The Five Most Iconic Planes of World War II

hello everybody welcome back to another episode what we do here is well first of all i'll say that i have another channel called mega projects and here we take the projects that weren't quite mega enough for that main channel and in this one we're looking at five most iconic aircraft of world war ii now as always if you do think that one of these could make a mega project let me know in the comments below and if enough people thumb from give it a thumbs up then well i might just make a megaprojects video about it subscribe to this channel subscribe to that channel enough blabbering let's jump in [Music] perhaps more than any era before or since world war ii gave rise to a diverse array of world-class aircraft developed to fulfill a variety of roles from carrier-based dive bombers like the douglas dauntless that terrorized japanese ships in the pacific to the russian ilyashin il-2 stermovic tank busters that pulverize german armor on the eastern front the lineup of notable planes is extensive few would argue that the massive four-engined b-29s that dropped atomic bombs on hiroshima and nagasaki are anything but iconic but these aircraft and their elk often get overlooked after all it's fighters that tend to steal the spotlight why well it's probably because they're just faster and flashier and a little bit more exciting or maybe it's because it's pitting one man against another and harrowing aerial duels that strike romantic chords somewhere deep in our collective subconscious whatever the case we're about to take a closer look at five of the most iconic aircraft of world war ii so get comfortable the supermarine spitfire is a supremely iconic world war two aircraft which featured a revolutionary elliptical wing a 27-litre rolls-royce v12 engine and eight browning 303 machine guns more than any other aircraft in the english stable during the second world war the spitfire is credited with saving the island nation from the german onslaught in the battle of britain the pivotal air war raged from late 1940 to mid 1941 and though the venerable hawker hurricane played as significant a role as its more famous counterpart it's the image of the spitfire single-handedly halting the nazi juggernaut that persists to this day the spitfire's development began in 1937. early variant sported rolls-royce merlin engines with just over a thousand horsepower but later models featured higher displacement griffon power plants that cranked out more than 2 200. with its innovative wing impressive climb rate and responsive handling it was at least an equal match for luftwaffe adversaries like the messerschmitt bf-109 airmen especially loved the later versions improved visibility and horsepower but many claimed its relatively small caliber guns put it at a bit of a disadvantage and that wasn't its only achilles heel its outdated carburetor was prone to choking on excess fuel during steep dives which often caused the engine to cut out temporarily and that's got to be terrifying for the young pilots battling german aces it was a decidedly deadly characteristic but one that was eventually solved by the addition of a pressurized carburetor in 1942. all told more than 10 000 spitfires were built during the war and they racked up thousands of kills though the p-51 is arguably the most iconic american fighter of world war ii it's not so well known that it was originally developed in response to a british purchasing commission request for a long-range single-seat fighter in 1940. in an unprecedented display of efficiency the engineering team at north american aviation took the stunning new plane from concept to working prototype in only 102 days like war is terrible in the vast majority of ways but in terms of like rapid technological innovation it's quite incredible over on the mega projects channel we've delved into a lot about the cold war and the innovation that came out because of because of it in the usa and the ussr it's incredible the original model was powered by a normally aspirated allison v12 but its lackluster high altitude performance made it unable to perform the duties for which it had been built it wasn't until the addition of the supercharged rolls-royce merlin and eventually a packard-built merlin variant that it would go on to carve out its place in aviation history later versions featured high visibility bubble canopies that protruded well above the fuselage giving pilots unobstructed vision and it also came with six fifty caliber machine guns holding two thousand rounds of ammunition despite its formidable mix of performance and firepower it was largely the mustang's impressive range that propelled it to stardom featuring large internal fuel cells and wing mounted drop tanks mustangs could escort bombers from britain to germany and back severely curtailing the luftwaffe's ability to shoot down the lumbering bomb laden bear moths when air marshal hermann goering saw the american escort fighters in the skies above germany he opined when i saw mustangs over berlin i knew the jig was up that sounds very apocryphal i can't i mean i guess he said it in german but d do you really think he said that also jig some claim i wonder what the german word for jig is if there are any germans watching let me know what is the german phrase for the jig is up some claim that during the war mustangs were responsible for destroying nearly 5 000 enemy aircraft many of those kills came during aerial combat but significant numbers were the result of post-mission strafing runs on return ships from germany though mustangs were most