Your favorite WWII fighter

[dogdish]

All time is the Curtiss P-40 Warhawk, it had teeth!, had a Cox .049 tether string model when I was a kid. Crashed into a million pieces (straight up, straight down) :o

 

Now got the A2A P-40 in FSX and can crash it all I want :cool:

[scottb613]

F4U Corsair - built the Top Flite Gold 1.20 powered RC model back in the 90's - any plane when you have to bend the wing because the propellor is so massive - just has to be cool...

 

Regards,

Scott

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[PhantomTweak]

I had a U-control (goes round and round on a control string, same as yours!) PT-19 flight Trainer. .49 Cox engine and it bit my finger almost every time I'd go to start it up. Plastic prop, thankfully, cause a wooden one would have hurt a lot worse!. Thankfully the whole plane was plastic, with the wings and engine held on with rubber-bands. I crashed it, put it back together, rinse, repeat. It finally gave up the ghost though with the plastic cracking from just too many crashes all the time, and I grew up-ish.

I refuse to really grow up, though, I just get older. :D

 

Now, my favorite WWII fighter is the F8F by Milton Shupe over on SimOuthouse, and/or F-4U Corsair, from Alpha Bleu Ciel. Pick one. I love em both :D I fly them in the Round The World Race every year. As long as they stay authorized (on the Whitelist) I will keep using them :pilot:

 

Have fun all!

Pat☺

[Rupert]

I don't know about sims, I haven't tried any. But RW I'd have to say it's the Spitfire.

[mrzippy]

I finally got my #1 wish for a gas-powered model plane when I was about 10. It was a jet-type aircraft with a black body and yellow wings. .049 engine with a wrap-string lawnmower type pull-to-start engine. 1st flight went straight up the straight down! :mad:

Sure got dizzy flying that sucker!:eek:

 

Had to make a quick trip to the local hobby shop to buy a new nylon prop. Favorite WWII aircraft has to be the P-51 with the F-4U Corsair a close 2nd.

[ScatterbrainKid]

I had a U-control (goes round and round on a control string, same as yours!) PT-19 flight Trainer. .49 Cox engine...

 

Me too, my parents bought me one for Christmas 1962 when I was 14 because I'd asked for one, but I must have been mad to think I could fly it without any training. me and my mate Jimmy O'Grady took it out to the fields, and I crashed it literally 5 seconds after he launched it and it never flew again..:)

 

[Raceguy]

I also had the gas powered planes on a string as a kid. I became very proficient with crashes to the point where you could hear the plane say "enough already!"

 

My favorite plane has to be the P-51D. I was scheduled to fly the Collings Foundation P-51C a few years ago. I was to be the next pilot but during the previous flight they did a roll and the rear canopy dropped off. They landed safely but had to ground the plane so no flight for me.

 

If you want to see how much I like Mustangs look in the Technical Forum here under Cockpit Builders for my P-51D cockpit build.

 

Take care

Ed

[PhantomTweak]

THAT'S THE ONE!!

That PT-19 is exactly the plane I had!

Brings back some great memories. My father, who was a UAL pilot till he retired, and an FI in the Navy before that (SNJ's, tell ya about when? :) ) thankfully taught me how to fly it. I still crashed a lot, and went through a few bags of rubber bands, and a prop, eventually, but I finally got pretty proficient at it. I could even do a loop, although it would mess me up to have to reverse the control real suddenly.

I must have burned through 10 gallons of gas in that silly little plane before I put it away for good. Had a lot of fun, though!

Thanks for the memories!

Pat☺

[ScatterbrainKid]

Your favourite WWII fighter...All time is the Curtiss P-40 Warhawk...

 

I'll plump for the Spitfire because all pilots loved it to bits because not only was it highly manoeuvrable, but it had a fearsome armament of 8 x MG's at first, and a mix of 4 x MG's and 2 x cannons later.

And it served in a multitude of variants throughout the entire 6 years of WW2.

 

PS- a minor mystery is why most US fighters (P-40/P-51/P-47/Corsair/Hellcat) never had cannons.

Their MG's could chew up enemy fighters well enough, but had a harder time damaging bombers and ground targets like trains, ammo dumps, bunkers, tanks, ships etc.

