To be a pilot in WWII

[McNutt]

As a kid I was fascinated with WW2 aviation. Planes like the P-38, Spitfire, Me262 and Zero were drop dead gorgeous to me. I would daydream about being a pilot and what would I fly if I was given the choice.

I've always thought I'd fly the F6F Hellcat. It's my favorite plane and was dominant in the Pacific. It was better in almost every way than the Zero. However, the Japanese also had better planes than the Zero. They just weren't able to produce them in great quantities or give their pilots the adequate training. I've also read that some of these planes had substandard parts and maintenance because of wartime difficulties, which also kept them from fighting the Hellcat on even terms.

I love the Hellcat even if I would not join the Navy in a million years. I have a fear of going down on a sinking ship, much more than a fear of being overrun in a land battle.

I recently read that 99% of naval pilots that had to bail out over the Pacific were never recovered. That definitely changes things. With that hanging over the Hellcat, I'm going to have to change my vote to the P-47. Big, fast, heavily armored and insane armament.

What would you pick?

[em2nought]

Both of my favorites as well. Razorback preferred to bubble canopy. If the war hadn't ended before my father completed training I'd picture him in a P47 particularly "Little Chief".

Hurricane gets a prize for runner up.

[McNutt]

I'm a razorback fan too.

I saw a video on the Hurricane and I couldn't believe how cramped the cockpit was. The canopy was almost touching both the pilot's ears. Major claustrophobia.

[em2nought]

Oh, and I love the early P-40s. Flying Tigers Chiang Kai-shek style.

I picture myself in a much simpler aircraft such as an Albatros DIII

[dbt1949]

P-47. 8 50 cals and built like a tank.

[Punisher]

Just an FYI.
But if you are intersted in sims, I think that DCS has a P38 DLC for it.

[Kraken]

Oh, and I love the early P-40s. Flying Tigers Chiang Kai-shek style.

I picture myself in a much simpler aircraft such as an Albatros DIII

When I was around 14 years old I read a memoir by a WW1 aviator and became briefly obsessed with wood-and-fabric biplanes. I convinced myself that I'd been a flying ace in a previous life and I could climb into a cockpit and take off without a second thought, and I started saying "petrol" and "tarmac." The obsession faded, but sometimes I can still hear the wind in the wires. Yup, it was that book with that cover.

Your WWII planes are too fast and sophisticated for me, accustomed as my imagination is to nice slow biplanes.

[Rumpy]

I've always found it fascinating that it was only 10 years between the Wright Brothers's first flight and the start of WW1. After they were convinced of success, they tried selling their design to the US government, but the government was like, "Nah, we don't see much potential. We'll pass." Then only 10 or so years later, you have lots of planes flying and shooting others down during the war.

[disarm]

It's interesting how many of us had childhood obsessions with WWII aircraft. I think my interest stemmed from my dad being a WWII-era history buff and me being really into flight sims as a teenager (spent crazy amounts of time playing Aces over Europe). I also was into building model planes and that era was always readily available.

As for my favorite plane, I'll put in a vote for the P-51. The Thunderbolt was undoubtedly a great plane, but the Mustang had advantages in maneuverability, climbing, range and almost matched the P-47 for firepower. In fact, the P-47 often wasn't equipped with all eight guns that it was capable of carrying in order to save weight and increase range, making the two planes more equal from that perspective.

I also have to mention the F4U Corsair just because of how cool it looked, even if it wasn't the most impressive plane of the war.

I recently read that 99% of naval pilots that had to bail out over the Pacific were never recovered. That definitely changes things.

I'm reading the book Unbroken by Lauren Hillenbrand right now, and it details the life of a B-24 bombardier who served in the Pacific before being captured by the Japanese when his plane went down in the ocean. It's been a fascinating story all around, but some of the survival statistics are hard to imagine...

- 35,933 AAF planes were lost during the war; in the Pacific Ocean theater in 1943, for every one plane lost to combat, six were lost to accidents

- In some Pacific air divisions, as much as 70% of airmen officially listed as KIA were victims of operational aircraft accidents as opposed to enemy action. Planes were relatively new technology and used so heavily that many simply broke down

- Airmen in the Pacific had a roughly 50/50 chance of surviving their required 40 combat missions

Flying in WWII was incredibly dangerous even during training within the US...

- 52,651 stateside aircraft accidents occurred over the course of the war, killing 14,903 personnel; the vast majority were trainees who never left the states to see combat

[McNutt]

I think the Corsair was a better plane in the air than the Hellcat, but it was terrible as a carrier plane. If I were in the Marines the Corsair would definitely be my choice.

