Topic: Very impressed! (how about planes?) (Read 10810 times)

Verroc · « **on:** November 28, 2003, 08:45:58 am »

I have to admint to being very impressed by the knowledge surrounding naval history in the forum. Lets see how good it is when transfered to the air.

Favorite plane and greatest pilot? That should be a lot tougher!

Favorite plane for me is the SE5a, as for the pilot there can be no doubt about that.

Mog · « **Reply #1 on:** November 28, 2003, 09:13:21 am »

For the pilot I would plump for Erich Hartman, with 352 kills

You ask for favourite plane, and not the best one - good. I would have to go for a Spitfire Mk IX.

BortaS · « **Reply #2 on:** November 28, 2003, 09:59:34 am »

My #1 vote for pilot is Chuck Yeager. Not only an amazing pilot, but an all around good guy.

As far as planes. Depends on the catagory.
A WW2 fighter would be the P47. Big, ugly and tough.
The P61 Black Widow looked like it would have been great fun to fly!
Jet fighter, F4. Big ugly and tough. (seems to be a pattern)

WW2 bomber would have to be the B26 Marauder! In the hands of skilled pilots it was a great machine!
Jet bomber, might be the B58. When the wings stayed on, what a ride that must have been!

For jets I have flown, I just love the Dassault Falcon 50. One of the smoothest rides around. A true pilots aircraft. And a damn nice looking machine too. The Citation X is great fun too. Something to be said about having a max alt of 51,000 feet and a cruising speed of .92 Mach!

KOTH-Steel Claw · « **Reply #3 on:** November 28, 2003, 10:06:19 am »

Pilots - lotsa names off the top of my head
---------------

1. Robert Johnston - he was the first American to pass Rickenbachers score from WWI (earned him a case of scotch from Eddie). He flew in a P-47.

2. Adolf Glunz - never shot down or wounded.

3. Hans Rudel - Rudel flew in a piece of junk slow arse plane (Ju-87), but still managed to destroy over 500 tanks and sink a battleship. Shot down several times, he finished the war minus a leg and flying a FW-190. He had well over 2,000 sorties.

4. Erich Hartmann also survived the war, he flew in an ME-109 on the Russian front and did not start into combat until 1942.

5. Charles Lindbergh and the Spirit of St. Louis

In WWII, the poor training programs of Germany and Japan really showed later in the war. The U.S. had the smarts to pull pilots out after so many missions to train new pilots. German pilots flew until they were incapable of flying.

Just finished a history on WWI, so the names of their pilots are still fresh in my old brain.

As you can see, most of my interest in aviation (and military history lies in the two world wars (plus the U.S. Civil War))

honorable mentions
_______________

Amelia Airehart (sp?)

Chuck Yeager

Lufbery

Orville and Wilbur

Richard Bong

Thomas McGuire

Saburo Sakai

Eddie Rickenbacher

Billy Bishop

Donald MacLaren

Ed Mannock

Rene Fonck

Manfred von Richtofen

Ernst Udet

Gerhard Barkhorn

Douglas Bader

William Vale

? Rekalov (sp)

? Nishizawa

Planes - fighters
-------------

P-47

Ta-152 / FW-190

Me-262

F6F

Me-109

P-40 (good tactics showed you could beat a Zero in an 'inferior' plane).

Supermarine Spitfire

Me-163 (you just plain old had to have a humongous set of nads to fly this)

F-101

Go-225

Planes - civilian
-------------

The Spirit of St. Louis

Wright Flyer

Iceman · « **Reply #4 on:** November 28, 2003, 12:39:54 pm »

I was always partial to the F-14. but thats just me.

IKV Nemesis D7L · « **Reply #5 on:** November 28, 2003, 01:00:56 pm »

Rather than an individual pilot how about a group? Tuskegee Airmen aka the Redtails.

The combat record of the Tuskegee Airmen

? Over 15,000 combat sorties (Including 6000+ for the 99th prior to July '44)
? 111 German airplanes destroyed in the air
? 150 German aircraft destroyed on the ground
? 950 railcars, trucks, and other motor vehicles destroyed
? 1 destroyer sunk by P-47 machine gun fire
? Sixty-six pilots killed in action or accidents
? Thirty-two pilots downed and captured, POWs
? NO Bombers were ever lost to Enemy Aircraft while being escorted
? 150 Distinguished Flying Crosses earned
? 744 Air Medals
? 8 Purple Hearts
? 14 Bronze Stars

For aircraft I am rather partial to:

The Mosquito
P-38 Lightning
The White Knight

and of course who can forget the greatest of all? Snoopy and his Sopwith Camel?

