Randy Wilson wrote:
My favorite American fighter to fly is/was the Wildcat
It's hard to pick just one, but I would have to say the F4F is up there for me as well. (Can I say SBD?
Swede Vejtasa used one a fighter in Coral Sea.
That episode of
Dogfights is one of my favorites.) IMHO, the equipment from the early years of the war tend to have more interesting stories because they were from a time where the Allies didn't have overwhelming superiority. When opponents are on more of an equal footing (or even at a disadvantage), combat requires more skill.
Also, I'm a sucker for naval aviation. Partially because naval aircraft have to achieve all the same objectives that land based ones do, but they have the additional limitation of shipboard operations, which means more inventive design solutions.
sandiego89 wrote:
Collectively in the US, the P-51 is the favorite by the most people, and unquestionably the most well known by the general population, but ask a group of US enthusiasts the same question and you will get a whole host of answers.
I know its terrible gatekeeping, but I have a rule of thumb that you can tell an average member of the public apart from a real warbird enthusiast by asking them what their favorite fighter is. The former will answer P-51 and the latter anything else. Now for the hate mail...
sandiego89 wrote:
The P-51 is almost too common, like the car if the same name here in the US, and I won’t go out if my way to see one.
I would say the F-4 and F-16 are the same way. There's nothing inherently wrong with them - they're good fighters - but they're just so overrepresented and average that they're boring. It's the less common and unusual stuff that's interesting.
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