There's also something so pure about the Zero. It was made as a top-tier dogfighter, at least at the beginning of the war. But those things were death traps. No armor and a very high likelihood that they would become fireballs when hit.

I love going to museums and seeing some of those old planes on display. The WWII Museum in New Orleans has a great example of an Avenger. That thing is huge! It's very impressive.

[dbt1949]

I loved making models of the Avenger. I remember when I was younger in southern California watching them fighting fires. It really tickled me.

[raydude]

I've been fascinated by the Pacific campaign while growing up in Hawaii. Passing by Pearl Harbor on the way to school would do that to you I guess. I've found that in flight sims I can't quite grasp the intricacies of dogfighting, so I probably wouldn't be a fighter pilot. I also have a fondness for the Dauntless dive bombers, especially given how they performed at Midway. And scoring a hit on a Japanese carrier in Battlehawks 1942 was really cool.

So yeah, give me an SBD Dauntless Dive Bomber.

[hentzau]

Two weekends ago I had a chance to visit the Air Force Museum in Dayton. I only had about 2 hours there, not nearly enough time. I need to go back someday. I didn't make it any farther than the Early Flight/WWI/Interwar/WWII exhibits, but that's my area of interest anyway.

[LawBeefaroni]

Douglas VC-54C Skymaster. Mostly because the C variant was the plane used for Roosevelt and would be out of combat.

My favorite WWII planes are the P51 and P38. Would love to fly them but not a huge fan of getting shot at. If I had to, so be it, and I regularly think of those who had to. But given the option...



Watch The Cold Blue if you get a chance.

[Punisher]

I enjoyed making models of various planes, mostly modern jets. The majority of my models were scifi, but i had 3 blackbirds of various sizes and a few f14s and f16s. All hanging from the ceiling of course.
I wanted to be an astronaut as a kid and them found out my best chance would be if I was a military fighter pilot. Then found out I couldn't be a pilot if i needed glasses so those hopes died.
I loved the old microprose games. I have DCS but its a hard sim. They really go to extremes to recreate their stuff. I had to cheat the power startup because even turning the plane on was hard.

[dbt1949]

When I went in the army I wanted to be a chopper pilot but my eye sight precluded that.

[McNutt]

Did you guys ever play European Air War? That was a fantastic WWII flight sim.

[Octavious]

Yes it was awesome, but my favorite was Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe. As I kid I thought they were doing like a fantasy thing with the crazy planes Germany had.

[Kurth]

I always loved the P-61 Black Widow.

Not the fastest or most capable, but what a cool design.

[Kurth]

Also, I’m with those upthread who love the look of the F4U Corsair. Those gull wings are crazy elegant and make for some great lines.

[Scuzz]

I figured this would be a discussion about the new Amazon series Masters of the Air. A spin off maybe.

[Lassr]

I always loved the P-61 Black Widow.

Not the fastest or most capable, but what a cool design.

I admired the P-38 Lightning.

[Smoove_B]

The piloting stuff was never my bag, but I have a tremendous amount of respect and awe for what they were doing - essentially flying glorified go-karts by the seat of their pants. The little I've read and the stories I'm familiar with, I honestly don't know how they did it. Navigating was one thing, but the actual fighting or attacking ground targets? It's something I can't even process.

[Madmarcus]

I always loved the P-61 Black Widow.

Not the fastest or most capable, but what a cool design.

I loved the Mosquito. It really was the fastest (at least when it went into production).

[Default]

Greg's airplanes and automobiles channel on YouTube details a ton of WW2 warbirds. In one case, he has an eight part series on the P-47, forcefully demonstrating that it was the aircraft that killed the cream of the western front Lufwaffe.

[Kraken]

I had a flying model P51 Mustang -- the kind with an itty-bitty ICE engine that runs on castor oil or something. I asked for a RC plane but my parents didn't want to spend that much for a toy that would surely break, so they bought me the kind that's attached to a handle with two long wires coming out of one wing. You control the flaps by changing the angle of the handle and thereby the length of the wires, and since it can only fly in a circle you spin around and get dizzy. I flew it a few times before crashing and breaking it. Couldn't repair the damage and wasn't real keen to do so, since flying in a circle gets old fast and I don't like being dizzy.

