the first time aircraft were used in a combat role was in world war one and the landscape of war was
changed forever the fact that these machines can be used to wreak havoc from high above the ground
could decide with a stronger aircraft fleet at a much greater advantage
it also meant that those on the ground virtually had nowhere to hide
and some amazing aircraft came from that war such as the fokker triplane and the sopwith
camel but it was in world war ii that the truly advanced and deadly aircraft came to be
and in it we saw some of the most amazing flying machines ever built the spitfire the mustang and
the lancaster were all machines that emerged from this terrible conflict and are now remembered as
iconic airplanes that greatly affected the course of the war and its ending so this is the scariest
aircraft deadliest and most successful aircraft to serve in the second world war
supermarine spitfire
everybody knows about the spitfire it's quite possibly the most famous british aircraft in
the war designed by reginald mitchell it's often credited as the aircraft that saved britain in the
battle of breton powered by a rolls-royce merlin engine later variants featured clipped wings
giving much greater maneuverability than earlier variants of the aircraft
messerschmitt bf-109 the messerschmitt 109 is probably the spitfire's main rival
it certainly was during the battle of britain the two aircraft were equally matched but the bf-109
was actually a faster machine than the spitfire it was versatile had ground attack variants and
was in service throughout the war as a war bird at air shows they're incredibly popular aircraft
fock wolf 190.
think of the focke wolf 190 as a 109 on steroids and it's called one of the best fighters of all
time by aircraft aces designed by curt tank its bmw radical engine meant it could lift
larger loads than the 109 so carrying an extra fuel tank and bombs or rockets proved no issue
for this monster of an aircraft over 20 000 were built and it even spawned a successor the ta-152
p-51d mustang
what many don't know is that it was a british engine that helped turn the mustang into an
amazing aircraft from humble beginnings the p-51a was good but underpowered and had poor
high altitude performance design improvements and implementation of the rolls-royce merlin engine
gave the aircraft a huge performance boost and it became every bit as good as the spitfire
avro lancaster the avro lancaster was the first truly successful heavy bomber of the second world
war its contemporaries and raf service were the short sterling and the hanley page halifax
the latter was good but the sterling fell a bit short of expectations
the lancaster though powered by rolls-royce merlin's can take the largest bombs the
raf used and it was an incredibly successful aircraft il-2 sturmovit
what has really made the il-2 stermovic famous was the subsequent release of flight simulators
some of the best ever made for pc but the aircraft itself was incredibly successful as well
a ground attack aircraft and tank buster over 42 000 were built which
is the largest production run for any aircraft from world war ii the germans
called the aircraft the black death and it was instrumental in helping defend stalingrad