What was the best American or British plane during WWII?

Question

e.g. Spitfire? B-17? Sterling? P-51?

Personally, I say the B-17 and the B-24. They did so much for the day bombing campaign.

For those of you who answered B-52, read a book. The B-52 was not used until later. You're probably thinking of the B-29 Superfortess.

Answer 1

P-51 and Spitfire

Answer 2

The best overall fighter was the P-51 due to it's very long range capability (100% escort for bombers), but the spitfire could fly rings around anything.

Bomber wise, the Lancaster or the B-17 were very effective. I don't say the B-29 merely because it was a late entry into the war, much like the jet fighters.

Answer 3

I'd have to go with the P-51D... it made the daylight bombing raids possible rather than suicidal. Nice note is that the Brits liked the Mustang but passed on it because it did poorly at high-altitude... The USA-AF also found this a problem... so we bought Rolls-Royce Merlin engines, and the Mustang became a STAR !!

The Spitfire comes close in the single-seat category...

I also love the Mosquito, the Corsair, Lightning, and Thunderbolt.

The Lockheed Lightning was the sexiest... and the Thunderbolt was voted "most likely to be mistaken for a tank" !

Honestly though I think the most IMPORTANT would be the C-47 Skytrain / Dakota... the D-day jumps, Market Garden, Crossing the Hump... all the supplies ferried !!

Answer 4

American: B-17, P-51. British: Spitfire, Lancaster bomber.

Answer 5

P 51

Answer 6

P51 for the Americans and Spitfire for the Brits
on the fighter side.

The Battle of Britain was a great show for the
Royal Air Force when Spitfires overcame the
German Messerschmidt‘s.

Answer 7

The HURRICANE (from the battle of britain to mainland europe and the middle east)

Slower than the spitfire and many other allied planes but could pack a punch as a fighter or bomber,tankbuster and take more hits and still carry on flying a true work horse.

Over 14000 Hurricane's saw action during wwII as they were not only used by the RAF but many of our allies including russia.

Answer 8

most military historians agree that the North American P-51D was the best fighter aircraft of WWII as it was initially built for the RAF and was flown by both USA and Great Britain pilots.

The plane served well into the 1950's and saw a lot of service in Korea as well as serving with many secondary nations until the late 1960's

The US Navy and Marines favored the Chance-Vaught Corsair F4U and it served in the reserves until 1960.

The only bomber to serve past WWll in an aggressive role was the Boeing B-29. In fact the Russian MiG-15 was designed to shoot B-29's out of the sky.

Answer 9

All Allied aircraft had their advantages and disadvantages, depending on their particular job description. However, I believe North American's P-51 was the best at it's described job overall. Long range, high speed, light weight, extreme agility, versatile weapons load, and pilot's comfort all combined to make it a deadly adversary no matter if it was escorting bombers or searching for ground targets to obliterate. If anything, it's only real drawback was it's tendency to be tail-heavy when fully loaded with fuel, necessitating extreme care from the pilot until the fuel load was balanced.

Today many surviving P-51s have been stripped of their armor, their engines super-tuned to produce much more power than they did in the 1040s, and turned into highly competitive air racers.

Answer 10

if you could have asked any of the greatest german aces they'd have told you it was the P-51....know why? in the words of several of them, "because it shot me down". You'll never experience anything more beautiful than seeing a Mustang fly past you. The Spitfire is a damn close second......they both make me wish to god i had been born half a century earlier..