If you had to fly a warplane in WWII which would you chose?  Though many would consider the P-51 Mustang, an American plane with a British Rolls-Royce Merlin engine, the best plane of the war if I had to fly one it would be the P-38 Lightning.
    The P-38 had a lot of firepower.  It had four 50 Cal machineguns and a 20mm cannon, carried rockets, and could carry up to four thousand pounds of bombs.  It had good range, was very fast at 415 mph top speed, was very maneuverable, durable, and could limp home on just one engine if it had to.  It was a very versatile, formidable, rugged beast of a warplane. 

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If you like the P-38, you might like this story:

https://www.tthfanfic.org/Story-24258/Tanstaafl+Stingers.htm

It's fanfiction, but anything you need to know about the main character is explained in the story.  P-38 features heavily in the combat.  One of my favorite stories.

IF I WAS IN WWII THEY'D CALL ME SPITFIRE!

https://youtu.be/aQZDbBGBJsM

:D Love that song.

Oxnate wrote on Aug 3^rd, 2020 at 11:15pm:

If you like the P-38, you might like this story: https://www.tthfanfic.org/Story-24258/Tanstaafl+Stingers.htm It's fanfiction, but anything you need to know about the main character is explained in the story.  P-38 features heavily in the combat.  One of my favorite stories.

I read the first chapter.  Very good. It made me want to read the rest. Thanks.

spitfire - whatever the last combat model was.
There were a LOT of different model spitfires.

Before lockdown we went to the battle of britain airfield and did a tour of the planes and their hangar.
Fascinating.
You can't believe just how small those things actually were.
here's one in the process of being serviced.

I don't know what type it is - my mate would know :-)

If I had to pick a modern aircraft it would have to be a hawker harrier. Love those things !

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Rat Man wrote on Aug 4^th, 2020 at 10:34am:

Oxnate wrote on Aug 3rd, 2020 at 11:15pm: If you like the P-38, you might like this story: https://www.tthfanfic.org/Story-24258/Tanstaafl+Stingers.htm It's fanfiction, but anything you need to know about the main character is explained in the story.  P-38 features heavily in the combat.  One of my favorite stories. I read the first chapter.  Very good. It made me want to read the rest. Thanks.

You're welcome!  Glad you liked it.

on that p38 - what are the air intakes for in the tail ?

Can't be for cooling the engines. Did they have a supercharger type of thing going on ?

They are a weird looking design.

WW2 would be the Mustang. Modern day would be - https://youtu.be/e1otYo17sQI

https://youtu.be/H9lNj1OIIhE

Curious Aardvark wrote on Aug 4^th, 2020 at 2:38pm:

on that p38 - what are the air intakes for in the tail ? Can't be for cooling the engines. Did they have a supercharger type of thing going on ? They are a weird looking design.

I believe so.  The P-38 was the first American plane with supercharged engines.  And yes, it is a weird looking design but extremely effective.
If I had to pick a modern plane to fly I agree with Morphy. It would be the A-10 Thunderbolt otherwise known as the Warthog.  It is a terror to anything on the ground. 

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   For WWII planes I'd like to fly in combat I give honorable mention to the De Haviland Mosquito.  This is also a fighter/bomber like the P-38 but it has a very unique characteristic for a WWII warplane. It was made mostly of plywood.  The mosquito was a stroke of genius.  At a time when all metal was precious why not build a plane out of something cheap and plentiful.  The result was a huge success.  Because it was so light the Mosquito could fly at 415 mph... very fast for a fighter/bomber.  It was faster than almost any straight up fighter of the time.  It was an extremely versatile design with almost countless variants produced.  It was also the first stealth plane.  Because it was mostly wood it had a very small radar signature.  The Brits got it right with this one. 

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Not a warplane but the M-class blimp is what I'd fly on, patrolling the seas for U-boats.

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I'm also a fan of the p-38. I always liked the idea of not needing to worry about convergence, just the drop of the bullets.

My brother and I had many arguments about the p38 vs the p47

P-38s send Yamamoto to Happy Mountain:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKvJgFldgGA&t=8s

Rat Man wrote on Aug 7^th, 2020 at 4:39pm:

P-38s send Yamamoto to Happy Mountain: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKvJgFldgGA&t=8s

https://youtu.be/LkrlGdjj8L4?t=1639

Charles Lindbergh visited P-38 squadron in the Pacific in 1943 and greatly extended their range by teaching the pilots to fly at low RPMs for as long as possible.