[Blackhawk]

My own list:

P-38 Lightning
F4U Corsair (I have a temperature gauge from a Corsair on the shelf in my room)
Supermarine Spitfire
C-47 Skytrain
B-17 Flying Fortress

My father was born in '31, so he was of the properly 'impressionable' age during the war to really sink into the spirit of the homefront and the stories that were presented to the public. He kept that fascination with the period and the heroic fantasy version of WWII that people saw back then.

When I was a child, he passed a lot of that on to me. Movies, television, books (I was a big fan of Alistair MacLean in my later single digits/early doubles), and models. Oh so many models.

I'd say that my love for the Corsair probably came from growing up with Ba Ba Black Sheep/Black Sheep Squadron on TV, even though I now know that Greg Boyington wasn't the hero the propaganda made him out to be. Some days he claimed he personally shot down more planes than Japanese records show were even in the air that day, and those who were with him in the prison camp after he was captured said that of all of the prisoners, he was the only one who had gained weight before they were freed (implying that he was helping their captors.)

The C-47 isn't the most exciting plane in this thread, but it's always been one that I particularly enjoyed.

[Isgrimnur]

[mori]

Mine would be the Focke-Wulf 190D-9 Dora and then the TA-152. Did not like the looks of the earlier butcher birds but once they went to an inline engine instead of a radial, oh my . The German planes always interested me more. I also like the Fiat g.55 Centaur. It has those sexy Italian lines.

[Daehawk]

P-47 Thunderbolt The Jug

Read up on it. It was very well armored and threw down a pounding. Many forget about it with Mustangs and Spitfire flittering around. The Thunderbolt was a beast of a machine.

[Default]

If the bomber Mafia had not dictated that pursuit aircraft were not allowed to use drop tanks in combat, thousands of bomber screen would have survived the war. Jugs could escort bombers all the way into Germany from the beginning.
I used to work with a guy who was stationed in the Aleutians during WW2, and her said they called mustangs, Maytag messerschmitz, because the cylinder heads were made by the Maytag washing machine company. He also said they basically use them because they were cheaper than any other long-range plane to make, so economics is basically the reason. A p-38 cost twice as much as it did to make a mustang, and a thunderbolt cost about one and a half times if I remember correctly.

[mori]

I would not dispute any of that. The P-38 with an additional engine is also a wonderfully complex aircraft for its time. Not only more expensive to manufacture but to maintain. The P-47 is a massive aircraft compared to a P-51. Raw materials cost would be a massive difference.

[Blackhawk]

If the bomber Mafia had not dictated that pursuit aircraft were not allowed to use drop tanks in combat, thousands of bomber screen would have survived the war. Jugs could escort bombers all the way into Germany from the beginning.

Interesting - I'd never heard about that.

[gbasden]

If I could just jump in and fly one plane now it would have to be the Spitfire. It is such a beautiful and agile machine! If I had to be a pilot in wartime, though, you guys are totally right and it would have to be a Thunderbolt.

[em2nought]

When a P-47 Pilot Landed With One Wing

https://www.jetsprops.com/fighters/when ... e_vignette



I didn't even know Brazil participated in WW2 to that extent.

[GreenGoo]

It's interesting how many of us had childhood obsessions with WWII aircraft. I think my interest stemmed from my dad being a WWII-era history buff and me being really into flight sims as a teenager (spent crazy amounts of time playing Aces over Europe). I also was into building model planes and that era was always readily available.

WWII was closer to our birthdates than our birthdates are to us today. The world, at least NA, was still highly fascinated and even obsessed with all things WWII. Especially portraying the west as heroes. War movies were WWII movies, Black Sheep was a popular TV show, and WWII plane posters were everywhere, and war museums were filled with various planes from that era.

I can't over emphasize how much more focused media was on WWII during our childhoods than it is today. I think that's why most of us have a serious connection to many aspects of WWII despite being born a decade or more after (for many of us).

[McNutt]

The difference between WW2 and my birthday is less than the difference between Nirvana ending and now.

[disarm]

I can't over emphasize how much more focused media was on WWII during our childhoods than it is today. I think that's why most of us have a serious connection to many aspects of WWII despite being born a decade or more after (for many of us).

Thirty years after in my case...born in the late 70s. Schindler's List and Memphis Belle both came out when I was a teenager though, and I think the 50-year anniversary of the war brought it front and center again.

[Punisher]

I was born in 1970 and my favorite wwii tv show growing up was hogans heros.

[dbt1949]

1949 here. Pretty close to WW2 and when the Korea War started.