Warplanes

[Barbas]

Fairly simple thread here, since I'm bored and it's a Saturday: what are your favourite warplanes? I'm pretty partial to the design of the P38 Lightning with its funky-lookin' booms.

Spoiler: I mean look at that weird-ass thing.

Every time I look at a Flying Fortress, I wonder how something that heavy can possible be soaring through the air.

Spoiler: It looks like some weird train-boat-plane hybrid.

 

[StormShaun]

That is a hard choice.
I guess my first choice would be the Messerschmitt Bf 109.
It has that predator imagery. Like as if a bird of pray was going to swoop in and completely destroy you.
That and it has a pretty neat paint job.

Also points for the Douglas C-54 Skymaster, while it was used to kill many, many people, it did carry one of the most dangerous weapons that has ever been invented... Without fucking anything up.

I'd also like to add the Supermarine Spitfire.
Its a classic, plus when it gets a paint job with teeth, wow, just wow.

 

[DefunctTheory]

As far as my favorite bombers and fighters, OP basically nailed them both.

So... I guess... runner ups are...

The navy had some nice looking planes. Design specifications for carriers resulted in a very interesting, and appealing, all engine, short, fat nosed design. Grumman in particular made several noteworthy designs, that had a good mix of speed, reliability, and firepower, along with looking great and air frames that were extraordinarily tough.

Spoiler: Grumman F4F Wildcat

Spoiler: Grumman F6F Hellcat

The P-40 Warhawk and P-39 Airacobra are two very good looking airplanes, both of which give off that 'WWII' aircraft vibe. Both were stable airframes that could take a lot of punishment and were very good workhorses. The P-39 in particular had a lot of success under the Soviet Airforce, becoming one of, if not the best performing aircraft of WWII.

Spoiler: Curtiss P-40 Warhawk

Spoiler: Bell P-39 Airacobra

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

Oh joy. Some of my favorite topics involve warplanes. Specifically I'll limit my entries to pre-Vietnam and prop engine only because I'd be here all day talking about various jets and the A-10...

A6M2 "Zero" - One of Japan's finest entries. 533 km/h top speed, 15.7 m/s climb and roughly 17 second turn time in fair weather and standard load conditions. Addition of bombs drops top speed, climb rate and turn times depending on weight and drag of said bombs. 2x20mm Type 99 Mark 1 cannons (mounted in the wings) + 2x7.7mm type 97 machine guns (mounted in the engine cowling) give it a fairly formidable armament. Versatile, agile and fast, with a decent dive rate and high speed tolerance (tops out at about 660 km/h or so before things start ripping away). Overall a wonderful, beautiful plane. Drawbacks on it are the light frame and ease of catching fire from incendiary bullets means the Zero is not a tough plane and can't survive more than a few well placed shots and stay airborne.

P-51 "Mustang" - Overall a great fighter. 630 km/h top speed, 17.2 m/s climb rate, 20s turn time in fair weather and standard armaments. 4x20mm Hispano Mk.II Cannons give it a devastating arsenal to take out enemy fighters and bombers. Drawbacks on the Mustang when compared to the Spitfire was an abysmal turning rate but better roll rate. It needed to get a good head-to-head bead on most enemy planes because it could easily be out-maneuvered by agile craft, but could take a decent pounding. The cockpit visibility was a bit hampered which reduced situational awareness. Overall it had a great range and in numbers could devastate the enemy fighters and bombers but was not always ideal for one-on-one fights with faster or more agile craft.

Just two of my favorites, I've got more but I'll save those for later.

 

[Albino Boo]

The De Havilland Mosquito

Spoiler: Mosquito

A wooden construction twin rolls royce Merlin engined fighter bomber, produced in furniture factories. It was as fast any non jet fighter and could fly higher than most them.

 

[09philj]

Hawker Hurricane. Everyone always goes on and on about the Supermarine Spitfire, but this was the real workhorse of the RAF in World War 2. It was cheap and easy to manufacture, and extremely rugged and reliable. It's not the most exceptional fighter ever made, but it damn well saved our bacon.

Spoiler

 

[DefunctTheory]

Everyone seems to have been stuck into WWII (And there's a reason for that, it was the classy period for aircraft and featured the most variety and character), so here's something a little younger.

The Fairchild A-10 Thunderbolt II, more commonly known as the Warthog due to its distinctive paint job, is a plane so massively ugly it loops back around to looking good again. Designed and deployed during the time before cheap, effective guided missiles made close air support planes obsolete, the A-10 is a one of a kind design - Able to take more damage then most armored land vehicles and still function, built around a massive 30mm Gatling gun that's still terrifying to this day, and loaded with enough rockets to take on God himself and arguably come out on top, the A-10 looks good, takes hits like a champ, and brought smiles to US infantrymen everywhere.

Spoiler: Fairchild A-10 Thunderbolt II/Warthog

 

[rcs619]

Since someone already mentioned the P-38, I'll go with my other favorite.

