Which WW2 aircraft would you pick?

[Giorgio N]

16 hours ago, Seahawk said:

I know this question is just a bit of fun but it made me think of its very sobering corollary: which aircraft would you NOT have wanted to go to war in?  Think of all the candidates: from the Battle, Lerwick, Botha, Buffalo and Vildebeeste all the way through to the marginally acceptable like the Blenheim, early Halifax and Fulmar.  Then think of the thousands who did and paid the ultimate price. 

 

Of the ones you list I'd say that the Battle would have probably been my least desirable choice, followed by the Blenheim, at least in the ETO. These were types that most immediately realized were going to be hopeless against the enemy. Mind, serving in Bomber Command or the USAAF heavy bomber force was never the safest thing to do anyway regardless of how good the types flown were

Of course I may have had to choose from a local aircraft and in this case it would be hard to choose... guess that both the Breda Ba.65 and Ba.88 would top the list, as they were very soon considered to be "of little operational value", an euphemism to say that one was a sitting duck even for a kid with a slingshot and the other was so dangerous to fly that the whole fleet ended up being relegated as decoys. Thinking about it, being a Ba.88 pilot may have meant a high chance of surviving since most never flew more than a handful of missions...

Then there were those situations where the odds were so much against a pilot that no matter the aircraft, his life expectancy would have been short anyway: the Bf.109K may have been a very good aircraft but any German pilot in 1945 would have been way outnumbered anyway.

And yet with all the above, there seems to have never been a shortage of young men willing to fly against the enemy even when survival was less than guaranteed. Be it for the thrill of flying or patriotism, sense of Duty or simply because many just felt it was the right thing to do in that moment.

[stever219]

17 hours ago, malpaso said:

Yes, I was thinking similarly, a nice Stearman or Tiger Moth to amble around the sunny countryside along way away from the shooting, especially if I got sent stateside or to an empire school...as long it wasn’t in Canada in mid-winter!

Don’t forget though; those jolly Jerries with their special sense of fun lurking near the circuits of flying training schools waiting for a nice juicy student and/or instructor to permanently and irrevocably put off getting into the action..

 

My choices would have to be Fw 190: since reading Eric Brown’s account of flying captured examples in Air Internationalin the mid-seventies.  It was fast, manouvreable, had good fighting view, reliability, ease of ground handling and a decent punch.  Tempest V for pretty much the same reasons.  

 

Moving up the Mosquito’s already been mentioned, but the B-26 has got to be an option; fast, well-armed but challenging to fly, especially approach and landing.  

 

Lancaster, goes without saying, but the Hercules-engined Halifax was very good too, and the pilots had a better chance of bailing out than their compatriots in Lancasters.  Ju 88; Germany’s Mosquito-equivalent MRCA but I do wish they’d done something about the cockpit glasshouse: too high an iron-to-glass ratio.

[Chillidragon]

Foo Fighter for me.

[Neil.C]

Tempest V, a real rip snorting powerhouse with armament to match. 

 

I must admit a Beaufighter night fighter appeals too because of the stalking aspect. 

[fatalbert]

As long as it was serviceable,the westland whirlwind,just because it looks so cool ☺

[invidia]

Spitfire f22/f24.  Love late mark spitfires. Or a martin baker MB5, it just looks like a fighter. 

[Phil32]

If I could guarentee purely air to air combat, the XIVe low back. As I cant, the Tempest V.

The long list of types I would try to avoid brings home the sheer amount of bravery that was in the air.

[Truro Model Builder]

I think it's more about what would your ideal aircrew posting be as much as which aircraft. For example it would be easy to say the Spitfire I except that you might have to put up with the Area Fighting Tactics that were the standard in Fighter Command before they received a rude awakening in spring 1940.

 

But, in terms of pure aircraft I would say the Mosquito or the Tempest. High performance, great looks... what's not to like?

 

In terms of which aircraft to stay relatively safe, then Coastal Command Sunderlands -mostly dull with the occasional excitement.

 

But as to a nice, juicy posting, then it would have to be a staff instructor on the Mitchell at No.111 Operational Training Unit; lots of instructional work, with occasional anti-submarine patrols thrown in. Oh, and did I say No.111 OTU was based for its three years of life at Nassau in the Bahamas? Dirty work, but I suppose someone has to do it...

[AeroNautique]

de Havilland Hornet. Handling, performance, fire-power, visibility and redundancy all in one package. Eric Brown waxed lyrical about the Hornet, it's a shame they weren't proven in combat.

 

If the Hornet doesn't count, I'll take any mark of Spitfire with a Griffon up front.

 

I wouldn't complain about being posted to P-51s either, just wish they had heavier armament.

[At Sea]

Mosquito. 2 engines. Fast. 

 

PR.11 or PR.19 Spitfire.  just for the beauty of the things.

[FalkeEins]

here's a rare (pre-Battle of Britain) vote for the Dewoitine D.520. Hubert Amédée Charles Henri Vincent Irumberry de Salaberry  of  GC I/3 shot down the Bf 109 E of the Gruppenkommandeur of III./JG 2, Major Erich Mix on 21 May 1940.

 

“ ..up ahead of me I caught sight of a D.520 on its back with its gear extended, a rather unusual sight at this altitude. It was wreathed in a huge sheet of bright orange flame, blazing from the engine cowl to the tail fin like a huge torch. The cockpit seemed to have disappeared. It was a haunting sight in the bright blue sky. Less than one hundred metres behind it a Bf 109 continued to squirt out burst after burst of fire as if at a fairground shooting range, sporadic flashes of flame dancing along its wing leading edges. I was filled with an overwhelming desire to deal this 109 some of its own medicine. After a quick glance behind to check my rear, I dropped down in behind the ‘Fritz’. He had seen me and understood straight away that the hunter was now the prey. He did what all German fighters do when they are caught napping – he rolled onto his back and dropped like a stone, counting on being able to build up enough speed to put some distance between us. I wasn’t about to let him go. I rolled with him and headed down vertically, my engine screaming with the throttle against the stop. I had full confidence in my aircraft, the Dewoitine was very stable and the engine & prop behaved themselves impeccably... Reeling the 109 slowly in during our headlong dive I unleashed several brief bursts from directly astern. The German pilot didn’t react and continued on down. Suddenly I noticed the sky becoming darker, realised that the ground was rushing up toward us. Crushed by the deceleration as I eased out the dive I lost sight of the German. I orbited the area but could see nothing. Below me the countryside was peaceful and unremarkable...”