What is your favourite plane?

[Sobilak]

P-51B Malcolm Hood - the most.

Spitfire's from I to IX/XVI

F4F Wildcat

F4U1A/D Corsair

BF109G

Mosquito

SBD3/5

 

Edited June 6, 2023 by Sobilak

[Jaredfogle]

On 5/20/2023 at 11:13 AM, Gingerwelsh said:

The Lancaster was the superior aircraft in every respect.

Altitude over the target, general handling and versatility with bomb variety up to 8000lb, 12000lb, 22000lb, bouncing bomb, and Atom bomb.

 

The Stirling was a swinging death trap on the ground, due to design faults. but excellent in the air and highly manoeuverable.

It struggled to make 16000' over the target.

 

The Halifax was a swinging death trap on the ground and a spinning death trap in the air, due to design faults, which weren't corrected until 1944.

It struggled to make 18000' over the target.

 

Having said that, I find them very  desirable because of those interesting faults.

 

Unfortunately, in the unlikely event of someone actually making a combat sim version of the Halifax, I doubt it would have those interesting traits incorporated into the FM.

 

..

 

I've read that.  

 

7400 Lancs were produced, didn't check the others.   

 

While the PE 2's are bad enough as far as the gunners are modeled, I'd love to see a YB-40.  And yes that's too obscure to ever be modeled. 

 

 

[Ghost666]

Favorite plane? Let me see. Oh yes that's it. The one headed home from the war zone! (C5 last time) But if I could have 1 for my very own Se5a today. Could change tomorrow.

[FlyinCoffin]

I really like the BF109 E series for being so nimble. Especially equiped with 20mm cannons.

 

 

Edited June 9, 2023 by FlyinCoffin

[Aleksander55]

I-16, I-16, I-16. All types. We need more variants in this sim, by the way. Especially the Type-28 with 150 rounds of 20mm per gun, tough I'm starting to wonder if it really existed. Combination of M-63 engine, type 27(18?)airframe and 150 per Shvak? Something like this(???). I think(?????). Different books seem to point to different versions, so now I understand why this sim has what I tought was only a compromise or field mod.

 

Used to be very typical when I was a kid, Spitfire, Mustang, FW190, P36/P40.

 

I was always curious about soviet planes, they were always more or less relegated to a footnote in most books about WW2 aircraft. Especially the Polikarpovs, they were always my main interest. One funny thing is that I swear in one of the books, the probably worldwide famous Bill Gunston's Allied Fighters of WWII called the I-16 'looks like the airplane from a Mickey and Goofy comic book'.

 

 

But I still have my edition of this book and it seems it was in only in my imagination that it was called this, or maybe it was in some other book that got lost with time.

 

At any rate, the I-16 became my favorite WWII aircraft from the moment I started trying to fly it in the original IL-2 series. Coming from EAW's flight model and going straight to one of the most unstable fighters in the sim meant that I spent dozens of quick missions spining myself to death. That was during the time when I was burned out of flight sims, so with only a few quick missions from time to time I never really learned to fully tame the Donkey.

 

Cut to about 2.5 years ago, starting in GB, learning to fly this little $#!t, barelly being able to do frontal jousting against a single 109E, spending all of my ammo to maybe lightly damage it. Spinning myself to death all over again. And then actually managing to extract more and more maneuverability and performance from the little POS. Nowadays I actually think it's a little bit overpowered and unrealistic, but I know it's only because the AI is much weaker due to the more realistic flight model it uses.

 

Today I'm pretty much a Polikarpov maniac and apologist.

 

 

The I-180 should have been produced. Hundreds of soviet pilots, instead of transfering to the complicated, demanding and out of it's element Mig-3 would have instead gone to the Super Donkey, similar but faster and more stable than the I-16 they were already used to, that would have equaled the 109Es and with refinements to airframe and engine, given the 109F a good fight as well. Better than the initial Yaks and Laggs, an air cooled workhorse perfect to the conditions of the eastern front. Most of them would have been destroyed on the ground in the initial stages like everything else, but at least the factories would have been actually producing them.

 

 

The I-185 would have been a world beater. An aircraft with performance comparable to the LA-5FN one year earlier. It seem that according to pilots who flew the few prototypes in combat they actually were the best for a time.

 

The I-16 to I-185 lineage could be spoken nowadays in the same sentence as Reginald Mitchell's Spitfire and Willy Messerschmitt's 109, if only Stalin wasn't so incredibly dumb.

[AndyJWest]

@Aleksander55 have you seen this?

 

Apparently, when Igor Sikorsky fled Russia after the revolution, he asked Polikarpov if he wanted to go with him. Had he done so, things could have turned out very differently...

[Enceladus828]

Spitfire Mk. XIV

 

[Aleksander55]

24 minutes ago, AndyJWest said:

@Aleksander55 have you seen this?

