50 Fun Facts About World War II Aircraft

Which RAF fighter caused most German losses in the Battle of Britain, despite the Spitfire's fame?

The Hurricane inflicted about 60% of the Luftwaffe's losses in the campaign. It was also much cheaper to build than its glamorous rival, taking roughly a third fewer man-hours per airframe.

Which fast British bomber, nicknamed the Wooden Wonder, was partly built by furniture companies?

The Mosquito was conceived as an unarmed bomber that would rely on speed alone, and in 1941 it was one of the fastest operational aircraft in the world. About twenty furniture firms made its wooden parts.

What name did pilot Paul Tibbets give the B-29 that bombed Hiroshima, in honour of his mother?

Enola Gay was the name of Tibbets's mother, who had herself been named after the heroine of a novel. He chose it the day before the mission.

Which future children's author crash-landed his RAF Gladiator biplane in the North African desert?

Roald Dahl fractured his skull in the crash and was temporarily blinded. He later wrote about the accident in his first published work.

Which future US president was shot down in an Avenger torpedo bomber near the island of Chichijima?

George H. W. Bush bailed out and was rescued by the submarine USS Finback, though both of his crewmates died. He had enlisted as a naval aviator on his 18th birthday.

Which British firm built the Merlin engine, named after a small falcon, that powered the Spitfire?

Rolls-Royce named its piston aero engines after birds of prey, so the Merlin honours a falcon rather than the wizard. The firm developed it as a private venture and first ran it in 1933.

Which Hollywood star piloted B-24 Liberator bombers over Germany and finished the war as a colonel?

James Stewart rose from private to colonel in only four years, one of the few Americans ever to do so. He flew his combat missions from bases in East Anglia.

Which Japanese company designed the Zero, the carrier fighter that flew in the Pearl Harbor raid?

Mitsubishi won the job after rival Nakajima quit the contest, judging the navy's demands impossible. Chief designer Jiro Horikoshi met them by making the aircraft as light as he could.

Which African American fighter pilots painted their tails red while escorting bombers over Europe?

The Tuskegee Airmen were the first African-American military aviators in the US armed forces. They took their name from the Alabama town where they were educated and trained.

Which gull-winged German warplane had wailing sirens on its fixed landing gear to spread terror?

The Stuka's sirens became a propaganda symbol of the Blitzkrieg. They also cost it up to 25 km/h in drag, so many units later stopped fitting them.

Which RAF heavy bomber carried the bouncing bombs that breached Germany's Ruhr dams in May 1943?

The Lancaster crews had to release their bombs from just 60 feet, judged by two spotlights whose beams met on the water at the right height.

Which American fighter became a long-range bomber escort once fitted with the British Merlin engine?

The P-51 Mustang was designed for a British order, and its original Allison engine left it weak at high altitude. A British test pilot suggested the engine swap in 1942.

Which German aircraft, in combat from 1944, was the world's first operational jet fighter?

The Me 262 reached front-line units late, partly because Hitler's interference delayed it: he wanted the new jet developed as a bomber.

Which Japanese word meaning 'divine wind' described pilots who deliberately dived into Allied ships?

Kamikaze first referred to the typhoons that scattered Kublai Khan's Mongol invasion fleets in 1274 and 1281.

Which company designed both the B-17 Flying Fortress and the B-29 Superfortress that bombed Japan?

Boeing's earlier bomber got its name from a Seattle newspaper reporter, who saw the guns bristling from the prototype and called it a flying fortress.

Which First World War fighter ace commanded the Luftwaffe until the last days of the Nazi regime?

Hermann Göring had taken command of the famous Flying Circus fighter wing in 1918, after the death of the Red Baron's successor.

Which leading Nazi flew a Bf 110 fighter alone to Scotland in 1941, hoping to arrange peace talks?

Rudolf Hess bailed out almost out of fuel and was found south of Glasgow by a ploughman, still struggling with his parachute.

Which US pilot, later first through the sound barrier, shot down five German planes in one mission?

Chuck Yeager had been shot down over France months earlier and escaped to Spain with the help of the French Resistance.

The Horsa and the Waco CG-4, which landed troops in Normandy on D-Day, were what kind of aircraft?

Gliders such as the Horsa were built largely of wood to save scarce metal, yet each could carry 30 troops, or a Jeep or an anti-tank gun.

Which car maker built B-24 bombers at its Willow Run plant, finishing one every 63 minutes by 1944?

Ford built almost half of all B-24s at Willow Run, in what was thought to be the largest factory under one roof anywhere in the world.

Which twin-boom American fighter had the range to intercept and shoot down Admiral Yamamoto in 1943?

The P-38 Lightning could fly long distances: sixteen of them flew 435 miles from Guadalcanal, just above the waves, to make the interception.

Which German rocket-powered interceptor burned all its fuel within about seven minutes of take-off?

The Me 163 Komet was the first piloted aircraft to pass 1,000 km/h in level flight. It dropped its wheels after take-off and came back to land on a skid.

Which Soviet ground-attack aircraft did Stalin call as essential to the Red Army as air and bread?

The Ilyushin Il-2 was so heavily armoured that Soviet troops called it the flying tank, and more than 36,000 were built during the war.

Which US Navy fighter had inverted gull wings so its landing gear could clear a huge propeller?

The F4U Corsair took many more training hours to master than other carrier fighters, which earned it the grim nickname Ensign Eliminator among naval aviators.

Which Royal Navy biplane crippled Italian battleships at Taranto and helped to sink the Bismarck?

