromey!

[godofthunder]

John I cringe every time I see that. Tragic. Years ago I also saw the XB70 at Wright Patterson.

[uwe]

I have a penchant for aircooled engines, three of my favorites:

Focke Wulf 190


Grumman Hellcat


and of course the P-47 Thunderbolt:




And for some reason I always had a weak spot for this Italian thing (reminiscent of a Junkers 52), the Savoia-Marchetti SM 79:

[uwe]

I liked the Douglas Invader as a kid for its fearsome "porcupine nose":



and the P 61 Northrop Black Widow for its similarly respect inspiring turret:

[Barklessdog]

The Hell cat was a dog, now the Bear Cat, that was a plane!

No flying Pencil fans

[uwe]

"The Hell cat was a dog ..."

Granted, not the prettiest plane nor the best, but it sure gave the Zeros/Zekes a run for their Yen and basically won air superiority from flight decks (the Corsair was much more difficult to land on flight decks and required an experienced pilot) for you in the Pacific which enabled you to do the war-winning "island hopping". In contrast, most Corsairs were flown from island landing strips, but to do that you had to conquer the islands first!

So don't put the poor old Höllenkatze down. You'd all be buying Japanese products today if it wasn't for her ... 

Uwe

[Barklessdog]

My Bad I was thinking of the Wild Cat, I had forgotten about the Hellcat

[uwe]

It just occurred to me that you might have!

Mistaking the most-flown US naval fighter of WW II, shame on you! 

Uwe

[Barklessdog]

It was on par with our infamous Sherman Tank!

[leftybass]

P-38. My dad was stationed at Pearl Harbor and often told stories of lying on the beach and these flying by very low and very fast.

[uwe]

Beautiful plane and very successful in the Pacific theatre, but curiously not in Europe, where - as a fighter, it did alright as an unarmed reconnaissance plane at high altitudes - it failed to impress Me 109 and Focke Wulf 190 pilots who compared it to the lumbering Me 110 (certainly unfair to the Lightning which was a much better plane and had admirable range and high altitude flying characteristics). Losses were high and it only saw service for as long as the P-47 Thunderbolt did not yet have the range to guard the Flying Fortresses over Germany (exterior belly and wing tanks which could be jettisoned solved that problem). The P-47 wasn't a favorite with German pilots who flew captured specimen either, but it at least got grudging respect. And the Mustang, finally, (deserved) admiration.

[godofthunder]

 Part of the P-38s woes in the European theater were due to teething problems, compresability dives and problems with the Allison engine/super chargers. At altitude the early Lightings were very ineffective. Also the fine aircraft of the Luftwaffe, especially the FW 190 gave it a severe headache. I think if I remember right by the J model they had the plane sorted out and combined with it's long range, twin engines (a nice thing to have over long stretches of ocean), fire power and speed advantage was more than a match for most Japanese fighters. Most American fighters worked best by using speed and fire power to their advantage, especially in the pacific theater, Tight turning dogfights were a good way to get killed. Either using alltitude  converted to speed or brute horsepower was a much better formula for success. The Hellcat while a Ace maker in the Pacific would have been hard pressed to survive in the European theater.

[Chris P.]

A bit obvious (no Fokkers though) but I always liked the simple and almost sports car look of the Spitfire (no not the Triumph). If a kid draws a fighter I guess it just looks like a Spitfire:



Of more modern age I've always liked the enormous F4 Phantom:



And if we're talking cargo planes, the DC3/C47 is legendary of course:



I even love the Junckers, especially shot down. Did they sell them to Citroen after the war to make vans of them?



And the Constellation is a very nice one: