Which US Navy plane from WWII do you think was the best and why?

Answer 1

The F4UF. Solid, well built, excellent speed, multi-use air and ground attack plane, carrier capable, and perhaps one of the most unusually cool looking planes because of its famous gull wing design. Called the "whistling death" by the Japanese due to the sound that came from its engine and wing-root air inlets, the Corsair could out climb, outfight and outrun and prop-driven enemy.
Regards

P.S. I also like the PBY Catalina for its utility and its ungainly appearance.

Answer 2

In 1943, the Navy obtained the gullwinged Corsair fighter. The Avenger torpedo plane came on in later 1942 after the Battle of Midway and the Helldiver dive bomber was introduced in 1943. Those planes performed better than the Wildcat fighter, TBD torpedo plane and Dauntless dive bomber that they replaced. By late 1944, the US Navy fighters were so much better than the Japanese fighters, and the US Naval Aviators were so much better than the Japanese, that the Battle of the Phillipine Sea resulted in over 425 Japanese planes being shot down, with only about 25 US planes shot down. Most of the US pilots were retrieved in the water. The battle was later referred to by Navy personnel as the Great Marianas Turkey Shoot.

Answer 3

lots of votes for the Corsair....but.......

with it's long nose and high wings the Corsair was a bi^%$ to land on carriers; the F4U had to come in nose high and the pilot lost sight of the deck the last 1000 foot which wasn't er, optimum; as a result, wherever possible, it was limited to Navy/Marine wings that were land based........

I'm going to have to vote for either the Wildcat or it's big brother the Hellcat....even though outperformed by the Zero, the Wildcat held the line till the Hellcat was available in 1943; the Hellcat was such a superior plane to the Zero that the Japanese lost air superiority and thusly the war.....

and honorable mention to the SBD, Slow But Deadly, Dauntless....sinker of the Jap carriers at Midway and hundreds of thousands of tons of ships through 1943; by the time the Helldiver replaced the Dauntless there wasn't much of the Japanese Navy left that hadn't been sunk by the SBD (and the subs, but thats another story)

Answer 4

Hellcat by far! not only did it outclass any zero fighter it came up against, it is credited with over 5,000 aerial victories. That's more than any fighter of any country in the history of aviation. So the record speaks for itself. That's the plane I would choose to fly into combat. It was also built by Grumman so ruggedness, survivability and performance were the name of the game.

Answer 5

F4U Corsiar by far