75 posts and not one of you mentioned the stealth aircrafts (although the blackbird was stealthy--it was not designed for stealth it was just luck of the design that made it stealthy) lower your heads in shame.
My order of importance:
1. Stealths: F-117 and B2 (do i need to even give a reason???)
2. Spitfire (face it was the best fighter in european theater during the major air combat of WWII)
3. B17 and B29 (B17 and B29 saw service at the same time; B17 in europe, because shorter distances and the B29 in pacific for the longer distances).
4. U2
camera: :camera: :camera: I see cuban, i see russia, i see china, i see ...)
5. B52 (Best bang for the buck this is still important today as it was 50 years ago)
6. F16 (This made the US go from "air superoity" to "air dominance")
7. Stuka DiveBomber (the heart of the blitzkreige tatics)
8. Zero (he!! US got a zero that was shot down and reverse engineered it during the war)
9. Blackbirdcamera: :camera: :camera: and shot at over 1000 times but NEVER shot down)
10. C-130 Spectra Gunships (Best ground support aircraft ever designed)
11. A-10 Warthog (when you need to have 10+ tanks destroyed ASAP)
My order of importance:
1. Stealths: F-117 and B2 (do i need to even give a reason???)
2. Spitfire (face it was the best fighter in european theater during the major air combat of WWII)
3. B17 and B29 (B17 and B29 saw service at the same time; B17 in europe, because shorter distances and the B29 in pacific for the longer distances).
4. U2
camera: :camera: :camera: I see cuban, i see russia, i see china, i see ...) 5. B52 (Best bang for the buck this is still important today as it was 50 years ago)
6. F16 (This made the US go from "air superoity" to "air dominance")
7. Stuka DiveBomber (the heart of the blitzkreige tatics)
8. Zero (he!! US got a zero that was shot down and reverse engineered it during the war)
9. Blackbird
camera: :camera: :camera: and shot at over 1000 times but NEVER shot down)10. C-130 Spectra Gunships (Best ground support aircraft ever designed)
11. A-10 Warthog (when you need to have 10+ tanks destroyed ASAP)
PowerEngineer
Diamond Member
- Oct 22, 2001
- 3,614
- 797
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Good choice.
The problem is that military aircraft are only really "importnat" during wars, and then the speed of technological improvements make them obsolete so quickly that it's hard to pick a real stand-out. I agree that the P-51 Mustang was an important WWII fighter, although it came into service late; it also served for years after the war in many forms and with many air forces. I think the F4 Phantom deserves some recognition for the same reasons. A front-line fighter in Vietnam, the last real fighter to serve in all the armed services, and used for decades in many air forces.
I pick the E-3 AWACS also because I used to fly on them.
If you want a bias-free answer, pick any cargo aircraft. C-5, C-17, C-130, etc.
If you want a bias-free answer, pick any cargo aircraft. C-5, C-17, C-130, etc.
- Jun 15, 2001
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Heh, this thread got a lot bigger than I thought it would.
You can't really say that any of the newest couple of generations of aircraft (F-22, JSF, B-1, B-2, etc) are the most important, because they haven't really done anything.
If we went to war with China today, then they may prove to be the most important, but for now they're just very expensive educational exercises. It's like saying the P4EE is the most important microprossesor ever made.
You can't really say that any of the newest couple of generations of aircraft (F-22, JSF, B-1, B-2, etc) are the most important, because they haven't really done anything.
If we went to war with China today, then they may prove to be the most important, but for now they're just very expensive educational exercises. It's like saying the P4EE is the most important microprossesor ever made.
Siddhartha
Lifer
- Oct 17, 1999
- 12,505
- 3
- 81
B-25 Bombers, specifically the ones used in Jimmy Doolittle's Tokyo raid. Had the Tokyo raid not been done, we might not have even been able to get involved in the war on the scale that we did. That raid put fear in the hearts of the Japanese, which kept them from launching another offensive and forcing us to fight a good portion of WWII on our own soil.
I wish i could find the link to the video file posted after the US/Taliban figting in Afghan, it was from an AC-130 gunship, these guys basically floated above a Taliban camp and toasted bad guys for like an hour, it was great.
AS for WW2, the german jet (Me-209?) was by far the best plane, but by that time Germany was all out of trained piolts, thus the P51 looked good taking it down, but it was really the fact that the American piolts had much better training. The spitfire was slightly better than the mustang in just about every aspect, but UK didnt have the big numbers as the mustang.
Probably the aircraft with the most uses is the Hueys in Vietnam, they were used day in and day out, some of those choppers endured a lifetime of wear and tear in a few short years. Thier quick in-and-out of a hot LZ was crucial to many troops on the ground, insertion, reinforcements, resupply, evac, medevac, etc, were all very dependent on the huey and thier extremely capable pilots.
Nowadays i would say the blackhawk, sure it gets bad press, but if you look at its overall record, it has done very well. Most military men (including myself) will swear by it, its actually pretty well armored (except for the tail rotor, which is impossible to protect on a chopper anyways) and it is very durable, fast, manueverable.
