Originally used by British in Europe, Grumman F4F Wildcat remained one of the most useful US aircraft in the pacific region in World War 2. It was built by General Motors as a biplane-only design, which would explain the visual appearance of the stout fuselage (originally designed to carry two sets of … Read more
An iconic Italian bomber of the late 1930s and early 40s, the Fiat Br 20 Cicogna was created not only as a military instrument but also as an instrument of propaganda for Benito Mussolini’s fascist regime. The Br 20 bomber was meant to be symbolic of fascist rearmament. After the 1935 invasion of Ethiopia … Read more
F6F Hellcat was a highly successful follow-up to the Wildcat. Japanese Zero was quite a nuisance for the US Navy so it was built specifically to counter it. It worked almost perfectly and earned the nickname “ace maker.” Its obedient handling characteristics made it the Navy’s premier choice to be deployed with … Read more
Despite the fact that the twin-engine Douglas B-18 fitted most of the United States Army Air Forces bombing squadrons before the start of World War II, the “Bolo”, as it was known, still remains one of the most overlook bombers in history. The Douglas Company new venture in the medium payload bomber … Read more
One of the more popular military transport aircraft during the Second World War was developed by the Douglas C-47 Skytrain, also known as Dakota. It is considered to be the best WW2 aircraft that was used to transport military personnel. The Skytrain was originally developed as a commercial airliner under the DC-3 … Read more
The Douglas A-26 Invader was the last aircraft designated as an “attack bomber”. It was a successor of the Douglas A-20 Havoc design. This WW2 aircraft design was one of the very few systems to be entirely developed, designed and produced in large quantity and used in during the duration of the … Read more
During the Second World War, one aircraft company, Bell, gained popularity by being a “different type” of aircraft maker. Bell’s design of the XFM-1 Airacuda, which even though did not make it through production, gave the company its reputation of being a revolutionary aircraft maker. The design of the Bell XFM-1 Airacuda … Read more
Another novel idea during the Second World War was the proposed design of the Arado Ar E381 interceptor aircraft. The design of this WW2 German aircraft was that of a parasite-type plane that will be carried on the underside of the larger Ar 234 jet-powered bomber and then released once the desired … Read more
The Arado Ar 240 design was carefully planned. World War 2 was a time when technological advancements and improvements especially in the war machinery were made. War machineries such as airplanes needed to be upgraded and improved regularly to have the upper hand in the war. Such an upgrade was done in … Read more
It was customary for Allied forces during the Second World War to give nicknames to aircraft for them to easily identify and refer to them during communications. Most nicknames were given just for the purpose of identifying planes easier. However, some nicknames given to planes were done so in respect to the … Read more
The awkward-looking Arado Ar 196 was designed to be a worthy successor of the famous Heinkel He 50, a catapult launched biplane carried by most of Nazi Germany capital war ships in the early to mid 1930s. The twin-float 196 first took to the air in the early summer of 1938. The … Read more
The Amiot 354 WW2 aircraft was developed based on the design of the earlier Amiot 341 mail-carrier plane. It had the intention of copying the fast and long range capabilities of the Amiot 341; however the design for the Amiot 350 series were radically departed from the original design of the 341. … Read more
Although not a particularly modern-looking aircraft, the Aichi D3A sank more allied shipping than any other Axis aircraft both in its dive-bomber role and its later refit as a kamikaze plane. In 1936 a contract opened up to replace the obsolete Aichi D1A, a biplane dive-bomber with a more modern craft. Aichi’s … Read more
In 1938, the Japanese Imperial Navy’s First Naval Air Technical Arsenal based at Yokosuka began the design and development of a new, single engine dive bomber for its carrier base platforms. The result was the Suisei or comet. Based upon the highly advance (at the time) Heinkel He-118. The Suisei had the … Read more