He got one combat kill.

Oxnate wrote on Aug 8^th, 2020 at 11:32pm:

Rat Man wrote on Aug 7th, 2020 at 4:39pm: P-38s send Yamamoto to Happy Mountain: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKvJgFldgGA&t=8s https://youtu.be/LkrlGdjj8L4?t=1639 Charles Lindbergh visited P-38 squadron in the Pacific in 1943 and greatly extended their range by teaching the pilots to fly at low RPMs for as long as possible. He got one combat kill.

Interesting video.  I thought I knew just about everything about WWII but I had never heard that Lindbergh story before. 

  The Germans were literally decades ahead  of the rest of the world technologically.  If Hitler wasn't a a-hole they probably would have had the atom bomb first.  Here is the first functional jet fighter, Messerschmitt's ME-262.  It was roughly 100 mph faster than the fastest piston engine fighter, the P-51 Mustang.  It's swept wing design was copied by the Soviets, Brits, and Americans after the war.  IMO it is a beautiful plane.

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I've never looked into why or how ww2 germany had so much technological growth. What do you think was the reason?

    I honestly have no idea but it's astounding how far ahead of the rest of the world they were.  If they had developed the atom bomb first those of us left would all be speaking German now because they also had the means to deliver such a warhead.  The V-2 would have wiped out England and it would have only been a short  matter of time before they had an ICBM that could cross the Atlantic.  At that point the war would have been over. 

Rat Man wrote on Aug 21^st, 2020 at 1:38pm:

I honestly have no idea but it's astounding how far ahead of the rest of the world they were.  If they had developed the atom bomb first those of us left would all be speaking German now because they also had the means to deliver such a warhead.  The V-2 would have wiped out England and it would have only been a short  matter of time before they had an ICBM that could cross the Atlantic.  At that point the war would have been over.

Ratman, the V-2 did not have the lift capacity (1100 lbs via Wikipedia) to lift a nuclear weapon of 1945. The initial designs were massive and required modified B-29s to carry the load. Little boy was almost 10000 lbs and standard B-29s apparently only had a 5000 lbs lift capacity.  I doubt that within the scope of the war Germany would have had the resources to develop better delivery systems or bombs. They were stretched very, very thin by the front in Russia.

On that note, have you ever seen "WWII in Color" on Netflix? It is really good. It is 12 hours of colorized footage and a very condensed version of WWII that I thought was very well done. I learned a lot, but it does leave out a lot of important details of some of the conflicts. But that is what you get when you try to condense 6 years of the worlds events into 12 hours...

   I stand corrected.  That said, I'm sure it wouldn't have taken them long to develop a missile capable of getting the job done once they had the bomb.  I have seen WWII In Color. I've watched the series a few times. It is very well done. 

   Germany also had the only operational rocket powered interceptor ever produced, the ME 163 Komet.  On a test flight one reached 700 mph!  It was an extremely dangerous plane to fly and was only moderately successful as a fighter/interceptor.  Just the same it was amazing technology for the time.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messerschmitt_Me_163_Komet

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I think Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark taught us all that the Germans were way ahead in aviation technology :)

when I was a kid I liked the P-40 Warhawk and Zero (A6M) but I think I like all fighter planes from ww2.


Rat Man wrote on Aug 21^st, 2020 at 1:38pm:

I honestly have no idea but it's astounding how far ahead of the rest of the world they were.  If they had developed the atom bomb first those of us left would all be speaking German now because they also had the means to deliver such a warhead.  The V-2 would have wiped out England and it would have only been a short  matter of time before they had an ICBM that could cross the Atlantic.  At that point the war would have been over.

germany turned too many people against them, if they wanted to win they should be more like romans and turn people on each other or pay to fight for them

I really like the Spitfire Mk IX.
Well armed, maneuverable, comfortable, beautiful looking aircraft. Those Merlin engines sound glorious as well.
I've read that some later marks of spitfire were a bit faster, but sacrificed on maneuverability.

Sarosh wrote on Aug 23^rd, 2020 at 8:43am:

when I was a kid I liked the P-40 Warhawk and Zero (A6M) but I think I like all fighter planes from ww2. Rat Man wrote on Aug 21st, 2020 at 1:38pm: I honestly have no idea but it's astounding how far ahead of the rest of the world they were.  If they had developed the atom bomb first those of us left would all be speaking German now because they also had the means to deliver such a warhead.  The V-2 would have wiped out England and it would have only been a short  matter of time before they had an ICBM that could cross the Atlantic.  At that point the war would have been over.  germany turned too many people against them, if they wanted to win they should be more like romans and turn people on each other or pay to fight for them

Very true.