 

Apparently, when Igor Sikorsky fled Russia after the revolution, he asked Polikarpov if he wanted to go with him. Had he done so, things could have turned out very differently...

Yup, I have been asking airplane youtubers to make videos about Polikarpov and his machines. Ed, Rex Hangar, Greg. There's very little info on youtube about it all. I already knew all the facts on Ed's videos. There's a lot more of what I consider fantastic info about it all.

 

Yakovlev either sabotaged all other soviet fighter bureaus or he reserved Polikarpov's factory that should have produced the I-180 for the Laggs as he was friends with them.

 

Soviet fighters couldn't be all metal because Tupolev had the patents for all metal production only for his bombers(????). Hard to believe Stalin would accept this given how anything else was gulag worthy.

 

American mercenary pilots in the Spanish Civil war achieved ace status flying I-16s and I-15s. Greatest aberration of nature I've ever heard off.

 

Mikoyan and Gurevich didn't really betray Polikarpov, it was his bureau facilities be transfered to them or it all go to hell. They consulted with him regularly up to his death.

Edited June 13, 2023 by Aleksander55

[MattS]

In the sim, I’ll take a FW-190 over anything else. The controls are so effective even in a high speed dive so it feels like it responds to my thoughts.

[Jaredfogle]

On 10/29/2020 at 12:53 PM, 40plus said:

Any, and all, variants of the 109 . . . . . engineering-porn pure bliss.

 

I'm finding that out.  I see why the F-4 is popular.

 

In game it's fragile...... 

 

 

On 6/13/2023 at 4:45 PM, Aleksander55 said:

Yup, I have been asking airplane youtubers to make videos about Polikarpov and his machines. Ed, Rex Hangar, Greg. There's very little info on youtube about it all. I already knew all the facts on Ed's videos. There's a lot more of what I consider fantastic info about it all.

 

Yakovlev either sabotaged all other soviet fighter bureaus or he reserved Polikarpov's factory that should have produced the I-180 for the Laggs as he was friends with them.

 

Soviet fighters couldn't be all metal because Tupolev had the patents for all metal production only for his bombers(????). Hard to believe Stalin would accept this given how anything else was gulag worthy.

 

American mercenary pilots in the Spanish Civil war achieved ace status flying I-16s and I-15s. Greatest aberration of nature I've ever heard off.

 

Mikoyan and Gurevich didn't really betray Polikarpov, it was his bureau facilities be transfered to them or it all go to hell. They consulted with him regularly up to his death.

 

In game I find that a turn fight is not a good idea.  Even with a 109

[jollyjack]

Now where is the new La-5F series 38 among the favorites list i wonder ..

[EAF19_Marsh]

This is a stupid topic! Get back to work!

 

#gazes dreamily out of the window at the blue sky above…

[chris455]

When I was a youngster of about 7 years old, my mom surprised me with a model airplane to build. It was a small one, and I can't even remember who the manufacturer was. All I know is, it was the most beautiful thing this little kid had ever seen. When I read the "story" on the side of the box, it said something about how tough the "Jug" was, and that one time, a pilot accidentally flew his P-47 through a brick wall- and lived.

I never quite got over that. And from that moment, it was love at first sight........................................

[sevenless]

You just have to love them. The whole family. V, IX, XIV. What else? We still need a VII/VIII and the very early marks.

 

 

Edited March 17, 2024 by sevenless

[TempestV]

“Look, he's winding up the watch of his wit; by and by it will strike.”
― William Shakespeare, The Tempest

[JG4_Moltke1871]

My favourite plane on Flugpark Server but also often flown in career mode.

Deadliest bombload of all two seaters and strong engine makes it perfect for high altitude attacks ?

 

Second choice for Entente two seaters, not that big bombload like the Breguet but difficult to intercept because it’s amazing high speed for a two seater. I like it to call the Entente Arado ?

 

 

Don’t have all the Entente Advantages but simply the reliable workhorse of German ground attacks. Climb is a pain in the ass ?

 

A relatively early German two seater but have the biggest two seater bomb load on German side.

A relatively strong engine that loves to suck fuel ?

On one hand a quirk on the other an excellent climber what makes it the perfect recon plane and the only German two seater to reach higher bomb altitudes in acceptable time.

 

 

Just fun to fly, just requires patience ?

 

Beautiful plane, variously to use, have great advantage in speed in early planesets, loose this quickly in later ones ?

 

Simply unique to use fast, precise, deadly ?

 

Let me be the Lufthansa Pilot ?

Workhorse for supply’s and para drops on TAW. I love it ❤️

 

Just beautiful to fly inside the glass cockpit and unique with it’s 8 x SC250 bombs ?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 29, 2024 by JG4_Moltke1871