WW2 Aircraft
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50 free WW2 Aircraft trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Aircraft changed at an astonishing pace between 1939 and 1945. Air forces went to war with biplanes still on the flight line and finished it with jets, rockets and pressurised bombers that could cross oceans. Along the way the machines picked up nicknames, legends and a few tall tales that are still repeated today. This quiz covers the warplanes of every major air force: the fighters and bombers of Britain, the United States, Germany, Japan and the Soviet Union, plus the transports, trainers and flying boats that rarely get the credit. It also asks about the people around them, from aces and commanders to the celebrities who flew or were lost in the air, and about the myths, slang and propaganda the air war left behind. It suits anyone who likes military history, model kits or a good pub quiz round. The opening questions are ones most people can reason out, and the later ones reward readers who know their engines, production records and squadron histories. Every answer comes with a short explanation.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which vegetable did British propaganda credit for RAF night interceptions, to keep airborne radar secret?
Carrots
Carrots were said to sharpen night vision, a myth spread to explain kills that really came from radar carried in the aircraft. The press dubbed ace John Cunningham Cat's Eyes as part of the cover.
Q 02Which term did American night fighter crews coin for the unidentified flying objects they reported over wartime Europe?
Foo fighters
Foo fighters took their name from a nonsense word in the Smokey Stover comic strip, borrowed by a radar operator of the 415th Night Fighter Squadron. The term soon covered any wartime UFO sighting.
Q 03After which Hollywood actress did Allied airmen nickname the inflatable life jacket issued with their flight gear?
Mae West
Mae West was famous for her curves, and an inflated life preserver gave its wearer a similar outline. The jacket was invented in 1928 and issued to American and RAF aircrew.
Q 04Which aviation tycoon built the huge wooden Spruce Goose flying boat as a wartime transport that flew only once?
Howard Hughes
Howard Hughes disliked the Spruce Goose nickname, and the aircraft was in fact made almost entirely of birch. Wood was used because strategic metals were reserved for the war effort.
Q 05Which French author and airmail pilot vanished in 1944 while flying an unarmed reconnaissance plane from Corsica?
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry had published The Little Prince only the year before he disappeared. Debris from his aircraft was found on the seabed off Marseille in 2000.
Q 06Which American big band leader vanished in December 1944 on a flight over the English Channel to France?
Glenn Miller
Glenn Miller was a passenger in a single-engined UC-64 Norseman that never arrived. An Eighth Air Force inquiry blamed a mix of human error, mechanical failure and weather.
Q 07Which Japanese weapons, launched by the thousand from Honshu, killed six people in Oregon in May 1945?
Bomb-carrying balloons
Bomb-carrying balloons made of paper and filled with hydrogen crossed the Pacific on the jet stream. About 9,300 were released, and the Oregon deaths were the only ones from enemy action in the contiguous US.
Q 08RAF aircrew jokingly blamed unexplained mechanical failures in their aircraft on which mischievous imaginary creatures?
Gremlins
Gremlins began as RAF slang in the 1920s and spread through wartime squadrons, where blaming them saved crews from blaming each other. Enemy aircraft turned out to suffer the same mystery faults.
Q 09Which British fighter with an elliptical wing stayed in production before, during and after the Second World War?
Spitfire
The Spitfire was designed by R. J. Mitchell, who drew on his Schneider Trophy racing seaplanes and died of cancer in 1937. His colleague Joseph Smith led its later development.
Q 10Which future US president lost his elder brother Joe when an explosive-packed drone bomber blew up over England?
John F. Kennedy
John F. Kennedy inherited the political career his father had planned for Joe Jr., a Navy pilot who volunteered for Operation Aphrodite in 1944. The explosives detonated before the crew could bail out.
Q 11What new type of aircraft, the Sikorsky R-4, carried out its first combat rescue in the China-Burma-India theatre?
Helicopter
Helicopter pilot Carter Harman lifted out a downed airman and three British soldiers over several trips, despite high altitude and humidity. The R-4 was the first helicopter built in large numbers.
Q 12Which Japanese carrier fighter, named after the imperial year it entered service, flew in the Pearl Harbor raid?
Zero
Zero comes from the last digit of the imperial year 2600, which was 1940 in the Western calendar. Its pilots called it the Zero-sen, sen being short for the Japanese word for fighter plane.
Q 13Which American bomber got its famous nickname from a Seattle newspaper reporter's caption for a photo of the prototype?
Q 21Exiled airmen from which occupied country formed No. 303 Squadron, which claimed 126 kills in the Battle of Britain?
Poland
Poland's exiled airmen formed the squadron at Blackpool in July 1940 and joined the battle two months after it began. Sixteen Polish squadrons eventually served with the RAF.
Q 22Kitchen saucepans made of which metal were collected from British households in 1940 to help build warplanes?
