Survey, what's your favorite WW2 fighter?

Always been kinda partial to the 109, Corsair, Zero, and IL-2.

I was just watching shows on the "Jug" They said the P 47 Thunderbolt was loved by some and dispised by others. I'm sure I would have been one of the lovers of the Jug. What is strange is the fact that no other fighter was produced in as many numbers. It could also take massive amounts punishment some even had parts of their engines shot away, But they still flew all the way home. One pilot said his plane was running fine, but his engine was shot all to (you know where) too.

Big fan of the P-47.  I love that it flew interceptor and escort missions.  Than with the introduction and adoption of the P-51, the Jug became a great ground attack plane.  Sure, it could dogfight, but it punished enemy ground positions.  (See - the 12th AF fighter groups.)

109, period.

Short and sweet.

As a kid, I always loved the P-51, but now I'm firmly in the P-47 camp.  

Honorable mentions to the Mustang and the Spit.

There's something about the shape of the P-39 that I just love.  Much sleeker and sportier looking than the Spitfire, I think.

For me the Mustang overall, with the F6F and F4U a close second.  F8F came too late, but had performance close to the Mustang.

Axis-ME262, and the Zeke.

The spit was just a plain beautiful aircraft, and a virtual tie in looks to the Mustang, at least in my eyes.

The IJN made a bad compromise in the design of the "Zero" to get high performance. The aircraft  was lightly armored and could easily be knocked down with minimal damage. The F4F was able to absorb lots of damage; that along with tactics is why the plane could hold it's own against the Zero.

Saburo Sakai described this in his book:

   I had full confidence in my ability to destroy the Grumman and decided to finish off the enemy fighter with only my 7.7 mm machine guns. I turned the 20 mm cannon switch to the "off" position, and closed in. For some strange reason, even after I had poured about five or six hundred rounds of ammunition directly into the Grumman, the airplane did not fall, but kept on flying. I thought this very odd—it had never happened before—and closed the distance between the two airplanes until I could almost reach out and touch the Grumman. To my surprise, the Grumman's rudder and tail were torn to shreds, looking like an old torn piece of rag. With his plane in such condition, no wonder the pilot was unable to continue fighting! A Zero which had taken that many bullets would have been a ball of fire by now.

   —Saburo Sakai, Zero

US

P-47,F6F

Germany

FW 190

Russia

IL-2

Japan

A6M

Romanian

IAR 80

Italian

MC 202,205

British

Tempest; Typhoon

Here's a segment from Dogfights mentioning the P38's compressibility problem in a dogfight:

www.youtube.com/watch

BrandonK

I ignore the 262 here only because it was so advanced in looks to all other planes that my mind places it in Korea or Vietnam due to its looks. I know its a true WWII bird, I just can't let it get judged with the prop jobs. That's just my thing. I also have a soft spot for all the single engine float planes from Japan, US, GB and Germany.

I enjoy the purpose-built float planes too. Someone here sent me a Fujimi Pete that I liked very much. By purpose-built, I mean a float plane that was designed with an integral and not simply a plane like a Zero with floats installed. Just landing those things on something other than calm waters would have been quite tricky. I also had a Tamiya M6A1 Seiran which although just looks like a plane with floats, was designed to be flown from a submarine. I've often wondered what their true markings looked like, the ones disguised as American planes that were to attack the Panama Canal locks.

For me it is just one.  P-40B.

Joe

American F4U Corsair

German, Very close between 190 and 109, slightest edge to the 109

Any version of the F4U Corsair, and the Focke-Wulf Fw-190D-9.