Most other nations fighters had a mix of MG's and cannons, eg Spit/Me109/Zero/Yaks etc.

 

The strain shows on the faces of Me109 pilot Micky Sprick (top) and Spitfire pilot Brian Lane during the Battle of Britain-

 

 

P-51 pilots in England

 

 

Hellcat pilots in Florida

[PhantomTweak]

PS- a minor mystery is why most US fighters (P-40/P-51/P-47/Corsair/Hellcat) never had cannons.

Maybe because the Ma Deuce (.50 cal M2 MG) was so effective? It's still used (and loved, may I say) by the US military. A weapon doesn't last that long unless it's awfully effective. And it is, if I may note.

The Spitfire MG's may have been many, but they were a relatively light .30cal, and so weren't very effective against many WWII fighters, or bombers, all of whom had armors in important areas.. That's why they eventually added the cannons to the Spit, but not American fighters. The Spit needed it, the American birds didn't. We shot down a LOT of Germans with those .50 Cal's, both on the bombers and the fighters.

Japanese planes were another story. They had no armor, none, anywhere, and their construction and materials made them very vulnerable, especially to tracer rounds. They would burn at the drop of a hat. A pilot could probably shoot them down with a pea-shooter with burning spitwads in it. Ok, that may be an exaggeration, but you get the idea. :D

Most P-38's, by the way, and there were more than most think in the European Theater of Operations, had 4 M2's and either a 20mm or 37mm cannon available. They shot down a LOT of planes, mostly in the Pacific Theater, yes, but more than you might think in the ETO. Once they modified the Fowler Flaps with the Maneuver, 8° position, and added the "dive brake" to prevent High subsonic controlability problems (They added them to the P-51 also), they were a very agile, accurate fighter, since their guns fired directly ahead instead of in a converging pattern at a point in front of them. Made aiming a lot more natural for pilots who just didn't get "leading" a target.

 

Just my opinions, from what I've seen, heard, and read, of course. I wasn't privvy to the decision making of the Military :)

Pat☺

[budreiser]

I'm with Mr. Zippy on favs. A 51-D & late model F4U. But there were soooo many great designs. The Spit is absolutely beautiful, the Hellcat rugged. The Lightning, FW-190, P-40, etc., etc,. etc.

 

There was a brand of cigarettes back in those days called "Wings". Each pack came with an artists drawing of an aircraft. My father had friends collecting them for him while my mother put together several sets. Many of the extras were passed on to my brothers and I and we'd trade them around the neighborhood. My mother kept hers hidden and in mint condition. When she died in 2001, I asked my sis about them and she said mom must have thrown them out when moving to a new home. What a shame and what I wouldn't give for those sets. My wife bought me 5 on eBay for 15 bucks.

[Rupert]

Japanese planes were another story. They had no armor, none, anywhere, and their construction and materials made them very vulnerable, especially to tracer rounds. They would burn at the drop of a hat. A pilot could probably shoot them down with a pea-shooter with burning spitwads in it. Ok, that may be an exaggeration, but you get the idea. :D

 

Pat☺

 

Pat,

 

You're a lot closer to correct about the Japanese planes than you may have realized!

 

As many sailors who went through the Great Lakes Naval Recruit Depot know, One Kamikaze was "shot" down in the Pacific by a sailor with a HAND THROWN POTATO!!!

 

George Sims from Anderson County Kentucky was a sailor on a ship which if I remember from hearing the commendation read correctly, was an oiler, working off islands in the Pacific during WW II. They were part of a resupply convey and because of air raid warnings were "making smoke" so the Japanese couldn't see exactly where they were. And of course while "making smoke" you also had to "observe silence." No weapons firing, no signal flashing, no outgoing radio signal, for fear of giving your position away.

 

Two very junior sailors were on the very top deck of this ship peeling potatoes. They noticed a kamikaze had spotted them and was going through his death ritual. (Which basically was Open the canopy, Put on your scarf, Circle down & down ever closer until you finally hit the ship you're aiming at with your plane.)

 

As the ship was under orders to not fire, everyone who spotted him was just watching the plane circle and hoping it would miss them. Everyone except George Sims that is!

