Favorite WW2 Warbird? - The greatest generation of bird.

[Day Drinking]

All right sure, something normal. I am a big fan of warplanes and aviation from WWI through Vietnam. I personally hold the planes and technology overall used during WWII to be the most fascinating. Skill and tactics were being well developed, and it is the last war to have spectacular conflicts between massive air forces on either side. Whether the Luftwaffe, RAF, USAF, or whatever the hell the Russians were calling their force, there were some amazing marks of achievement and growth. WWII was truly a war with adapting tech to support the foot soldier, and air superiority ended up paving the way to victory in many later conflicts.

So of all the many warbirds, which is your favorite, and/or honorary second? This can be based on anything; firepower, looks, usability, survival ratings. It doesn't matter. Hell, maybe you're a fan of a WWI relic brought in and updated to play a new role.

My favorite, and it's one of the few times you will ever hear me give praise for anything britbong, is the Supermarine Spitfire.

I've loved this plane from the moment I first set eyes on it. Decent firepower, above average handling, and looks to boot. I like all variants of the Spitfire, it is a very well designed plane and is built around my favorite style of dog fighting. The later versions got beefier engines to help with speed, but she's a platform for out maneuvering your opponent and video games generally capture the spirit well. If there's anything the Brits did great, it's most certainly this beauty of the skies.

My hard second is certainly not the best to be seen around, but a solid platform for it's role. And that's shooting down those damn slant eyed rice burners. The P-40 Warhawk.

Obviously popularized by the feats accomplished by the Flying Tigers, the P-40 is an underdog and holds a low bar for what it can actually accomplish. But despite being rubbish on paper, the Warhawk performed well against the Japanese, boasting superior speed combined with menial firepower. More of a hit and run style fighter, I appreciate this plane for its looks and robustness. She performed many tasks, from air defense to ground attack, and always came back for more. Being able to operate in sub standard conditions, the P-40 also saw a lot of use in Africa. Despite being mostly obsolete before the end of the war, the Warhawk saw service well beyond WWII and was adapted into being mainly a close air support platform.

 

[millais]

I like the ones with a bubble canopy, like the later models of RAF and USAAF fighter-interceptors and fighter-bombers, so you can just glance over your shoulder and have a whole field of view of your six o'clock. Fighter aircraft cockpit visibility has only declined since those days.

The German fighters with semi-bubble canopy like later model Fw-190s and Me-109s are alright, but cockpit visibility is definitely not as good as pure bubble canopy like the Anglo-American fighters, which benefited from the Allies' superior ability to manufacture larger pieces of perspex acrylic.

I also like the fighters with wider landing gear stance, like the Fw-190, compared to narrower stance like the Me-109 or Spitfire. Looks a lot easier to land with the wider stance, and more forgiving on the rough surface of frontline airfields.

Also, anything rocking 20mm MG 151s or Hispano-Suizas is a plus. That 20mm caliber cannon seems to be the sweet spot between ballistics performance and explosive effect.

 

[Norbert the Tiger]

Focke Wulf 190. with the ME BF 109 as an honorable mention. Always good to pull for the good guys.

 

[millais]

Focke Wulf 190. with me 109 as an honorable mention. Always good to pull for the good guys.

View attachment 4741976

I understand the 109's cockpit ergonomics were pretty rough across all models. The narrowness of the fuselage (and subsequently the cockpit), meant that it was sometimes difficult to get full range of motion on the control stick because the stick would bump into the pilot's legs on either side when going to full right/left roll.

There is so little space in the 109 cockpit that you never see any survival gear in the cockpit; they always stashed that stuff in the fuselage. I always wondered about the stories where 109 pilots would cram a mechanic or crew chief into their cockpit when relocating to a new airfield so they wouldn't have to wait for ground transport to catch up.

 

[Car Won't Crank]

The PBY Catalina

 

[Neo-Nazi Rich Evans]

ive always had a soft spot for the p-47

 

[Distant Ranger]

Definitely the BF-109

 

[Iron Jaguar]

Me-262

 

[Poppavalyim Andropoff]

ze JU-87 my niggez

 

[0ctober lust]

The Yourmom-42069.

 

[HandsomeDan]

Wildcat and P-40, as they were both older but capable air frames. Many current warbird pilots will tell you the Wildcat is their favorite aircraft to fly.

My choice for overall menacing aircraft FW-190 with wing cannons.

 

[Day Drinking]

The Yourmom-42069.

The Yourmom-42069 is known for being a comfortable fit to many pilots, but it sandbags and makes a bunch of whiny noises, causing many of these to only fly her once. An interesting choice.

Many current warbird pilots will tell you the Wildcat is their favorite aircraft to fly.

Interesting it would be the Wildcat. I would have figured the Hellcat or F4U would be better.

