Favorite plane of WW2?

[Extra Crispy]

What's your favorite plane of WW2?

Mine is a tie between the IL-2 and the P-47. The P-38 and Yak-9 are close seconds. I just love big. beefy, tough planes, over the usual ** CENSORED ** lines of a P-51 or a Spitfire.

[nashorn88]

Stuka or ME109

[panzergator]

I'd go with P47 and B17. Tough birds.

[redleg]

I'm with you guys. Something about that big P47 and those 8 big machine guns just screams aerial bully! I've always been a fan. I loved reading about Gabreski and his adventures in the jug.

On the Navy side there are some planes that my grandfather flew in during the war, so I am a big fan for sentimental reasons: Dauntless, Helldiver, Avenger, Catalina, Duck. Most of his funniest and craziest stories took place in the Duck. I would love to get my hands on a 1/285 scale J2F!

[Beagle]

Slippery slope for me, hence why I spend so much time at the museum. I tend to put more into picking planes than just how fast it was, or what it’s kill ratio was, or how many famous aces flew it. I factor in the history of the plane, it’s overall role, I even put aesthetics into it, lol. For me I’d have to say the Lanc, it was such a cool and versatile plane than just a heavy bomber. The Dambusters, dropping SOE and OSS agents, towing gliders, targeted raids with tall boys, day raids, night raids…. Besides, I’ve always had a thing for the RAF. There are plenty of planes I love just for the way they look, even though they may have been lawn darts, lol.

[Brigade Commander]

For me it is the PBY-5A. The amphibious version. After that would be the B-24 Liberator. Two families I have known over the years their fathers were B-24 pilots. I remember what the one family always said their father would tell them: "If you want the target destroyed you send B-24's. If you want the crews to return you send B-17's." Of course he would also say it took several more missions for the B-17's to get it done. Both returned from the war obviously because I knew the children but I never got to meet the one, already passed away and only briefly met the other.

[Extra Crispy]

Tough birds is right.

I think the P-47 is like the hurricane. A serious workhorse overshadowed by a ** CENSORED ** sibling.

[panzergator]

Like Phantom F4.

[Beagle]

The Mustang took awhile to come into its own though, the early Allison powered Mustangs were less than stellar. As was the A-36.

[BurtWolf]

Hey beagle, I got to see an operational Lancaster at an air show a few years ago. We were on a Grassfield and we could stand next to it as they started the engines off. It was so large and impressive and the throaty noise those engines made was just phenomenal…

While I love many of them, including that brawny P47, my favorite plane of WW2 is the FW190. Many variants, great fighting machine etc.

[Beagle]

I have some pictures someplace of probably the same Lanc, it was at an air show at the museum back in 2015ish? I thought the pictures were on my laptop, but I guess not. If I remember right, it’s based out of a museum in Canada, I want to say Ottawa? But yes, it is super cool to see one up close, and even cooler to see it fly.

[MechCommander]

I have some pictures someplace of probably the same Lanc, it was at an air show at the museum back in 2015ish? I thought the pictures were on my laptop, but I guess not. If I remember right, it’s based out of a museum in Canada, I want to say Ottawa? But yes, it is super cool to see one up close, and even cooler to see it fly.

I got to go inside a Lancaster Bomber that was being restored in Nanton Alberta.

[Beagle]

That would be super cool to do. FM213 is based in Hamilton, Ontario.

[BurtWolf]

I think the one I saw was based out of Ontario. Probably saw it around 2016 at an air show in New York.

Other thing that impressed me was it was so big, but then to imagine 400 or more of these things flying together on a binning mission seemed incredible. Beautiful plane, I admired it much. Made the B17 nearby seem small…

[Extra Crispy]

I think it is just hilarious that the word ess ee ecks why gets censored by the forum software!