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World War II Combat Planes In World War Two, airplanes of all types - fighters, bombers, transports, etc. - developed rapidly. Biplanes saw action in the early years; jet aircraft zoomed through the skies over Germany in 1945. The Americans produced the "mostest of the bestest," that is, the largest numbers of generally superior warplanes. Companies like Republic, North American, Grumman, Boeing, Lockheed, and Bell turned out 100,000 fighter planes and tens of thousands of bombers. All the combatant nations, USA, Germany, Japan, Britain, struggled to keep their aircraft up-to-date, almost constantly modifying them and introducing new variants. The Spitfire went through over twenty variants. The Bf-109 evolved through eleven major production variants, plus uncounted sub-types and experimentals. A constant trend emgerged - to push the basic airframe design to it limits and beyond with more powerful engines, more weapons, more armor protection, larger fuel tanks, etc. The Bf 109 exemplified this trend. The Bf 109B, first introduced in 1937 was powered by a 610 hp engine; by 1944, the Bf 109K carried an 1800 hp engine. American Fighters Grumman F4F Wildcat - Stubby, Stubborn Naval Fighter Vought F4U Corsair - Whistling Death Grumman F6F Hellcat - Destroyer of Japanese Airpower Grumman F8F Bearcat - Speedy Hellcat Successor Lockheed P-38 Lightning - The Fork-Tailed Devil Bell P-39 Airacobra Curtiss P-40 Warhawk - The Flying Tigers' fighter Republic P-47 Thunderbolt - The Seven Ton Milk Jug P-51 Mustang - The Best Fighter of WWII P-61 Black Widow - Night Fighter F-86 Sabre - Korean War Jet Fighter Japanese Fighters A6M Zero Ki-43 Oscar German Fighters Messerschmitt Bf 109 - Luftwaffe Mainstay Focke-Wulf Fw 190 - Kurt Tank's Radial Engine Plane American Bombers SB2C - Curtiss's "beastly" Dive Bomber TBF/TBM Avenger - Grumman's Torpedo Bomber B-17 Flying Fortress - Boeing's Four-Engine Bomber B-24 Liberator - The Most Numerous U.S. bomber B-25 Mitchell - Doolittle Raid on Tokyo B-29 Superfortress - Dropped the atomic bomb |
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