FW-190 latewar was a pretty menacing plane. It's too bad Germany was putting up pilots with enough training on how to take off and that's about it at the time.

 

[WelperHelper99]

The Grumman TBF Avenger is pretty cool, a sexy ass torpedo bomber with a bubble turret in the back, lots of guns, 2000 pound payload, can still buy cool model kits to this day, I loved finding out about it.

 

[Day Drinking]

The Grumman TBF Avenger is pretty cool, a sexy ass torpedo bomber with a bubble turret in the back, lots of guns, 2000 pound payload, can still buy cool model kits to this day, I loved finding out about it.
View attachment 4754558

I remember the torpedo mission in the game Secret Weapons Over Normandy. God getting a perfect score on that mission SUCKED DICK. I think it was the Battle of Midway. I've never forgiven the Avenger and always preferred the Dauntless.

 

[WelperHelper99]

I remember the torpedo mission in the game Secret Weapons Over Normandy. God getting a perfect score on that mission SUCKED DICK. I think it was the Battle of Midway. I've never forgiven the Avenger and always preferred the Dauntless.

It's in a Vidya? Woah. I just found it from a youtube video then looking it up on Wikipedia lol. It seems obscure despite its importance as a ship killer. I mean, the Black Cats level in CoD World at War let me know about the PBY Catalina, so I don't doubt it, just never heard of that game

 

[Day Drinking]

It's in a Vidya? Woah. I just found it from a youtube video then looking it up on Wikipedia lol. It seems obscure despite its importance as a ship killer. I mean, the Black Cats level in CoD World at War let me know about the PBY Catalina, so I don't doubt it, just never heard of that game
View attachment 4761004

Indeed. A Lucas Arts Entertainment game, no less.

I had it on PS2, but it's also available for Xbox and PC. If you 100% the game, you unlock the X-Wing and Tie Fighter for mission use. To 100% a level, there was a time requirement. The Avenger portion you have to find the Japanese carrier after repelling the attack on the Yorktown. They give you 5 minutes to complete this section with a requirement to shoot down X amount of planes. Absolutely fucking awful on a casual playthrough. You have to torp the carrier, which slows it down and the next part of the mission has you taking the Dauntless to finish the carrier off. I am fairly certain that was this game. I have played a few similar games with the same mission requirements, so my memory might be bleeding over. I call this with 75% certainty.

 

[make_it_so]

I like some of the Pacific Theater warbirds.
F6F Hellcat

A6M Zero

 

[Neo-Nazi Rich Evans]

I like some of the Pacific Theater warbirds.
A6M Zero
View attachment 4761689

terry said this is god's favorite airplane, so you are in good company.

when it comes to planes used in the pacific ive always had a thing for the corsair:

 

[make_it_so]

A less well known but vital war-winning plane, the Ilyushin Il-2 Sturmovik.

 

[HarblMcDavid]

Ooo, this is a tough one, it's a 3 way tie for me, but all for different reasons.

Contender 1 is the P38 Lightning:

Not the most versatile when it comes to logistics, but it could go a fuck of a long way, hang a lot of shit off it, and did what it did extremely well...and quietly. IIRC P38s took down Yamamoto by utterly blindsiding his air convoy which certainly took one of the greatest minds on the Japanese side out of the way.

Big, quiet, lots of easy to aim guns, excellent range, lots of capacity, very hard to argue with.


Next up, Contender 2 looks very similar, the P-61 BlackWidow:

Not nearly as operationally impressive as the P-38, but super specialized designs like this, a night-fighter with remote turrets and mutli-position turret operation capabilities, radar focused, that kind of shit really tickles my autism and it just looks fucking cool from where I'm standing.

This one pure looks and design concept for me.


Finally, Contender 3 is the most operationally impressive of them all, the C-47 Skytrain:

You might be thinking, wait, that's not a warbird? The fuck are you doin'? That's cheating right?

Maybe not during WWII, but they were designed, produced, and used in WWII by almost everyone the allies could dump them on, and most importantly, in 'Nam they became gunships used to extremely deadly effect, the AC-47 spooky.

That sounds like a warbird of sorts to me.

Later, not all that long ago actually, Colombia would use even further modified versions, the AC-47T Fantasma, to break FARC and force them to come to the table by blowing up every man-shaped heat signature their FLIR systems would find on the jungle floor after dark, issuing commands to the civilian populations that "Honest men should stay inside after dark". It worked, the commies were utterly and completely buck broken, unable to keep going, and most of the time they never heard it coming as these Bats out of Hell used exceedingly quiet turbocharged engines, guns, visual and aiming systems that pilots during WWII could never have imagined to make it happen.


In that sense, it might be the longest serving WWII "warbird" of all, but didn't become warbirds until after WWII. I guess that is kind of cheating but the history is too fun to ignore.