prevalent in the european theatre they also saw service in north africa the mediterranean and the pacific the messerschmitt me262 may not have swayed the outcome of the war like the other planes on this list did you would know if it had but its status as the world's first operational jet fighter makes it a shoe-in for one of the era's most iconic flying machines the 262 featured two jet engines slung under its wings and although they were unreliable and underpowered by today's standards no surprises there they gave it a top speed nearly 100 miles per hour faster than its piston engine opponents capable of fulfilling a number of roles the 262 saw developmental variants as bombers reconnaissance aircraft and knight fighters despite imploring the fuhrer to develop the revolutionary plane as an superiority fighter hitler disregarded luftwaffe officer's pleas and pushed for its use as a bomber a blunder which severely curtailed its overall effectiveness according to statistics pilots shot down more than 500 allied aircraft from the skies over europe they're impressive numbers especially considering the jet's limited availability due to manufacturing shortfalls engine reliability issues and a lack of aviation fuel after the war captured examples were whisked off to britain america and the soviet union where engineers used many of their advancements as building blocks for their own post-war jet designs imagine this it's the early days of the war in the pacific and you're a rookie pilot fresh out of flight school you've just been handed your first airplane a curtis p-40 it's an impressive machine to be sure it even sports menacing jaws painted on the cowling but if the rumors you've been hearing around base are true those nasty teeth are not going to help well because they're painted on but also because the japanese a6m0 purportedly has a 10 to 1 kill ratio against guys just like you in a p-40 just like yours the revered zero was the imperial japanese navy's premier fighter during the war it quickly gained a reputation as a potent and formidable long-range brawler that could operate from aircraft carriers and traditional airfields in fact when it entered service the zero was widely regarded as the world's best carrier-based fighter its attributes included incredibly long range a decent climb rate and unparalleled maneuverability but all those characteristics came with a cost lack of self-sealing fuel tanks and an inability to sustain much damage due to its light construction meant that even a small caliber round through the wing could lead to a catastrophic fire or the loss of flight controls by 1942 the tables began to turn as allied fighters like the chancevort f4u corsair and the grumman hellcat began to appear in numbers and by the end of the war the proud zero was just a horribly outclassed dinosaur foregoing an elegant nickname like the one given to the aforementioned jet powered me 262 swallow pilots of the famed fokker wolf fw 190 accorded their craft to monika far more fitting a machine of its lethal nature and that moniker was the butcher bird though some historians and amateur aviation buffs consider it inferior to the messerschmitt bf-109 the fw-190 was widely regarded by airmen who flew both as the more rugged and well-rounded of the two whereas the 109 featured a sleek v12 giving it better aerodynamics the 190's massive bmw radial engine produced more horsepower allowing it to carry heavier loads which made it a natural bomber and ground attack plane as well as a nimble fighter the airplane was based on a curt tank design from the late 30s but the 190 made its official combat debut in the early years of the war on the eastern front where it was a clear standout it was based on a simple design philosophy that rugged straightforward machines were the best options during times of war a heated rivalry existed between the engineers of the competing models and tank often scoffed at the 109 which he considered little more than a fragile and overpriced toy despite the 190's success it was continually plagued by its radial engine's large cross-section that limited its top speed a number of upgrades attempted to correct the problem including a long-nosed variant fitted with an aerodynamic engine cowling and another that featured an inverted daimler-benz v12 with a more streamlined profile neither variant went into full production but the hefty air-cooled workhorse wasn't without its strong points it was more robust than its liquid-cooled v12 cousins and would often continue to run normally even after taking multiple hits from any aircraft though it lacked the all-out speed of some of its contemporaries the fw190 was more maneuverable more versatile and packed a bigger punch with its array of twenty millimeter cannons a wise person once said that necessity is the mother of invention true words were never spoken especially as they relate to the development of lethal aircraft during times of war have we missed a few iconic airplanes from world war ii well you bet we have maybe more than a few but for now these five examples stand at the pinnacle of aviation history and they were all born of necessity and so i really hope you enjoyed that video if you do think we've left out a plane well let me know in the comments below and maybe we'll do a part two of this video do another five we can get to them and as always oh please subscribe like this video and thank you for watching you

Channel: Sideprojects

Views: 102,115

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Id: s_cNOQfuMxk

Length: 10min 52sec (652 seconds)

Published: Sat Oct 17 2020