AS for WW2, the german jet (Me-209?) was by far the best plane, but by that time Germany was all out of trained piolts, thus the P51 looked good taking it down, but it was really the fact that the American piolts had much better training. The spitfire was slightly better than the mustang in just about every aspect, but UK didnt have the big numbers as the mustang.
Probably the aircraft with the most uses is the Hueys in Vietnam, they were used day in and day out, some of those choppers endured a lifetime of wear and tear in a few short years. Thier quick in-and-out of a hot LZ was crucial to many troops on the ground, insertion, reinforcements, resupply, evac, medevac, etc, were all very dependent on the huey and thier extremely capable pilots.
Nowadays i would say the blackhawk, sure it gets bad press, but if you look at its overall record, it has done very well. Most military men (including myself) will swear by it, its actually pretty well armored (except for the tail rotor, which is impossible to protect on a chopper anyways) and it is very durable, fast, manueverable.
Yeah, the Japanese were very brutal towards the Chinese, as well as the captured pilots. 4 of the 8 captured pilots died in captivity after being tortured and left with untreated dysentary, beri-beri and malnutrition. The other four were in captivity for over 40 months, mostly in solitary confinement.
I don't honestly know if they were the most important of all time, but they played a major part in shaping history as we know it. The attack on Japanese soil forced them to pull back their sea-based fighters to protect the homeland from further attacks, preventing them from pushing into the Solomon islands. Had they made it to the Solomon islands, they quite possibly could have continued all the way to the mainland without much of a fight, considering our defenses were greatly diminished after Pearl Harbor.
As far as modern times, I would say the most important planes today are those in support roles --- The E-3 AWACS probbably being the most important. The E-3 is the foundation every other piece is built on. It provides the level of coordination needed to pull off probbably every major air action undertaken today. Also, the in-flight refueling, transport, and recon planes provide the grease needed to keep the gears moving, the gears being the combat aircraft that get glorified on the Wings channel.
My apologies in advance for looking at this question through red, white and blue colored glasses but its like 3:30am here and I'm an American. Deal with it
- Jun 15, 2001
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I know quite a few people who will never forgive the Japanese for the things they did. Places like Mitsubishi had captured POWs working in slave labor conditions.
Yeah, a lot of people don't consider how important the raid was to morale and how it served to let the Japanese know that we weren't to be messed with.
GoodRevrnd
Diamond Member
- Dec 27, 2001
- 6,801
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I think I'll agree with your points on the IL-2, but I think you downplayed the role of the P-51 a bit. Like someone said before, it wasn't stellar until it got its Rolls/Packard engine. And like you said, it had stellar range, AND good ceiling and performance at its ceiling. Before the P-51 there was no effective fighter cover for the bombers that needed to fly deep into Europe. And even though they frequently sent the bombers in anyway before it was produced, the P-51 really served a vital role.
And thanks to Aces of the Pacific/Europe (wooo Dynamix!), my favorite is going to be the P-38J Lightning.
Oh yeah, and as for actually most important military aircraft, I'm going with the C-130 (and those in its family).
I worked years ago with a WW2 fighter pilot. He was an Ace in the Europen theater.
He would get sooo exited talking about low level groung attacts. He shruged off the P-51.
The plane he loved the most and got him back everytime was the Republic P-47,"The Jug",
a 7ton fighter. Its radial engine P&W could live with damage that the in-line 12's could not.
Those steam locomotives we all enjoy seeing blow up, those were his favorite kills.
The Zero we captured on an allution{sp} island had been there for some time before we found it. It was intact, the pilot should have torched it but didn't.
During the war the parts for the Zero were transported by OX CART to the place of final assembly. Yes we learned alot by taking that Zero apart.
The pilot I spoke of was, Calvin Roberts, he would work all the OT he could just to be able to rent and fly those old war birds. The Planes of Fame in Chino,Ca. would permit
qualified pilot to take them up.
Another was the P-38, refered to by our enemy in the pacific at that time, as the forked tail devil. Incredible monuverability at stall speed because of its counter rotating engines.
This thread=airshow time..........
He would get sooo exited talking about low level groung attacts. He shruged off the P-51.
The plane he loved the most and got him back everytime was the Republic P-47,"The Jug",
a 7ton fighter. Its radial engine P&W could live with damage that the in-line 12's could not.
Those steam locomotives we all enjoy seeing blow up, those were his favorite kills.
The Zero we captured on an allution{sp} island had been there for some time before we found it. It was intact, the pilot should have torched it but didn't.
During the war the parts for the Zero were transported by OX CART to the place of final assembly. Yes we learned alot by taking that Zero apart.
The pilot I spoke of was, Calvin Roberts, he would work all the OT he could just to be able to rent and fly those old war birds. The Planes of Fame in Chino,Ca. would permit
qualified pilot to take them up.
Another was the P-38, refered to by our enemy in the pacific at that time, as the forked tail devil. Incredible monuverability at stall speed because of its counter rotating engines.
This thread=airshow time..........
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