I always get frowned at for saying i like these better than Spitfires
Mustangs

Technically superior in a few minor respects, the rad design was a bit of a masterpiece on the Mustang and gave it a good few kts extra speed.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meredith_effect

What the hell – highly modded and probably way out of thread jurisdication, the sadly lost Galloping Ghost:

You want jets rather than props, OK what about a plane that was operational with both

SAAB J21

SAAB J21R

The Me262 first flew with a piston engine

Sneaking in before the closing date, Gloster Meteor

might as well have Gloster’s jet prototype while we’re at it

E28/39

MkXII first of the griffon powered spitfires to come into widespread service. Widely recognised (in clipped wing format shown here) to be the fastest low level piston aircraft in general service. Most pilots found that the enemy just wouldn’t engage with them when flying it. This was the aircraft that shot down most V-1s

B29 superfortress.

Miles M20

An unbelievable nine weeks from specification issued to test flight of prototype. Conceived as an emergency, easy to produce backup, in case spit/hurricane production was stopped by bombing.

Essentially a complete Lancaster Merlin installation at the front.

Love the fact about the Miles M20 and the requirements of a mid-war specification!

@Klunk’s spitfire pic on the last page – that’s a proper goosebumps pic that is.

Some fabulous aircraft here, the Grumman Tigercat on the first page is a long-time favourite, lucky enough to have seen one flying at RAF Wroughton years ago.
Have had a long-standing love for the PBY-5 Catalina, too; if there was any aircraft that I could have the opportunity to own and fly, it would be the Cat, one put on a lovely display at Weston Air Day last year:

Always liked this. Then I saw it crash at Biggin Hill. Not felt the same about air shows since.

Bell P63 Kingcobra

Flying boats… plural. The Short Mayo composite:

Gosh darn it, if Fokker can put three wings on a Dr1, we can do better…

Wight Quadraplane

(no, it wasn’t better)

A nice pair, clipped-wing Spit, and the only Hurri flying that saw action in the Battle of Britain:

And something we’ll never see again, a pair of Lancasters:

Best photos I could get under the circumstances.

Westland Whirlwind

Sadly not as good as it looked.

Hughes Spruce Goose

Difficult to park.

another tigercat pic

Spruce Goose.

Best. Name. Ever.

Hughes H1 Penis extension Racer.*

Hughes hated the name Spruce Goose.

* Strictly, this shouldn’t be in the thread as it’s a recreation. A bloody good one though.

Ilyushin Il-2M3

Here’s a pic of TT winner Alec Bennett in his RFC Bristol F2.

ME163

As an avid childhood reader of W.E. Johns my mind links the aforementioned Beaufighter with the Consolidated B-24 Liberator in some particularly exciting piece of derring-do – possibly in Borneo.

DO335

***Nerd/pedant***

That Handley Page Stirling way back up there, were they not built by Short Bros?

Got the shot of the two Lancaster but some modern old thing got in the way! 🙄

Rachel

B26 Martin Marauder. Hard to fly because of its high landing speed, but the pilots loved it when they got used to it.

Sopwith Camel and Pup ( and my father-in-law third from left who once upon a time commanded the Fleet Air Arm Historic Flight ):

***Nerd/pedant***

That Handley Page Stirling way back up there, were they not built by Short Bros?

Correct. Beat me to it.

Curtiss XP-55

Beamers, the Pup looks like it’s escaped from Pixar’s “Planes” 😉 the machine guns look like its eyes…

Fokker E111 eindeker. No flaps the cables warp the wings to make it manoeuvre. Lethal in the Fokker Summer as it had the first effective forward firing gun .

I don’t think we’ve had one of these yet, despite it being considered by many to be the best British fighter of the World War (though it’s not as pretty as a Camel)

SE5a

For Typhoon fans, I bumped into this a while back. Worth a watch – the usual collection of heros.

boeing 221a monomail

Boeing 218

junkers 88

blackburn firebrand

Lavochkin La-9

Lockheed 10-A Electra

No DC3?

Shame on you all…

C47 on page 2…