 

George Sims threw a potato at the open canopy and from what they could tell must have hit the pilot on the head and either knocked him out or at least dazed him. His plane went out of control and crashed into the sea.

 

George Sims was credited with downing a Kamikaze aircraft with a potato by the US Navy & his commendation for that "kill" was read out loud by a Navy Captain at his funeral in the 2,000s. I heard it read first there when I attended that funeral the Fort Nelson National Cemetery in Kentucky. I was told there is also a copy of that citation and of the whole story posted on the walls at the Great Lakes Naval Station.

 

George was a big hulking country boy till the day he died. He was possibly the last person the man on the street would by appearance ever call a hero. Even his family didn't know about his exploit until after the war was over. When George and his family were transported to Great Lakes to receive his commendation. His daughter, Betty Jean, was a good friend of our family and recently died herself.

[mrzippy]

As many sailors who went through the Great Lakes Naval Recruit Depot know, One Kamikaze was "shot" down in the Pacific by a sailor with a HAND THROWN POTATO!!!

 

 

Interesting story! Wonder why using Google search wouldn't bring up any info on George Sims, or Kamikaze brought down by a thrown potato? I don't doubt your story!

[Rupert]

Interesting story! Wonder why using Google search wouldn't bring up any info on George Sims, or Kamikaze brought down by a thrown potato? I don't doubt your story!

 

I can't say I've ever researched it. But I was there at the funeral.

[PhantomTweak]

That is a great war story, and just strange enough to be true :)

It seems like a lot of weird things happen during a war. It seems like the stranger, the more likely it happened.

Our thanks to George Sims, for his service, AND for his great aim with a potato :D Good on him! Too bad it wasn't a flaming potato, that would have been absolutely perfect :)

 

Thanks for that info, Rupert. Things like that have to be shared, or they will be lost to history, and they shouldn't be. Appreciate you telling it!

Pat☺

[Rupert]

Interesting story! Wonder why using Google search wouldn't bring up any info on George Sims, or Kamikaze brought down by a thrown potato? I don't doubt your story!

 

Actually I'm told the story was also written up in a book called The Fighting Amphibians. I'll see if I can find it somewhere. I'm also trying to contact George's granddaughter to see if she has or knows where the commendation itself ended up.

[Rupert]

That is a great war story, and just strange enough to be true :)

It seems like a lot of weird things happen during a war. It seems like the stranger, the more likely it happened.

Our thanks to George Sims, for his service, AND for his great aim with a potato :D Good on him! Too bad it wasn't a flaming potato, that would have been absolutely perfect :)

 

Thanks for that info, Rupert. Things like that have to be shared, or they will be lost to history, and they shouldn't be. Appreciate you telling it!

Pat☺

 

Yes! It blew me away! I thought I was just going to yet another military funeral of a guy who was kin to a friend until this USNR Captain (Retired) stood up and read the commendation verbatim. He also is the one who said it was on the wall at Great Lakes.

 

And yes, a story like that is way too far out for anyone to ever dream up!!;) I don't think even Stephen King has that good an imagination!!

[Rupert]

RW SAILOR DOWNS A KAMIKAZE WITH A POTATO OFF OF OKINAWA DURING WWII !! Yes boys and girls that did happen off of Okinawa on May 28th 1945. The ship was the LCS 111 and the sailor was George Sims from Kentucky.

 

For more details than I already mentioned in a previous post in this thread, you can read FIGHTING AMPHIBS The LCS(L) in WORLD WAR II written by Donald L. Ball. ISBN 0-9659055-0-0. Pages 230 & 231 describe this feat. But the whole book is a fabulous read for WWII Pacific history buffs!

 

Thanks to George's granddaughter Tracy who loaned me the book, hand signed by the author and presented to George at a LCL reunion around 2,000. The pictures attached are from crew members' scrapbooks and were published in newspapers following the reunion.. In the picture of the crew, George Sims being over 6'3" tall, which was considered tall during WWII, is on the back row, #6.

 

[dogdish]

Well perhaps they should have equipped every fighter with one of these...

 

[Rupert]

Well perhaps they should have equipped every fighter with one of these...

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]190806[/ATTACH]

 

OMG!!!!:D:D:D

 

BTW: I was told when George Sims died they placed a potato in his casket with him so he'd never be unarmed.;)