World War II Aircraft
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50 free World War II Aircraft trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
The Second World War was fought in the air as never before. In six years aircraft went from fabric-covered biplanes to jets and rockets, and names like Spitfire, Zero and Flying Fortress entered everyday language. Whole campaigns, from the Battle of Britain to Midway, turned on which side had the better machines and the better-trained crews. This quiz covers the planes people remember and the stories behind them: the fighters and bombers of Britain, America, Germany, Japan and the Soviet Union, the engines and inventions that gave one side an edge, the aces and famous names who flew in combat, and the raids that made particular aircraft legendary. Some questions ask you to name a plane from its nickname, its odd shape or its best-known mission; others ask who designed it, who built it or who flew it. It is written for anyone with an interest in WW2 planes, from people who built model kits as children to readers of military history. The early questions cover the aircraft most people have heard of, and the later ones are for enthusiasts who know their interceptors from their dive bombers. Every answer comes with a short explanation.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which RAF fighter caused most German losses in the Battle of Britain, despite the Spitfire's fame?
Hurricane
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.
Q 02Which fast British bomber, nicknamed the Wooden Wonder, was partly built by furniture companies?
Mosquito
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.
Q 03What name did pilot Paul Tibbets give the B-29 that bombed Hiroshima, in honour of his mother?
Enola Gay
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.
Q 04Which future children's author crash-landed his RAF Gladiator biplane in the North African desert?
Roald Dahl
Roald Dahl fractured his skull in the crash and was temporarily blinded. He later wrote about the accident in his first published work.
Q 05Which future US president was shot down in an Avenger torpedo bomber near the island of Chichijima?
George H. W. Bush
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.
Q 06Which British firm built the Merlin engine, named after a small falcon, that powered the Spitfire?
Rolls-Royce
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.
Q 07Which Hollywood star piloted B-24 Liberator bombers over Germany and finished the war as a colonel?
James Stewart
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.
Q 08Which Japanese company designed the Zero, the carrier fighter that flew in the Pearl Harbor raid?
Mitsubishi
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.
Q 09Which African American fighter pilots painted their tails red while escorting bombers over Europe?
Tuskegee Airmen
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.
Q 10Which gull-winged German warplane had wailing sirens on its fixed landing gear to spread terror?
Stuka
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.
Q 11Which RAF heavy bomber carried the bouncing bombs that breached Germany's Ruhr dams in May 1943?
Lancaster
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.
Q 12Which American fighter became a long-range bomber escort once fitted with the British Merlin engine?
P-51 Mustang
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.
Q 13Which German aircraft, in combat from 1944, was the world's first operational jet fighter?
Me 262
The Me 262 reached front-line units late, partly because Hitler's interference delayed it: he wanted the new jet developed as a bomber.
Q 21Which twin-boom American fighter had the range to intercept and shoot down Admiral Yamamoto in 1943?
P-38 Lightning
The P-38 Lightning could fly long distances: sixteen of them flew 435 miles from Guadalcanal, just above the waves, to make the interception.
Q 22Which German rocket-powered interceptor burned all its fuel within about seven minutes of take-off?
Me 163 Komet
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.
Q 23Which Soviet ground-attack aircraft did Stalin call as essential to the Red Army as air and bread?
Ilyushin Il-2
Q 14Which Japanese word meaning 'divine wind' described pilots who deliberately dived into Allied ships?
Kamikaze
Kamikaze first referred to the typhoons that scattered Kublai Khan's Mongol invasion fleets in 1274 and 1281.
Q 15Which company designed both the B-17 Flying Fortress and the B-29 Superfortress that bombed Japan?
Boeing
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.
Q 16Which First World War fighter ace commanded the Luftwaffe until the last days of the Nazi regime?
Hermann Göring
Hermann Göring had taken command of the famous Flying Circus fighter wing in 1918, after the death of the Red Baron's successor.
Q 17Which leading Nazi flew a Bf 110 fighter alone to Scotland in 1941, hoping to arrange peace talks?
Rudolf Hess
Rudolf Hess bailed out almost out of fuel and was found south of Glasgow by a ploughman, still struggling with his parachute.
Q 18Which US pilot, later first through the sound barrier, shot down five German planes in one mission?
Chuck Yeager
Chuck Yeager had been shot down over France months earlier and escaped to Spain with the help of the French Resistance.
Q 19The Horsa and the Waco CG-4, which landed troops in Normandy on D-Day, were what kind of aircraft?
Gliders
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.
Q 20Which car maker built B-24 bombers at its Willow Run plant, finishing one every 63 minutes by 1944?
Ford
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.
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.
Q 24Which US Navy fighter had inverted gull wings so its landing gear could clear a huge propeller?
F4U Corsair
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.
Q 25Which Royal Navy biplane crippled Italian battleships at Taranto and helped to sink the Bismarck?
Swordfish
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.
Q 26Which US Navy dive bomber fatally damaged all four Japanese fleet carriers at the Battle of Midway?
SBD Dauntless
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.
Q 27Which American flying boat located the fleeing Bismarck and later spotted Japan's fleet near Midway?
Catalina
The Catalina crews at Midway circled the Japanese fleet three times without being detected while signalling its position to the US Navy.
Q 28Which transport, developed from the DC-3 airliner, dropped paratroopers over Normandy on D-Day?
C-47 Skytrain
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.
Q 29Which twin-engined bomber took off from the carrier USS Hornet for the 1942 Doolittle Raid on Japan?
B-25 Mitchell
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.
Q 30Which radial-engined German fighter proved superior to the Spitfire V on reaching France in 1941?
Fw 190
The Fw 190 was nicknamed the Würger, or shrike, and it outperformed the Spitfire V in everything except turning circle.