And I also think the Spitfire was a beautiful plane.

[edit] comfortable[/edit]
Hmm, having see a spitfire seat - not sure comfort was uppermost in the designers mind.

What was supermost were drainage holes !
Thoses flifgsuits got 'wet' fairly often and the seat had built in drainage holes for excess urine.

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The glamorous life of a fighter pilot!

Want to fly a P-38?

This is, apparently, a realistic P-38 flight simulator.

https://www.thresholdx.net/news/fis38l

Oxnate wrote on Aug 28^th, 2020 at 10:13pm:

This is, apparently, a realistic P-38 flight simulator.

As a kid I tried to play combat flight simulator. like IL-2 Sturmovik . So boring! I couldn't understand terminology and English lol . But I remember there were hours of flight until I get to drop a bomb or even have a dogfight. and dogfights were so difficult to engage in, most of the time I ended up slowing the game down so I can control the plane.

In the nineties I downloaded a flight simulator.  It was some kind of bomber...  I can't remember which.  After much practice and many crashes I could finally get it airborne and drop the bombs.  Once or twice I even hit the target.  But I could never land the damned thing without crashing it.  Not once. It was a very difficult simulator. 

I'd like to add one more thing about the P38.  Most fighters and fighter bombers of the time with multiple guns had them mounted in the wings.  The P38 had all five of its guns, four 50 cals and one 20mm cannon, mounted on the nose of the plane close together.  This means that it had a very tight shot group, pulverizing anything it hit.   

Rat Man wrote on Jan 20^th, 2021 at 12:51am:

I'd like to add one more thing about the P38.  Most fighters and fighter bombers of the time with multiple guns had them mounted in the wings.  The P38 had all five of its guns, four 50 cals and one 20mm cannon, mounted on the nose of the plane close together.  This means that it had a very tight shot group, pulverizing anything it hit.

And at almost any range, too.  Other fighters had their guns set to converge several hundred yards out, so they could pulverize too, but only at one specific range.

Curious Aardvark wrote on Aug 24^th, 2020 at 9:44am:

[edit] comfortable[/edit] Hmm, having see a spitfire seat - not sure comfort was uppermost in the designers mind. What was supermost were drainage holes ! Thoses flifgsuits got 'wet' fairly often and the seat had built in drainage holes for excess urine.

Well... yes. But they did sit on their parachute pack.  ;)

Oxnate wrote on Jan 20^th, 2021 at 10:52am:

And at almost any range, too.  Other fighters had their guns set to converge several hundred yards out, so they could pulverize too, but only at one specific range.

Ditto for the Mosquito. Which carried anything from no armament at all, to four machine guns plus four canon, to
a late version which carried a quick fire anti-tank gun, used mostly against shipping, along with a version carrying
rockets.

All without, if I recall correctly, any significant changes to the airframe. When they designed the Mosquito they just got it right from the start.

Lots of good videos featuring it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pX-IxiZyGRk

wanderer wrote on Jan 23^rd, 2021 at 9:58am:

Oxnate wrote on Jan 20th, 2021 at 10:52am: And at almost any range, too.  Other fighters had their guns set to converge several hundred yards out, so they could pulverize too, but only at one specific range. Ditto for the Mosquito. Which carried anything from no armament at all, to four machine guns plus four canon, to a late version which carried a quick fire anti-tank gun, used mostly against shipping, along with a version carrying rockets. All without, if I recall correctly, any significant changes to the airframe. When they designed the Mosquito they just got it right from the start. Lots of good videos featuring it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pX-IxiZyGRk

The Mosquito was a brilliant success.  A stroke of genius.

I've always wondered what separated the good designs from the bad. There seem to be some extremely complex designs that were outstanding, others that failed miserably, and the same for simple designs. Was it just a stroke of luck? or was there particular features that made a design successful?

The Mustang I guess.
I don't know much about air planes but everyone says that's the best.

Antonov A-40... because who doesn’t want a flying tank?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonov_A-40?ref=wiki_115436

Too bad it didn’t actually work.

Or... since the tank didn’t actually work, what about a flying flame thrower?

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/38796/in-world-war-ii-the-royal-air-force-turned-a-torpedo-bomber-into-a-flying-flamethrower