What is your favorite aircraft of all time?

[Sgt Brown]

I like the Goose with turbo prop engines.

Turbos? Heretic!

One of the rules (jokes) of our group is, should one of us win the lottery, they are NOT to buy a bomber. They are to buy a DC-3 with an executive interior. Paint the thing OD with invasion stripes so it looks right externally. However, who needs bench paratroop seating? Cushy seating. Bar. Poker tables. Galley. Etc., etc. Wanda and Trixi to wait on you while flying to the next airshow in style! Aaaaaahhhhh!lol

Tom

 

[RLM]

Turbos? Heretic!

One of the rules (jokes) of our group is, should one of us win the lottery, they are NOT to buy a bomber. They are to buy a DC-3 with an executive interior. Paint the thing OD with invasion stripes so it looks right externally. However, who needs bench paratroop seating? Cushy seating. Bar. Poker tables. Galley. Etc., etc. Wanda and Trixi to wait on you while flying to the next airshow in style! Aaaaaahhhhh!lol

Tom

Sounds like a good plan to me Sarge. I was thinking along the same lines. To gut a bomber and turn it into a transport would just be so wrong.

 

[Diamondback]

"Gut"? I'd just load the bomb-bay with a fuel-cell... go for the extra range, y'know?

 

[Dixon Cannon]

Ok then - not to be outdone!

I'll take the most unique aircraft - the Hughes XF-11

There were only two, and we all know what happened to the first one.

-dixon cannon

 

[MPicciotto]

Nothing says COOL like twin counter-rotating props.

Matt

 

[Fletch]

Gotta be Boeing Model 299, the prototype B-17, that crashed and burned on takeoff in 1935.

This replica 299 would tour the country offering rides and flybys. Accompanying it would be:
• Boeing's contemporary fighters, F4B and P-26
• an inter-war impression troupe with museum and newsreel theater tents
• hangar dance setup with a vintage lo-fi public address system and 78rpm turntables

 

[storman113]

Lockheed P-38

During the war, my dad worked at Lockheed on the P-38 line. Wish I had some pic's. He was exempt from the draft as essential to the manufacture of the planes. In his case a supervisor on the line. He had some great stories about life around the LA area during the war. Some about the false alarms of air attacks (the movie 1941), the huge netting strung over the factory, the protest marches against the war, and the hanky-panky that occurred on the production line with all the "Rosies". He later worked at the Skunk Works on the U-2 and the Blackbird.

 

[swaviator]

Gotta be Boeing Model 299, the prototype B-17, that crashed and burned on takeoff in 1935.

This replica 299 would tour the country offering rides and flybys. Accompanying it would be:
• Boeing's contemporary fighters, F4B and P-26
• an inter-war impression troupe with museum and newsreel theater tents
• hangar dance setup with a vintage lo-fi public address system and 78rpm turntables

Just don't forget to take the gust-lock of the elevator!

 

[Maj.Nick Danger]

Gotta be the shark mouthed P-40. Not exactly the "best" plane of the war when comparing statistics, but the P-40 and the pilots that flew them against overwhelming odds are legendary.

 

[Atterbury Dodd]

P-47.

P-47 in action: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shsxuauQA3w

 

[Mr. Godfrey]

Tante Ju (Ju 52)

As ever, the one I most desire is Tante Ju. I would have it with no paint, design my own tail design and travel round the world on my own private adventure

But I do like it in snow cammo!!!

Not sure about snow though lol

 

[Warden]

The iconic spitfire plane will fly over Bedfordshire once more thanks to a restoration project.

The Shuttleworth Collection, which displays and restores Edwardian planes, have turned their hands to the World War II plane.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/threecounties/hi/people_and_places/history/newsid_8562000/8562352.stm

 

[MikeBravo]

Might I suggest for your consideration...

Fighter: F4U Corsair
Strafer/Med Bomber: B25 a la George I "Pappy" Gunn conversion.
Strategic Bomber: B17

Now, how about the third most destructive individual aircraft - after the Enola Gay and Bocks Car - in World War II? You guessed it, the Piper L-4 Cub!

Unarmed in itself, the L-4 was one of the most feared aircraft in the Allied arsenal because it figuratively carried the armament of a battalion of artillery everywhere it flew. Take a pot shot at a grasshopper and your position could see more explosives dropped on it than even the largest bomber could deliver - and it could keep dropping all night long, if needed. When a L-4 flew over, the only thing that moved were the Germans' eyes, watching it pass by!

Sarge

One interesting thing about the L4 was that it was the last Allied plane to shoot down a German aircraft in WWII

"The Storch was also the last German aircraft shot down in air combat on the Western Front, on the morning of V-E Day. Lieutenants Duane Francies and William Martin, flying a Piper L-4 Cub for the 5th US Army Division, spotted a Storch circling below them. They immediately dove on the airplane and opened fire with their Colt .45s, with the result that the Storch made a emergency landing with its engine hit. The Americans landed their Cub and - following a short gun battle - captured the two Germans. Observer Martin won the Air Medal for his role, but pilot Duane Francies had to wait 22 years until the story was told in Cornelius Ryan's book, "The Last Battle," before he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. While it was the last Luftwaffe plane lost on the western front, this Storch was also the only German plane shot down by pistol fire during the Second World War."

 

[KingTigerII]

Bachem Ba 349B-1 Natter

 

[kampkatz]

That Natter is a fierce looking beast. Not intended to be graceful. It probably didn't win any beauty contests.

 

[KingTigerII]

That Natter is a fierce looking beast. Not intended to be graceful. It probably didn't win any beauty contests.

That's for sure XD
Also a fan of the ME-163b Komet

 

[Diamondback]

That Natter is a fierce looking beast. Not intended to be graceful. It probably didn't win any beauty contests.

Not intended to even land, either--you took it up, fired your rocket volley, and hit the silk. The "bird" (if you can call it one; really it's more like a human-guided SAM) had it's own separate chute, which didn't necessarily always work...

 

[Subvet642]

P-38 Lightning

 

[Spitfire41]

I think I've got go with the Spitfire...It close though with the P-51D. If it wasn't for the Spit's Merlin the P51 would not have been the plane that it was. And, the Spits held the tide and continued into the Korean War (Seafires)

But its a close one.....P-51's are beautiful!

 

[sfdistance]

Definitely the F4U Corsair for me. I love that inverted gull wing and the fact that it was made famous by the black sheep. That was a Marine's fighter plane. I also love the classic Wasp radial.