KOTH-Steel Claw · « **Reply #6 on:** November 28, 2003, 07:54:21 pm »

planes - bombers/fighter bombers
----------------------------

B-24
B-25 (especially ones set up by Kenney in Pacific Theater)
B-26
Lancaster
Ju-88
SBD-2
B-1(Note: look up GO-225

)
Mosquito
He-111
Il-2
Me-410

TheJudge · « **Reply #7 on:** November 28, 2003, 09:07:43 pm »

F-14.

Of course I got to ride in one, so I'm very partial...

ChrsLWlstr · « **Reply #8 on:** November 28, 2003, 11:02:43 pm »

Nothing says "Azzkicker" more than the A-10...

Verroc · « **Reply #9 on:** November 29, 2003, 07:50:43 am »

If you like WWI, then i get highly recommend you get yourself a copy of

"King of Air Fighters: The Biography of Major "Mick" Mannock, V.C., D.S.O., M.C."

Its an awsome book by ira jone's, a great WWI ace in his own right.

Nice page you might like

The Aerodrome

KOTH-Steel Claw · « **Reply #10 on:** November 29, 2003, 09:57:31 am »

Thanks!

Dash Jones · « **Reply #11 on:** November 29, 2003, 11:04:23 am »

Hmm, Favorite Pilot...

Chuck Yeager...

Though John Glenn comes in that picture as well...

And favorite Plane

Space Shuttle

I'd say the Gemini, but it wasn't really a plane...

As far as those that couldn't go to space...

Probably the F-15

I also really like

The

F-4
P-51
B-17

and the

F-5

Currently, the F-15 still is used (when the heck is the US going to actually use the F-22, or is that top secret?)

And the F-18 looks pretty nice.

That's for military planes at least.

Non-military, I like the concord (sad about what has happened), also like the Symphony as a small little plane to fly for private, cheap too.

Zenister · « **Reply #12 on:** December 01, 2003, 07:24:50 am »

plane?
King Air...tiny door, but great time to altitude

SkyVan, loud ugly, but a lovely tail gate... to launch large flowers out off...exits are almost to easy... and hanging from the tail as a large flat formation rolls out is a breeze....

Pilots dave or Jeff...hard flying hard drinking good mates

BortaS · « **Reply #13 on:** December 01, 2003, 09:10:01 am »

Quote:

plane?
King Air...tiny door, but great time to altitude

SkyVan, loud ugly, but a lovely tail gate... to launch large flowers out off...exits are almost to easy... and hanging from the tail as a large flat formation rolls out is a breeze....

Pilots dave or Jeff...hard flying hard drinking good mates

Which King Air? The 100 is junk! 200 is good, but that 350 is a monster. Assuming you like props!

762 · « **Reply #14 on:** December 01, 2003, 10:48:21 am »

Coolest plane never produced: the XB-70 Valkyrie.

Tremok · « **Reply #15 on:** December 01, 2003, 11:50:20 am »

Favorite pilots? Don't particularally have a favorite pilot. That first generation of astronuats and those X-planes test pilots did some amazing things.

Favorite plane? Easy. The Saturn V! I walked around the one at the Johnson Space Center. Impressive and beautiful. A true pity that she never flew as Apollo 18 as planned. Dwarfs the Mercury-Redstone and Little Joe II rockets there to the utmost since of the word.

2) The Space Shuttle.

3) The X-15. Twice as fast as the SR-71.

4) The B-1B Lancer. An incredibly advance monster of a machine that can outrun anything in the world at sea-level. Plus the best looking plane I ever saw.

5) The P-38 Lightning. My favorite WW2 plane.

6) The F-4 Phantom. A brute plane that gets by on power.

Verroc · « **Reply #18 on:** November 28, 2003, 08:45:58 am »

I have to admint to being very impressed by the knowledge surrounding naval history in the forum. Lets see how good it is when transfered to the air.

Favorite plane and greatest pilot? That should be a lot tougher!

Favorite plane for me is the SE5a, as for the pilot there can be no doubt about that.

Mog · « **Reply #19 on:** November 28, 2003, 09:13:21 am »

For the pilot I would plump for Erich Hartman, with 352 kills

You ask for favourite plane, and not the best one - good. I would have to go for a Spitfire Mk IX.

News:

Topic: Very impressed! (how about planes?) (Read 10810 times) var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true};

Verroc

Mog

BortaS

KOTH-Steel Claw

Iceman

IKV Nemesis D7L

KOTH-Steel Claw

TheJudge

ChrsLWlstr

Verroc

KOTH-Steel Claw

Dash Jones

Zenister

BortaS

762

Tremok

Zenister

BortaS

Verroc

Mog

Topic: Very impressed! (how about planes?) (Read 10810 times)