Which WWII fighter would you fly?


  • I saw an interesting program today on people who refurbish old WWII planes. Got me to thinking, if you had the money which one would you try to find? A description of fighters can be found at http://www.acepilots.com/planes/main.html#top


  • I wanted to post more options, but the forum only allows for 10 it seems. You could optionally vote for the P61 Black Widow, F4f Wildcat, Ki43 Oscar or Yak-3.


  • I voted Zero as I was out at the Dulles Air and Space Museum yesterday and the tour guide had all these facts on performance and manuverability and it sounds like the Zero was the best in teh sky overall. But if I had my druthers I would pick the Me262, would have been fun to fly around in a jet back then.

    BTW if any of your are air/space buffs, the Enterprise exhibit is completed and you can walk right up to it sitting there in the museum, pretty cool to look at. The SR-71 sitting in front of it just makes it look that much cooler.


  • @haxorboy:

    I voted Zero as I was out at the Dulles Air and Space Museum yesterday and the tour guide had all these facts on performance and manuverability and it sounds like the Zero was the best in teh sky overall. But if I had my druthers I would pick the Me262, would have been fun to fly around in a jet back then.

    BTW if any of your are air/space buffs, the Enterprise exhibit is completed and you can walk right up to it sitting there in the museum, pretty cool to look at. The SR-71 sitting in front of it just makes it look that much cooler.

    The Zero had a big disadvantage in that it was so light that the American planes could go into a dive to escape it. Once the Americans learned this, it was lights out.
    The Spitfire had a disadvantage that it used a carburator instead of fuel injection so the Germans learned they could try to induce the Brits to go inverted and stall them. The Messerschmidts had their own disadvantage in fuel tank capacity. In the Battle of Britain, the Brits waited until the fighter cover had to return to base and then go wild on the German bombers. In dogfights, the two planes pretty much traded off kills.


  • That and we they stopped using Hellcats in the Pacific theater and switched to F4’s and P-38’s removed from strafing missions. They had one of the little rocket powered death missles there from the Japanese when they went full on Kamakazi…can you imagine strapping up in basically a warhead that had flight controls for you to fly right into a ship.

    They had some cool facts about the WWI stuff…it was interesting that the guide pointed out that during WWI, the war was fought about 75% in France and they suffered huge casualites. So when WWII came around they were still a generation removed for men able to serve in the army, so they didn’t really have one…kinda puts in jeers against then being a push over in WWII in perspective.


  • I always liked watching Baa Baa Blacksheep so I voted Corsair. I also like the look of the Flying Tigers P40s with the sharks teeth painted on.

  • '19 Moderator

    I would have to go with the Me 262, but the P38 is a close second.


  • You guys and your american planes!

    What was wrong with the Spitfire, anyway?

    As for the Battle of Britain kill ratio being equal, if it was the Luftwaffe would have won easily. As I recall, wasn’t it more like 3:1 in favour of the Brits in the end?

    I suppose the British pilots bailing out over home-soil helped though…

    When push comes to shove, if you’ll forgive the expression, it was the relative production scales that most affected fighter supremacy. The US were just able to produce far, far more planes and pilots than anyone else.

    I reckon.


  • The Spitfire was nice, but the Hurricane was the plane that fought the majority of Battle of Britain. The Spitfire had a flaw with the canopy being sunk flush with teh back of teh plane, which lead to angle of attack advantages to the German’s, it was teh same issue with teh P-40, which lead to the bubble canopy’s of the later fighters rolled out like the P-51 and the later models of the Spitfire to correct that problem.

    The Brits would have been wiped out if the German luftwaffe would have used more commen sense with the blitz on bombing Berlin. It was the decision to not increase fuel capacity on the Me109’s that lead to the bombers being easy targets for teh Hurricanes and Spitfires. Overall though the Spitfire was teh model for teh P-51, without looking it up didn’t we use the engine for it on the Mustang?

  • '18 '17 '16 '11 Moderator

    But the P-38 looked the cutest. And it was black. (I think it was….maybe dark green?)


  • The P-38 was either dull olive or polished silver depending on where it was based…


  • @haxorboy:

    The Spitfire was nice, but the Hurricane was the plane that fought the majority of Battle of Britain. The Spitfire had a flaw with the canopy being sunk flush with teh back of teh plane, which lead to angle of attack advantages to the German’s, it was teh same issue with teh P-40, which lead to the bubble canopy’s of the later fighters rolled out like the P-51 and the later models of the Spitfire to correct that problem.

    The Brits would have been wiped out if the German luftwaffe would have used more commen sense with the blitz on bombing Berlin. It was the decision to not increase fuel capacity on the Me109’s that lead to the bombers being easy targets for teh Hurricanes and Spitfires. Overall though the Spitfire was teh model for teh P-51, without looking it up didn’t we use the engine for it on the Mustang?

    The P51 was originally underpowered until the British suggested the Rolls Royce engine for it.
    The major flaw of the spitfire was that it had a carburator instead of fuel injection. When the plane went inverted, gravity caused it to stall as there was no fuel for the carb. German planes would often try to force the Spitfires to do this.


  • I only fly Stukas regardless of how many got shot down. :lol: :wink:


  • @stuka:

    I only fly Stukas regardless of how many got shot down. :lol: :wink:

    That’s good, but you’re a bomber pilot then. I’m going to be a fighter pilot and get all the girls.


  • In WWII, you could have been a pilot of a blimp and got play…


  • Hell, in WW2 you could have been working a supply depot and still pull some A$$ also…


  • True story…was thinking about that after I posted, all accept Gomer Pyle maybe…

  • '18 '17 '16 '11 Moderator

    Hek Stuka….you probably got MORE play in a supply depot then as a pilot…especially if you were in a supply depot in say, New York? wink


  • The Mustang was the best fighter out there, until the Krauts developed jets. id love to fly a mustang.


  • @Craig:

    There is a story about Kurt Tank flying a protoytpe from one place to another when he was jumped by a couple of P-51. He had installed a special injection system on this plane and as the American planes were lining him up, he flicked the switch and left them in his dust!

    @marine36:

    The Mustang was the best fighter out there, until the Krauts developed jets. id love to fly a mustang.

    Seems like the FW 190 was better than the Mustang.

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