The Swordfish was nicknamed the Stringbag, not for its struts and bracing wires but for the seemingly endless variety of stores it was cleared to carry.

Which US Navy dive bomber fatally damaged all four Japanese fleet carriers at the Battle of Midway?

The SBD Dauntless disabled three of the carriers in the span of about six minutes. It earned the nickname Slow But Deadly, a play on its initials.

Which American flying boat located the fleeing Bismarck and later spotted Japan's fleet near Midway?

The Catalina crews at Midway circled the Japanese fleet three times without being detected while signalling its position to the US Navy.

Which transport, developed from the DC-3 airliner, dropped paratroopers over Normandy on D-Day?

The C-47 Skytrain dropped more than 50,000 paratroops in the first few days of the Normandy campaign. British and Commonwealth crews knew it as the Dakota.

Which twin-engined bomber took off from the carrier USS Hornet for the 1942 Doolittle Raid on Japan?

The B-25 Mitchell was named in honour of Billy Mitchell, a pioneer of American military aviation. None of the sixteen aircraft returned: fifteen crashed and one landed in the Soviet Union.

Which radial-engined German fighter proved superior to the Spitfire V on reaching France in 1941?

The Fw 190 was nicknamed the Würger, or shrike, and it outperformed the Spitfire V in everything except turning circle.

What nickname did German soldiers reportedly give the all-female Soviet 588th bomber regiment?

The Night Witches idled their engines near the target, leaving only wind noise to give them away. German soldiers allegedly likened the sound to broomsticks.

Which Luftwaffe pilot, credited with 352 victories, is the most successful fighter ace in history?

Erich Hartmann scored his last victory hours before Germany's surrender, then spent ten years in Soviet prison camps before his release in 1955.

Which Wisconsin farm boy became America's top ace of the war by shooting down 40 Japanese aircraft?

Richard Bong was killed testing a new jet fighter in California on 6 August 1945, the day the first atomic bomb fell on Hiroshima.

Which RAF fighter ace flew in the Battle of Britain despite losing both legs in a 1931 crash?

Douglas Bader was later shot down over France and made so many escape attempts that the Germans sent him to Colditz Castle.

Which engineer devised the bouncing bomb after skipping marbles over water tanks in his garden?

Barnes Wallis had already devised the criss-cross geodetic structure that gave the Wellington bomber one of the most robust airframes ever developed.

Which RAF officer patented the turbojet in 1930, eleven years before Britain's first jet flew?

Frank Whittle let the patent lapse in 1935 because he could not afford the £5 renewal fee and the Air Ministry refused to pay it.

Which American luxury car maker built the British Merlin aero engine under licence from 1941?

Packard was brought in to expand Merlin production for Britain under a $130 million order, and its first engine ran in August 1941.

Which secret device did American B-17 crewmen swear an oath to defend with their own lives?

The Norden bombsight was not as secret as believed: details of it had been passed to Germany before the war even started.

Which US women's organisation ferried new warplanes from factories and towed targets for gunners?

WASP pilots flew as civilians and were only granted veteran status in 1977, more than thirty years after the programme was disbanded.

From which island in the Marianas did B-29s take off to drop both atomic bombs on Japan?

Tinian was turned into the largest airbase of the war after American forces seized it, with airfields covering almost the entire island.

Allied code names made Japanese fighters men and bombers women; what were trainers named after?

Trees lent their names to trainers, while fighters got hillbilly names such as Zeke and Rufe that the scheme's creator had heard growing up in Tennessee.

What RAF codename covered the aluminium strips dropped to blind German radar over Hamburg in 1943?

Window was held back until July 1943 because British advisers feared the Luftwaffe would copy it and launch a new Blitz. German scientists already had their own version, called Düppel.

Which 12,000 lb British earthquake bomb sank the German battleship Tirpitz in November 1944?

The Tallboy was meant to shake a target apart: its earthquake effect could do more damage than a direct hit that pierced the armour.

Which US general ordered B-29s to firebomb Tokyo from low altitude at night in March 1945?

Curtis LeMay had the defensive guns stripped from 325 bombers for the first attack, which proved the single most destructive air raid of the war.

What did Luftwaffe night fighter crews call the upward-firing guns used to hit bombers from below?

Schräge Musik was German slang for off-key music such as jazz. The guns exploited a weakness of British night bombers, which had no turret underneath to cover the blind spot.

Which engineer and motorcycle racer devised a washer that kept Merlin engines running in a dive?

Beatrice Shilling's restrictor stopped fuel flooding the carburettor under negative g, a flaw that had let German pilots escape RAF fighters by pushing into a dive.

Which test pilot flew a manned V-1 flying bomb and was among the last visitors to Hitler's bunker?

Hanna Reitsch was also the first woman to fly a helicopter, which she demonstrated indoors at a Berlin arena in 1938.

Which oil-refining centre did B-24 Liberators attack at very low level in Operation Tidal Wave?

Ploiești was so heavily defended that 53 bombers, about a third of the force, were lost, and the date became known as Black Sunday.

Which crew safety feature was first fitted to an operational military aircraft on Germany's He 219?

Ejection seats had first saved a life in January 1942, when a German test pilot fired himself out of a prototype jet whose controls had iced up.

Which aircraft made the first turbojet flight in August 1939, days before war broke out in Europe?

The Heinkel He 178 was built as a private venture, kept largely secret from the German authorities, and it led the company on to the first prototype jet fighter.