The Most Successful Fighter Plane of World War II

all right [Music] [Applause] one of the most crucial aspects in World War II was the employment and performance of newly created Weaponry military tactics and intelligence Services were important but In the Heat of combat the quality and amount of Weaponry were the most important as a result the world's most powerful countries were designing and Manufacturing military systems and platforms on an unprecedented scale fighter aircraft were among the most formidable vehicles of the war produced they proved to completely alter the battlefield although the fighters had been around for a while they were nothing like as sophisticated as the Revolutionary Fighters deployed in the second world war skilled pilots in these new aircraft could pose a significant threat to the whole opposing fleets they not only changed the course of the war but also became the legends of the aerial battle let's take a look at the 10 most proficient and successful World War II fighter aircraft number 10. supermarine MKS 24 Spitfire the Spitfire was the most strategically crucial as well as the most widely produced British single-seat fighter of the war between 1938 and 1948 around 20 351 units of the Spitfire were built apart from the insane manufacturing numbers the aircraft received more versions than any previous fighter by the conclusion of the war the Spitfire had been constructed and over 20 fighter versions alone it first flew on March 1935 powered by a 1000 horsepower 12-cylinder liquid-cooled Rolls-Royce pv12 engine later called the Merlin then in the summer of 1938 the delivery to active Royal Air Force or RAF squadrons of the UK had begun and the aircraft was used in the Battle of Britain the Spitfire had a top speed of 360 miles per hour and a ceiling of 34 000 feet it also had a stress skin aluminum frame and an elegant elliptical wing with a narrow airfoil designed by R.J Mitchell which when combined with the Merlin's efficient two-stage supercharger offered it a remarkable performance at high altitudes the Spitfire fighter bomber variants even carried a 250-pound bomb beneath the fuselage and a 250-pound bomb under each wing after a long and successful career the Spitfire was retired in 1952. number nine Soviet yakovlev yak-3 the Soviet Yak 3 was the only Soviet fighter with a single engine and single seat during the second World War the fighter was designed by yaakovlev Design Bureau to be a tough easy to maintain aircraft however the aircraft had two major drawbacks which included short range and the glued on plywood covering on top of the Wings tendency to pull away under high G loading the yak-3 entered service in 1944 with a total of 4848 units built the first 197 yak-3s were outfitted with a single 20 millimeter sh vac Cannon and a single 12.7 millimeter UBS machine gun with the following aircraft receiving a second UBS for a weight of fire to six pounds per second with high explosive ammunition the yak-3 was powered by vk-105pf2 V12 liquid cooled piston engine producing 1290 horsepower it would reach a maximum speed of 401 miles per hour at a range of 405 miles with a rate climb of 3645 feet and service ceiling of 35 000 feet since 1991 yakovlev has produced a number of yak-3s for the fighter aircraft Market using the original design and parts with the designation Yak 3M several of these are still in use today primarily in the United States Germany as well as Australia number eight Republic p47d Thunderbolt there are public P-47 Thunderbolt named after the legendary A-10 Thunderbolt was the biggest heaviest and most costly fighter aircraft ever built it was first manufactured by Republic aviation in 1941 with a single piston engine based on the powerful Pratt and Whitney r2800 double wasp engine producing 2430 horsepower it proved to be very effective as a short to medium range escort fighter plane in high altitude air-to-air combat and when used as a fighter bomber it proved a specially Adept at Ground attack in both the European and Pacific Theaters of World War II the p-47d Thunderbolt had a range of 1 900 miles and a top speed of 433 miles per hour its cruising speed was 350 miles per hour and service ceiling was 42 000 feet the fighter was armed with six or eight 50 caliber machine guns and either 10 Rockets or 2500 pounds of bombs before the manufacturing of the p-47d Thunderbolt was discontinued there were a total of 15 660 units produced number seven North American P-51D Mustang the P-51D also called Mustang was built by North American Aviation as a long-range fighter with bomber capability more than fifteen thousand Mustangs were built and the plane survived long enough to fight in the Korean War the p51d Mustang was one of the greatest fighters of World War II with excellent vision and extraordinary speed and range thanks to the low drag laminar flow wing and effective low drag engine cooling system the initial Mustang was powered by a liquid cooled inline Allison v1710 engine allowing for a top speed of 437 miles per hour and a combat range of about 750 miles its operating range could even be increased to 1 375 Miles by the addition of external top tanks however due to no effective high altitude supercharger the P-51 Mustang was limited to low altitude operations below 15 000 feet only the aircraft made its first flight in October 1940 went into production in May 1941 and first saw combat with the Royal Air Force in April 1942. they were normally armed with 250 caliber nose mounted machine guns and 430 caliber wing-mounted machine guns which were largely used by the Royal Air Force as the low altitude Fighters and long-range photo reconnaissance aircraft under the name F6 while one type the a36a was a dive bomber for the usaaf number six Mitsubishi a6m 0. the Mitsubishi a6m also called zero was a single-seat long-range Japanese fighter aircraft developed specifically for use on aircraft carriers during World War II it was built by Mitsubishi Aircraft Company a subsidiary of Mitsubishi heavy Industries to be one of the