Spoiler

Spoiler

The Focke-Wulf 190 D-13 (although the D-9 is also perfectly acceptable), one of the last fighter aircraft developed by the focke-wulf company during WWII. I just love the shape of it. It looks fast, lean and predatory. It's literally a Fw-190 that they crammed an oversized engine from a medium bomber into. How awesome is that?

Spoiler

Spoiler

The great-granddaddy of all modern jet fighters, the Me-262. It was revolutionary for its time, and I just love the overall look of it. Fun-fact, the Me-262 in the above pictures is actually a fully functional, fully-flyable replica created in part by Airbus. They actually got access to a surviving Me-262 from a museum (a 2-seat training variant) and disassembled it to make molds of every single part. They then used the molds to manufacture their own working replica of the A-1a model to fly at airshows. It isn't completely historical (they replaced the old gen-1 engines with modern General-Electric jets for safety, but it is amazing to see the Me-262 flying again at all. It's an amazing piece of history and I really hope they use the same process on other WWII aircraft to keep them alive in spirit.

Spoiler

Spoiler

Speaking of revolutionary for its time, I've got to mention the Horton 229. Just a beautiful aircraft all around, and years ahead of its time in terms of design. It only flew a few times before internal problems and a lack of resources shut the project down, but it supposedly out-performed a Me-262 in a simulated dogfight.In a pre fly-by-wire and computer-assist age though, flying wings were just too difficult to pilot to be practical.

 

[talker]

The Sopwith Camel https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/aa/RAF_Sopwith_Camel.jpg

Relatively difficult to fly, but still credited with the most aircraft kills of WWI. And it just looks really cool.

 

[Neonit]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messerschmitt_Me_163_Komet
Its not really a good plane.... But i used to rock with it in Airfix Dogfighter, back at school. I used to paint it all white, and put the japan red circle on it (also, it made awesome sounds xD).

It was a cool plane. You either do something awesome, or you crash spectacularly. Also, no one dared to fly it xD

Its pretty unique for what it is. At least i think so, im not much of a planes guy xD

 

[rcs619]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messerschmitt_Me_163_Komet
Its not really a good plane.... But i used to rock with it in Airfix Dogfighter, back at school. I used to paint it all white, and put the japan red circle on it (also, it made awesome sounds xD).

It was a cool plane. You either do something awesome, or you crash spectacularly. Also, no one dared to fly it xD

Its pretty unique for what it is. At least i think so, im not much of a planes guy xD

Fun-fact, the Japanese were actually building their own version. They called it the J8M or the Ki-200 (depending on which branch it was supposed to serve in), and it was basically going to be a license-built Me-163 that they wound up having to reverse engineer from the flight manual and some documentation due to the inability of Germany to actually ship them all the parts they needed. They only ever made seven of the things, and only one actually flew before the war was over though.

 

[Neonit]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messerschmitt_Me_163_Komet
Its not really a good plane.... But i used to rock with it in Airfix Dogfighter, back at school. I used to paint it all white, and put the japan red circle on it (also, it made awesome sounds xD).

It was a cool plane. You either do something awesome, or you crash spectacularly. Also, no one dared to fly it xD

Its pretty unique for what it is. At least i think so, im not much of a planes guy xD

Fun-fact, the Japanese were actually building their own version. They called it the J8M or the Ki-200 (depending on which branch it was supposed to serve in), and it was basically going to be a license-built Me-163 that they wound up having to reverse engineer from the flight manual and some documentation due to the inability of Germany to actually ship them all the parts they needed. They only ever made seven of the things, and only one actually flew before the war was over though.

Ha! funny, i just did it because i thought it did "fit". Guess it really did huh? I've looked up the photos of it (some of them concepts i think) and it actually looks the same as mine did ^.^

 

[Thaluikhain]

Everyone seems to have been stuck into WWII (And there's a reason for that, it was the classy period for aircraft and featured the most variety and character), so here's something a little younger.

The Fairchild A-10 Thunderbolt II, more commonly known as the Warthog due to its distinctive paint job, is a plane so massively ugly it loops back around to looking good again. Designed and deployed during the time before cheap, effective guided missiles made close air support planes obsolete, the A-10 is a one of a kind design - Able to take more damage then most armored land vehicles and still function, built around a massive 30mm Gatling gun that's still terrifying to this day, and loaded with enough rockets to take on God himself and arguably come out on top, the A-10 looks good, takes hits like a champ, and brought smiles to US infantrymen everywhere.

The A-10 also has the distinction of being the ultimate of its kind, most likely in a very literal sense. The niche it fulfilled has been made obsolete by other technologies, but it is still superlatively good at it. Like tank destroyers or battleships, we are unlikely to see their like again, so it'll remain the best there was.

OTOH, there is something to be said about dedicated CAS planes for low intensity conflict operations, but these tend to be cheap civilian aircraft with gunpods, that often wouldn't be too out of place during WW2. A much better CAS plane than not having a CAS plane, but made with cost in mind.