Aluminium
Aluminium pans were handed in across Britain after Lord Beaverbrook's appeal, which his son later called nothing more than a propaganda exercise.
Q 23RAF crews nicknamed the Wellington bomber the Wimpy after a hamburger-loving character in which cartoon series?
Popeye
Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress
The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress was named by Richard Williams of The Seattle Times, who called it a 15-ton flying fortress in a picture caption. Boeing saw the value of the name and trademarked it.
Q 14Which American heavy bomber, subject of a 1990 Hollywood film, flew home in 1943 after completing 25 combat missions?
Memphis Belle
Memphis Belle and its crew toured the United States selling war bonds after their 25th mission. Its nose art carried 25 bomb symbols and eight swastikas for the German aircraft the crew claimed.
Q 15Which group of American volunteer pilots flew shark-faced P-40s for China against Japan in 1941 and 1942?
Flying Tigers
The Flying Tigers copied their shark-face markings from an RAF squadron in North Africa, which had borrowed the idea from German pilots. Officially they were the First American Volunteer Group.
Q 16Allied aircraft were painted with black and white stripes in 1944 to prevent friendly fire during which operation?
The Normandy landings
The Normandy landings stripes, five alternating bands on the wings and fuselage, were removed from upper surfaces a month later to hide aircraft parked at forward bases in France.
Q 17Gladiator biplanes later named Faith, Hope and Charity became legends defending which Mediterranean island in 1940?
Malta
Malta's famous trio is partly a myth: the defending flight had more than three Gladiators, and the names were applied later. The fuselage of Faith is still on display in a Valletta museum.
Q 18Which Hollywood star enlisted after his wife Carole Lombard died and flew bomber missions over Europe as a gunner?
Clark Gable
Clark Gable flew five combat missions in 1943 while making a film meant to recruit aerial gunners. He earned the Air Medal and the Distinguished Flying Cross.
Q 19Which pressurised American bomber with remote-controlled gun turrets cost more than the entire Manhattan Project?
Boeing B-29 Superfortress
The Boeing B-29 Superfortress cost about $3 billion to design and build, against $1.9 billion for the atomic bomb project. One gunner could aim several turrets through an analogue computer.
Q 20Chicago's main international airport is named after which US Navy fighter pilot, awarded the Medal of Honor in 1942?
Butch O'Hare
Butch O'Hare was credited with shooting down five enemy bombers despite a limited supply of ammunition. Orchard Field was renamed for him in 1949, six years after he was killed in action.
Popeye's portly friend J. Wellington Wimpy shared a name with the bomber, which was really named after the 1st Duke of Wellington, as was the earlier Vickers Wellesley.
Q 24Under which American aid programme did the Soviet Union receive over 11,000 aircraft, including 4,719 Airacobras?
Lend-Lease
Lend-Lease also delivered more than 400,000 jeeps and trucks to the Soviet Union. Flying the P-39, Soviet pilots ran up the highest kill tallies ever achieved in an American fighter type.
Q 25Allied transport pilots flew the dangerous supply route nicknamed the Hump over which mountain range to reach China?
The Himalayas
The Himalayas forced crews to fly from India without reliable charts, radio navigation aids or weather information. The airlift supplied Chiang Kai-shek's armies and American air units based in China.
Q 26Which aviation hero, refused a commission by President Roosevelt, flew 50 Pacific combat missions as a civilian?
Charles Lindbergh
Charles Lindbergh had been the spokesman of the isolationist America First Committee, so Roosevelt would not restore his colonel's rank. He was unofficially credited with shooting down an enemy aircraft.
Q 27Which German fighter, first used in the Spanish Civil War, was built in greater numbers than any other in history?
Messerschmitt Bf 109
The Messerschmitt Bf 109 reached 34,248 airframes between 1936 and April 1945. It was also the mount of the three top-scoring fighter aces of all time, who claimed 928 victories among them.
Q 28Which American fighter, weighing up to eight tons fully loaded, did its pilots nickname the Jug?
Republic P-47 Thunderbolt
The Republic P-47 Thunderbolt is usually said to have earned the name because its profile resembled a milk jug of the time. Its weight made it one of the heaviest fighters of the conflict.
Q 29Which US Navy carrier fighter was credited with destroying 5,223 enemy aircraft, more than any other Allied naval type?
F6F Hellcat
The F6F Hellcat was built at such a rate that 11,000 left the factory in just two years. The original design was sound enough to need little modification once production was under way.
Q 30Which heavy bomber with the slender Davis wing was built in larger numbers than any other US military aircraft?
Consolidated B-24 Liberator
The Consolidated B-24 Liberator reached about 18,500 units, a record for any bomber. Its range let anti-submarine versions help close the Mid-Atlantic gap where U-boats had hunted beyond air cover.