TFARCHIVE FORUMS

http://listverse.com/2011/04/04/top-10- ... rld-war-2/

I'd say the Saro Lerwick and Caudron 714 should be on there instead of the Me163 and the Okha (all Kamikaze aircraft had abysmal stats, and the Okha only killed people who were going to die in another aircraft anyway) but it's not a bad list.

I do disagree with the intro, though, as I'm finding it bloody difficult to come up with a list of the ten best.

1/ Messerschmidt Bf 109 - first choice German interceptor for basically the entire war. Most of the German pre-war designs stayed in operation for the whole conflict due to the lack of replacement types, this one did because it deserved it.
2/ Supermarine Spitfire - again, being arguably the best of its' class for practically the entire war says something.
3/ Focke-Wulf 190 - operational record speaks for itself.
4/ P-51 Mustang - C-version up. Fast, agile and - unlike the above trio - just as good on ground attack. Still used in Korea a decade later.
5/ De Havilland Mosquito - versatile, capably filling several roles, fast, good-looking, popular with pilots
6/ F6F Hellcat - the first US fighter that could genuinely take the Zero, thus pivotal in the Pacific. The F4U Corsair was a better plane, but I don't think it was as important.
7/ Il-2 Sturmovik - perfectly tailored for its' theatre, almost as versatile at the Mosquito.

After that I'm struggling a little for aircraft that stand out from the crowd. The Zero didn't stay the course as well as the Bf. 109 like most Japanese designs. The Allied strategic bombers were decent aircraft but benefitted from very good tactics, force of numbers and ever-dwindling opposition. The Me-262 was the finest jet of the war but was misused by the Luftwaffe (and the Meteor was only used for home defence. The Hurricane would be a sentimental choice when really it was being phased out by the middle of the war. None of the Russian interceptors really stands out. Various superb designs (Ta-152, N1K-J, La-7) didn't see much service despite being superior types.

Bit of a headache, really.

He he he. Focke.

Other than the importance of the Spitfire (which thanks to Doctor Who we know could fight aliens in space) we never really touched on any of the equipment side in school lessons despite doing WWII about 12 times over the years.

The Messerschmidt Me 262 is definitely the most important one of the whole war, because it inspired all the post-war early jets and was vastly superior to what the Allies had made on their own.

Important, yes, but I'd argue whether it was a great aircraft of the war due to Hitler's insistence on its' initial use as a fast bomber, due to the Luftwaffe's diminishing ability to operate it and due to the negligible good it did the German cause. I'd also argue that it wasn't 'vastly' superior to the Meteor or the P-80; superior, but not by a big margin.

It was superior enough to spur rapid improvements to Allied aircraft, that makes it vastly superior to me.

Once the Allies got their hands on 262s, everything about jet aircraft started to improve much more rapidly than it had been.

I agree to the BF 109 to be the best, most important aircraft of the war.

As already said there were newer and better planes coming to service, but lacking the time and resources to establish themselves as important.

Although being not a combat plane, the backbone of the German transport logistics in the air was the Junkers ju 52 throughout the war. Use as mail and passenger plane before the war and as transport for materials, troops and paratroopers during it. Also for long range reconnaissance.

This is definitely among the best or the war would have been totally different.

Maybe similar to the c47 sky train?

I would have said the Brewster Buffalo however it was hampered by the fact that the types sold abroad and these would be the majority that saw combat were supplied as an export version with a lower horsepower engine.

Also the Finns achieved some remarkable successes with the aircraft against the Russians. The aircraft was obviously suited to that particular theatre of war.

Much like the Swordfish was seen as a success in the theatre it was employed in ie; the Atlantic but would have been slaughtered n the Pacific

Yeh, I always had the Buffalo down as a bit of a flop until I read up on the Finnish service more recently. Finnish pilots must have a good claim on being the best in the world at the time with the types they got to work, and you have to wonder how much of the Buffalo's performance in Japan might have been down to inexperienced airmen (the US ones were, at the time, tactically naive and low on real experience; the British ones - like the aircraft - were the ones not needed for home defence). Finns also did very well with the MS406, Hurricanes and earlier Bf 109s long after they'd been superceded in their own airforces.

The Ju-52 and Dakota/Skytrain are good calls at the other end, actually - both also served for a long time after the war with civil airlines and the like IIRC.

I'd say it was more the transplanting of German designers and engineers to the US and (to a lesser extent) UK that shaped 1950s and onwards jets rather than the Me-262 itself. The Ta-183, despite being unproduced, was much more influential IMO. Plus the first generation of all-metal heavily-armed monoplane fighters such as the Bf. 109, Hurricane and P-35/P-36 were just as influential in their way. Most of the involved air forces had only began to move away from biplanes that were effectively highly developed WWI aircraft; the all-metal 400mph monoplane was a vital link in the chain.

Wow, that Ta-183 thing looks ten years ahead of its time. Amazing how something like that was thought up as the war was ending...