...

I like the idea of the AC130, in that you take an ordinary transport with a large cargo capacity, and fill that space up with artillery.

 

[rcs619]

Everyone seems to have been stuck into WWII (And there's a reason for that, it was the classy period for aircraft and featured the most variety and character), so here's something a little younger.

The Fairchild A-10 Thunderbolt II, more commonly known as the Warthog due to its distinctive paint job, is a plane so massively ugly it loops back around to looking good again. Designed and deployed during the time before cheap, effective guided missiles made close air support planes obsolete, the A-10 is a one of a kind design - Able to take more damage then most armored land vehicles and still function, built around a massive 30mm Gatling gun that's still terrifying to this day, and loaded with enough rockets to take on God himself and arguably come out on top, the A-10 looks good, takes hits like a champ, and brought smiles to US infantrymen everywhere.

The A-10 also has the distinction of being the ultimate of its kind, most likely in a very literal sense. The niche it fulfilled has been made obsolete by other technologies, but it is still superlatively good at it. Like tank destroyers or battleships, we are unlikely to see their like again, so it'll remain the best there was.

OTOH, there is something to be said about dedicated CAS planes for low intensity conflict operations, but these tend to be cheap civilian aircraft with gunpods, that often wouldn't be too out of place during WW2. A much better CAS plane than not having a CAS plane, but made with cost in mind.

...

I like the idea of the AC130, in that you take an ordinary transport with a large cargo capacity, and fill that space up with artillery.

The A-10 just has so much character. Jets have gotten faster, stealthier, more high-tech, able to engage with air-to-air missiles and advanced radar from miles and miles away. ...And then you have the A-10, which flies low, slow, and is literally built around an obscenely-large gun. It picked one thing to do well, and it stuck to it even as the times changed around it. Hell, I don't think it even *has* a radar on board (which is a bit of an advantage, since it makes it harder for other jets and radar-detecting systems to see). It's just such an oldschool sort of aircraft, and I guess there's just something romantic about it too, being one of the last gunfighters still left in the air.

Speaking of great CAS planes...

Spoiler

The Douglas Skyraider was arguably even more of a workhorse than the A-10 back in its own day. It was a big, powerful aircraft able to carry both a huge amount, and wide variety, of ordinance. It first flew in 1945, and variants of it served in all three branches of the US military (among others) through the Korean and Vietnam wars, and everything in between. It wasn't officially retired from service until 1985. There's even a confirmed case of a Skyraider shooting down a MiG-17 during the Vietnam war.

 

[Jux]

A-10 is one of my favorites, but one I haven't seen listed is the Douglas AC-47 "Spooky". Because yea, let's just mount 3 7.62mm mini guns to one side of the plane, why not? Also a fan of Wild Weasels, especially the F-4G incarnation. Like a game of flashlight tag, but with missles.

 

[rcs619]

A-10 is one of my favorites, but one I haven't seen listed is the Douglas AC-47 "Spooky". Because yea, let's just mount 3 7.62mm mini guns to one side of the plane, why not? Also a fan of Wild Weasels, especially the F-4G incarnation. Like a game of flashlight tag, but with missles.

There is definitely a certain charm to ground-attackers. They aren't usually fancy, or flashy, or the most glamorous assignments, but they arguably provide a more vital role in the overall war than any fighter aircraft. Fighters clear the air so that CAS aircraft can help win the ground-war. I know I keep bringing up WWII, but that's probably where I'm the most familiar...

So we've talked about the A-10 and our almost universal love for it, but I think it's about time we showed some love to its direct ancestor. The Republic P-47 Thunderbolt.

Spoiler

Spoiler

The P-47 was an absolute workhorse of its day. It was a big, heavy, notoriously rugged high-altitude fighter that later became one of the most prolific fighter-bombers of the war when the P-51 took on a larger and larger share of overall bomber escort duties. These things could carry a large load of rockets and bombs, came equipped with eight .50cal browning machine guns, and were known to shrug off crazy amounts of battle-damage and still return to base.

 

[Thaluikhain]

There is definitely a certain charm to ground-attackers. They aren't usually fancy, or flashy, or the most glamorous assignments, but they arguably provide a more vital role in the overall war than any fighter aircraft. Fighters clear the air so that CAS aircraft can help win the ground-war.

Fighters also allow or deny everything else in the air as well, though, such as strategic bombing and reconnaissance.

And fighter aircraft can be used for ground assault if necessary anyway. Not saying dedicated CAS didn't have its palce, but I think you are overstating it a bit.

 

[SecondPrize]

I'm with you on the Lighting. I played far too much Air Warrior back in the 90s and the P-38 J was my baby.
Second favorite will have to be the F4U Corsair.

Spoiler

 

[FalloutJack]

I can't help it. The speed of that plane is a thing of wonder.