While I started this site with a focus on WW2 fighters and aces, my interests have spread out - to include the First World War, the Golden Age of Aviation between the wars, and even some post-war jet airplanes. While there is concentration of military aircraft, I also profile some civil airplanes.

Companies like Republic, North American, Grumman, Boeing, Lockheed, and Bell turned out 100,000 fighter planes and tens of thousands of bombers.

All the combatant nations, USA, Germany, Japan, Britain, struggled to keep their aircraft up-to-date, almost constantly modifying them and introducing new variants. The Spitfire went through over twenty variants. The Bf-109 evolved through eleven major production variants, plus uncounted sub-types and experimentals. A constant trend emgerged - to push the basic airframe design to it limits and beyond with more powerful engines, more weapons, more armor protection, larger fuel tanks, etc. The Bf 109 exemplified this trend. The Bf 109B, first introduced in 1937 was powered by a 610 hp engine; by 1944, the Bf 109K carried an 1800 hp engine.

You can read here about their technical development and production, see photographs, read contemporary pilots' descriptions, see detailed data tables about them, etc. It is a vast subject, with innumerable details; please do not hesitate to email me or note in the Forum any errors, discrepancies, or questions.

• WW2 Aircraft Nose Art - featuring 22nd Bomb Group B-24s based at Okinawa

• Aircraft Manufacturers A time line showing milestones in their history

• The Cradle of Aviation Museum, in Bethpage, Long Island
  

• Factories A table of aircraft manufacturing plants (as of early 1944)
  

• As Described by the Aces Brief comments on the main U.S. fighter planes, in the aces' own words

• Aerial Victories of Naval Fighter Planes, showing claims by month for Land-based and Carrier-Based fighters
  

• World War Two Aircraft - Specs of Fighters by model and type - slow-loading(104Kb + pictures)

• The Navy's Fighting Squadrons in World War Two - Based on Barrett Tillman's excellent book, I have prepared this summary table for them, showing deployments, CO, top aces, etc.
  

  Here are a few sample rows from Navy's Fighting Squadrons in World War Two:

Squadron # "Nickname"	Start	End	A/C	Carrier/Base	Top Ace (kills w/ sqn)	CO (kills w/ sqn)	Kills	# Aces
VF-1   "High Hatters"	Nov-43	Aug-44	F6F	Yorktown CV-10	Richard Eastmond (9)	B.M. Strean	100	3
VF-2   "Rippers"	Mar-44	Sep-44	F6F	Hornet CV-12	Cdr. William A. Dean (10)		240	28
VF-3   "Felix the Cat"	Dec-41	May-42	F4F	Lexington CV-2	Butch O'Hare (5)	Jimmy Thach	18	1
	May-42	Jun-42	F4F	Yorktown CV-5	Elbert McCuskey (5)	Jimmy Thach	34.5	1

Many other high-scoring squadrons are included in the full table.

  Here are a few sample rows from Aerial Victories of Naval Fighter Planes:

Estimated Victories by Type - Table 5 & 24
	Carrier-Based				Land-Based				Both Carrier & Land-Based
	F4F/ FM2	F4U	F6F		F4F/ FM2	F4U	F6F		F4F/ FM2	F4U	F6F	TOTAL
Dec-41	-	-	-		10	-	-		10	-	-	10
Jan-42	-	-	-		-	-	-		-	-	-	-
Feb-42	25	-	-		-	-	-		25	-	-	25
Mar-42	-	-	-		1	-	-		1	-	-	1
Apr-42	-	-	-		-	-	-		-	-	-	-
May-42	34	-	-		-	-	-		34	-	-	34
Jun-42	65	-	-		15	-	-		80	-	-	80

The table continues and includes every month of the war, through August, 1945.

  Here are a few sample rows from World War Two Aircraft - Specs of Fighters by model and type

Aircraft model and type				Production		Speed	Armament					Engine and Performance						Weight			Other
Nat.	Mfr/Des.	model Name	type	Svc. Del.	# Built	MPH	8mm	13mm	20mm	37mm+	Bomb	HP	Engine	Climb ft/min	Ceil FT	Rng Mi.	Ext Rng	Empty Wt. lb.	Loaded Wt.	Max.Wt. lb.	Crew	# Eng.	Oth Name	Modif.
USA	Brewster	F2A Buffalo	F2A-3	Jan-41	500	321		4			200	1,200	Wright R-1820-40		33,204	963		4,731	7,158		1	1	Buffalo
USA	Grumman	F4F Wildcat	F4F-3	Dec-40	560	330		6			200	1,200	P&W R-1830-86	2,050	32,600		1,274	5,293	7,467	8,771	1	1	Martlet Mk I/II/III
			F4F-4/FM-1	Jun-42	2,500	319		6				1,200	P&W R-1830-86	1,949	34,000	830	1,275	5,758	7,406	7,952	1	1	Martlet Mk IV/V	folding wings
			F4F-4/FM-2	Sep-43	4,800	319		6				1,350	P&W R-1820-56	2,890	35,600	780	1,350	5,758	7,406	7,952	1	1	Martlet Mk.VI	lighter

There are a lot more World War Two aircraft in the table itself: U.S. fighters, German, British, Russian, and Japanese.

 

America's Hundred Thousand, by Francis H. Dean This book covers in detail the eleven U.S. fighter aircraft types produced just before and during World War II - with a combined production total of just over 100,000 aircraft. Covered are the Army Lockheed P-38 Lightning, P-39 Airacobra, Curtiss P-40 Tomahawk/Kittyhawk/Warhawk, P-47 Thunderbolt, North American P-51 Mustang, Northrop P-61 Black Widow, and the Navy F2A - Buffalo, F4F - Wildcat, F4U - Corsair, and F6F - Hellcat fighters. The text is supplemented by more than 650 photographs, and 200 tables and graphs. Fighter production figures are also included. After an introduction of each type, a heavily illustrated overview of earlier inter-war production from 1920-on, along with a discussion and illustration of wartime experimental types, is provided. A lengthy section considering several technical factors affecting fighter performance follows. These include engine models, supercharger types, propellers, aerodynamic thrust, lift and drag, aircraft weight, balance, stability and control, and armament. America's Hundred Thousand also provides details of each U.S. World War II production fighter in terms of models and changes, numbers produced, and major engine and aircraft performance aspects - in tabular and graphical form - details of weights, discussion of handling qualities and general comments, along with detailed descriptions containing many illustrations of aircraft structures and systems showing the technology of that time. In addition a comprehensive week-to-week and month-to-month chronology of development and wartime combat operational life for each fighter is provided, including many photos. This study concludes with comparisons of the eleven types in terms of program milestones, aircraft drag, power available at various altitudes, speed, climb, rolling and turning, acceleration, and diving performance, as well as general evaluations by World War II pilots. Buy ''America's Hundred Thousand'' at Amazon.com
sample page	sample page, P-47 diagram	P-40 cockpit and Allison engine

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