most important Japanese planes and the first carrier-based fighter capable of defeating land-based enemies at the time it was initially powered by a 1020 horsepower Nakajima sake radial air-cooled engine with 14 cylinders two staggered rows of seven later its three blade constant speed propeller was powered by a 1130 horsepower engine it had a top speed of 350 miles per hour at nearly 20 000 feet and it was equipped with two 7.7 millimeter machine guns and two 20 millimeter cannons in its wings it was also capable of carrying two 132 pound bombs beneath the wings when it first debuted the zero could outmaneuver any aircraft it came across furthermore its 156 gallon internal fuel tank was supplemented with a 94 gallon external tank that could be dropped when empty allowing the zero to fly considerably Beyond its projected range this aircraft was used by the Imperial Japanese Navy between 1939 and 1945. in total about 11 000 zero Fighters were manufactured during the latter months of the war several zeros were modified into Kamikaze aircraft number five Messerschmitt bf-109k the bf-109k was the last in the series of the well-known German fighter bf-109 and the last to see active service the majority of these aircraft which were the last bf-109 type had ample time to participate in dogfights the development and maintenance of the aircraft were costly and difficult after so many revisions and development of new variants one fascinating fact about the K4 variant however is that it was the fastest 109 of World War II utilizing mw50 and maximum Boost from Daimler Ben's db605 dbdc engine the bf-109k could attain a top speed of more than 440 miles per hour at an altitude of 24 600 feet it was armed with a 30 millimeter 108 motor Cannon and two mg-151 cannons on the fuselage foreign number four Lockheed p-38j lightning the P-38 was used in three separate roles as a fighter a fighter bomber and an aerial reconnaissance aircraft when it was first introduced in 1940 the P-38 could rise to 3 300 feet in a single minute and reach 400 miles per hour it could also carry a greater payload than the early b-17s and had a range of 1150 miles the lightning has an unrivaled Legacy as a World War II fighter during the war more than 10 000 p-38s were built with 18 different versions flying more than 130 000 missions in various locations across the world it was armed with two 12 millimeter mg-131 and three 20 millimeter mg-151 guns the P-38 Pilots shot down more Japanese planes than any other fighter and as a reconnaissance aircraft they recorded 90 percent of the aerial footage captured over Europe the fighter was decommissioned from the USAF in 1949. number three Grumman f8f bearcat the f8f Bearcat was a single seat single-engine fighter used by the U.S Navy and deployed from aircraft carriers its reconstruction began in the middle of World War II but the aircraft was not ready to fly until the end of the war therefore because it was too late for World War II the f8f was deployed by the French in the French Vietnam War in 1953. in terms of speed time to climb rapid takeoff and battle maneuverability the f8f outperformed all previous fighters it was the most powerful single-engine propeller driven aircraft ever built with a small airframe first flown in 1944 the aircraft yielded a climb rate of 4500 feet and a ceiling of 38 700 feet with a maximum speed of 424 miles per hour and cruise speed of 163 miles per hour it was powered by a pnw r2800 34w engine with a slightly increased fuel capacity in 1946 The Fighter set a new record for the quickest climb reaching 10 000 feet in 94 seconds the Bearcat was armed with four Browning 12.7 millimeter cannons and could also carry two one thousand pound explosives or two drop tanks number 2. Fox wolf fw-190d9 the D9 was one of several variants made for the fw-190 fighter although it flew just a few times the specific variant was built for the operation against heavy bomber attacks it was powered by a powerful inline liquid cooled jumo 213 engine producing 2240 horsepower with a methanol water injection despite its rare look in the sky the aircraft was quite powerful with a top speed of 426 miles per hour Cruise speed of 280 miles per hour and a range of up to 590 miles its service ceiling is an even 40 000 feet it also had excellent defense and a lethal arsenal of Weaponry these included two 20 millimeter mg-151 cannons in its wings and two 13 millimeter mg-131 machine guns in the nose number one chance vot f4u4 Corsair the American f4u4 Corsair carrier-based fighter bomber developed and constructed by chance Vaught was the most capable fighter of World War II more than 12 500 corsairs were built between 1942 and 1953. this aircraft was powered by Pratt and Whitney r2800 double wasp engine that produced up to 2 450 horsepower as a result the F4U could attain a top speed of 453 to 446 miles per hour at 26 200 feet with a cruising speed of 215 miles per hour and a service ceiling of 41 500 feet the F4U corsairs were the first American fighters to achieve 400 miles per hour and the first to feature a 2 000 horsepower engine this Fighter's maximum range was 1560 miles while its effective combat range was 900 miles beside its outstanding characteristics the Corsair possessed excellent agility and lethal Weaponry it could carry 4 000 pound bombs or eight five inch aircraft Rockets as a capable fighter bomber it also had 650 caliber Browning machine guns and 479 caliber an M3 or 20 millimeter cannons that's all for today thanks for watching and see you next time

Channel: Military TV

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Keywords: ww2 planes, ww2 aircraft, ww2 airplanes, wwii planes, world war 2 planes, ww2 fighter planes, wwii, airplanes, wwii aircraft, ww2, aircraft, ww 2, ww2 plane, planes, world war 2 airplanes, ww ii, ww, world war 2 aircraft, world war 2 fighter planes, war planes, planes of ww2, world war 2, warplanes, wwii fighter planes

Id: JSDav_x2rmc

Length: 16min 47sec (1007 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 30 2022