What was the most beautiful fighter aircraft of the WW2 Era?

[Blue-Jay]

I gonna say that it's a tie between the P-51 Mustang and the F4U Corsair:

Mustang:


Corsair:

[trof]

1. P-51 had cleaner lines.

[Blue-Jay]

2. I think so, too.

The Corsair has always screamed "muscle" to me, however.

[MrScorpio]

3. I'm an Air Force guy - I say the P-38!

[Blue-Jay]

6. Interesting-looking, but not "beautiful".

Kind of like the Olsen Twins, if they'd never been surgically separated.

[MrScorpio]

9. I'm also a guy who likes A-10s

This one flew at my old base in Germany, Spangdahlem

[sarge43]

27. Ah yes the Wart Hog - one mean machine.

No tank commander wanted to see one of those suckers in his rear view mirror.

[GOPisEvil]

4. I always liked the Spitfire.

[Blue-Jay]

5. Also a favorite of mine.

[sarge43]

7. Love that long, lean look. n/t

[Kutjara]

11. Spitfire for me too!

Beautiful, fast, and agile. It's like a beautiful woman who can also kick your ass.

[RushIsRot]

8. P-38 Lightning

Photobucket pixelated the dickens out of this!

[A HERETIC I AM]

10. A tie between the three mentioned already. If you like Warbirds, here is a great site;

http://www.warbirdregistry.org/

Yup, my faves are the Mustang, the Corsair and the Lightning.
Another i have begun to appreciate only recently is the Hawker Sea Fury:

Big, bad and fast!



Now...(for what it's worth) my vote for the most beautiful aircraft ever constructed and flown.....(granted, NOT WWII vintage)

The XB-70 Valkyrie

[Swede]

12. Yak 9D,just cause it's rarely mentioned.

[A HERETIC I AM]

15. Here's one of only 5 examples listed on the Warbird Registry site

At the Museum of Flight, in Seattle.
http://www.warbirdregistry.org/russianregistry/yak9-0815346.html

[Blue-Jay]

16. saweeet.

[Oeditpus Rex]

17. If we're on the Eastern Front

I gotta go with the MiG-3...



...or the LaGG-3.







I love how the Mig-3's cockpit was set so far back, kinda like the old GeeBee racer. It looked fast on the apron.

[Oeditpus Rex]

13. The 51 had marvelous lines

But I don't think any WWII aircraft touches the Me-262 for sheer elegance.

[hellbound-liberal]

28. And the ME 262 is the only one that was the subject of a great rock and roll song by BOC!

The images to this video aren't that great but this is one of my favorite rock and roll songs by anybody!

ME262-Blue Oyster Cult
http://youtube.com/watch?v=vI-z64G3tvU

Goering's on the phone to Freiburg
Say's Willie's done quite a job
Hitler's on the phone from Berlin
Say's I'm gonna make you a star

My Captain Von Ondine, here's your next patrol
A flight of English bombers across the canal
After twelve, they'll all be here
I think you know the job

They hung there dependant from the sky
Like some heavy metal fruit
These bombers, ripened, ready to tilt
Must these Englishmen live that I might die
Must they live that I might die

In a G-load disaster from the rate of climb
Sometimes I'd faint and be lost to our side
But there's no reward for failure, but death
So watch me in the mirrors, keep in the glidepath

Get me through these radars, no I cannot fail
Not when great silver slugs are eager to feed
I can't fail, no not now
When twenty five bombers wait ripe

They hung there dependant from the sky
Like some heavy metal fruit
These bombers, ripened, ready to tilt
Must these Englishmen live that I might die
Must they live that I might die

Me-262 prince of turbojet, Junker's jommo 004
Blasts from clustered R4M quartets in my snout
And see these English planes go burn
Now you be my witness how red were the skies
When the fortresses flow, for the very last time
It was dark over Westphalia, in april of T45

They hung there dependant from the sky
Like some heavy metal fruit
These bombers, ripened, ready to tilt
Must these Englishmen live that I might die
Must they live that I might die

Must these Englishmen live that I might die
Junker.s jommo 004 (repeat many times)
Bombers at 12 o'clock high

[bluedigger]

14. Corsair

No contest.

[achtung_circus]

18. For pure beauty and elegance of line the Spitfire, like so

in action
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvDDDKnNhuE

[Wcross]

19. ME163?

[ironflange]

23. I love this video

http://youtube.com/watch?v=iFFCuHP4H6A&feature=related

It works so hard just to get off the ground, but then. . . holy shit!

[ironflange]

20. Here are two night fighters I'm fond of

P-61 Black Widow


He 219 Uhu (a model, it's hard to find a good pic)


Neither of them are sexy, but you know you don't wanna fuck with them. Wonder who'd win in a fight; they'd be pretty closely matched.

[ironflange]

21. Oh, crap, how could I forget, here's the prettiest ever

It successor, the Hornet, was just as nice, but didn't see much action:

[Kutjara]

22. The Mossie was lovely.

Even better, my dad was a navigator on one during WWII. I've got lots of pics somewhere of him standing in front of his plane.

[ironflange]

24. Cool!

My dad fixed trainers in Ontario all through WWII. My uncle, though, his brother, navigated Lancasters, and lived to tell of it. That wasn't a pretty airplane.

[Kutjara]

26. The Lanc certainly wasn't pretty...

...but the guys who flew them had nerves of steel. The attrition rate was horrifying. I remember an old story about a new tail-gunner asking the Quartermaster how much tail-gunners got paid. "Dunno," replied the QM, "we've never had to pay one."

[Parche]

25. F6F HELLCAT

:hi: