Which fighter plane, also flown by United States Marine Corps World War 2 fighter ace Donald N. Aldrich, held the longest production run of any piston-engine fighter in U.S. history?
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Donald N. Aldrich Donald Nathan Aldrich (24 October 1917 – 3 May 1947) was a United States Marine Corps Reserve captain and World War II flying ace. With 20 victories, Aldrich was the fifth-highest-scoring Marine Corps ace of the war. He joined the Royal Canadian Air Force after the United States Army Air Corps refused him because he was married. Aldrich became an instructor pilot and transferred to the United States Marine Corps in late 1942. He joined VMF-215 in the Solomon Islands campaign in June 1943, flying the Vought F4U Corsair. Aldrich added to his 20 victories in three combat tours with six probables, the highest total number of probables in the Marine Corps. Postwar, Aldrich continued to serve in the Marine Corps and was killed in a 1947 plane crash.
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Vought F4U Corsair The Vought F4U Corsair is an American fighter aircraft that saw service primarily in World War II and the Korean War. Demand for the aircraft soon overwhelmed Vought's manufacturing capability, resulting in production by Goodyear and Brewster: Goodyear-built Corsairs were designated FG and Brewster-built aircraft F3A. From the first prototype delivery to the U.S. Navy in 1940, to final delivery in 1953 to the French, 12,571 F4U Corsairs were manufactured, in 16 separate models, in the longest production run of any piston-engined fighter in U.S. history (1942–53).
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Douglas XB-19 The Douglas XB-19 was the largest bomber aircraft built for the United States Army Air Forces until 1946. It was originally given the designation XBLR-2 ("XBLR-" "denoting Experimental Bomber Long Range").
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Grumman F4F Wildcat The Grumman F4F Wildcat is an American carrier-based fighter aircraft that began service with both the United States Navy and the British Royal Navy (as the Martlet) in 1940. First used in combat by the British in Europe, the Wildcat was the only effective fighter available to the United States Navy and Marine Corps in the Pacific Theater during the early part of World War II in 1941 and 1942; the disappointing Brewster Buffalo was withdrawn in favor of the Wildcat and replaced as units became available. With a top speed of 318 mph , the Wildcat was outperformed by the faster 331 mph , more maneuverable, and longer-ranged Mitsubishi A6M Zero. However, the F4F's ruggedness, coupled with tactics such as the Thach Weave, resulted in a claimed air combat kill-to-loss ratio of 5.9:1 in 1942 and 6.9:1 for the entire war.
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Lockheed F-94 Starfire The Lockheed F-94 Starfire was a first-generation jet aircraft of the United States Air Force. It was developed from the twin-seat Lockheed T-33 Shooting Star in the late 1940s as an all-weather, day/night interceptor. The aircraft reached operational service in May 1950 with Air Defense Command, replacing the piston-engined North American F-82 Twin Mustang in the all-weather interceptor role.
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Warner Scarab The Warner Scarab is an American seven-cylinder radial aircraft engine, that was manufactured by the Warner Aircraft Corporation of Detroit, Michigan in 1928 through to the early 1940s. In military service the engine was designated R-420.
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Macchi C.202 The Macchi C.202 "Folgore" (Italian "thunderbolt") was a World War II fighter aircraft built by Macchi Aeronautica and operated mainly by the "Regia Aeronautica" ("RA"; Royal (Italian) Air Force). Macchi aircraft designed by Mario Castoldi received the "C" letter in their model designation, hence the "Folgore" is referred to as the C.202 or MC.202. The C.202 was a development of the earlier C.200 "Saetta", with an Italian-built version of the Daimler-Benz DB 601Aa engine and a redesigned, more streamlined fuselage. Considered to be one of the best wartime fighters to serve in large numbers with the "Regia Aeronautica", the "Folgore" operated on all fronts in which Italy was involved.
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Curtiss A-12 Shrike The Curtiss A-12 Shrike was the United States Army Air Corps' second monoplane ground-attack aircraft, and its main attack aircraft through most of the 1930s. It was based on the A-8, but had a radial engine instead of the A-8's inline, water-cooled engine, as well as other changes.
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List of surviving Curtiss P-40s The Curtiss P-40 was an American single-engine, single-seat, all-metal fighter and ground attack aircraft. Flown by the air forces of 28 nations, when production of the P-40 ceased in November 1944, 13,738 had been built.
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Cessna 152 The Cessna 152 is an American two-seat, fixed tricycle gear, general aviation airplane, used primarily for flight training and personal use. It was based on the earlier Cessna 150, including a number of minor design changes and a slightly more powerful engine running on 100LL aviation gasoline.
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Alcock Scout The Alcock Scout, a.k.a. A.1 and Sopwith Mouse, was a curious "one-off" experimental fighter biplane flown briefly during World War I. It was assembled by Flight Lieutenant John Alcock at Moudros, a Royal Naval Air Service base in the Aegean Sea. Alcock took the forward fuselage and lower wings of a Sopwith Triplane, the upper wings of a Sopwith Pup and the tailplane and elevators of a Sopwith Camel, and married them to a rear fuselage and vertical tail surface of original design (presumably by Alcock himself). It was powered by a 110 hp Clerget 9Z engine, and carried a .303 Vickers machine gun.
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Fiat A.74 The Fiat A.74 was a two-row, fourteen-cylinder, air-cooled radial engine produced in Italy in the 1930s as a powerplant for aircraft. It was used in some of Italy's most important aircraft of World War II.
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Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress is a four-engine heavy bomber developed in the 1930s for the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC). Competing against Douglas and Martin for a contract to build 200 bombers, the Boeing entry (prototype Model 299/XB-17) outperformed both competitors and exceeded the air corps' performance specifications. Although Boeing lost the contract (to the Douglas B-18 Bolo) because the prototype crashed, the air corps ordered 13 more B-17s for further evaluation. From its introduction in 1938, the B-17 Flying Fortress evolved through numerous design advances, becoming the third-most produced bomber of all time, behind the B-24 and the multirole Ju 88.
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Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-9 The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-9 (Russian: Микоян и Гуревич МиГ-9 , USAF/DoD designation: Type 1, NATO reporting name: Fargo) was the first turbojet fighter developed by Mikoyan-Gurevich in the years immediately after World War II. It used reverse-engineered German BMW 003 engines. Categorized as a first-generation jet fighter, it was moderately successful, but suffered from persistent problems with engine flameouts when firing its guns at high altitudes due to gun gas ingestion. A number of different armament configurations were tested, but nothing solved the problem. Several different engines were evaluated, but none were flown as the prototype of the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 promised superior performance.
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Black Cat (aircraft) Black Cat was a Consolidated B-24J-1-FO Liberator aircraft and the last American bomber to be shot down over Germany in World War II. It was one of thousands of B-24s produced by the Ford Motor Company at its Willow Run production plant.
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Douglas XB-43 Jetmaster The Douglas XB-43 Jetmaster was an American 1940s jet-powered prototype bomber. The XB-43 was a development of the XB-42, replacing the piston engines of the XB-42 with two General Electric J35 engines of 4,000 lbf (17.8 kN) thrust each. Despite being the first American jet bomber to fly, it suffered stability issues and the design did not enter production.
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Weslake aero-engine The Weslake aero-engine is a liquid cooled, two-stroke, opposed piston, 1332cc diesel aircraft engine, produced by Weslake.
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Lycoming XR-7755 The Lycoming XR-7755 was the largest piston-driven aircraft engine ever produced, with 36 cylinders totaling about 7,750 in³ (127 L) of displacement and a power output of 5,000 horsepower (3,700 kilowatts). It was originally intended to be used in the "European bomber" that eventually emerged as the Convair B-36. Only two examples were built before the project was terminated in 1946.
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Vought F-8 Crusader The Vought F-8 Crusader (originally F8U) was a single-engine, supersonic, carrier-based air superiority jet aircraft built by Vought for the United States Navy and Marine Corps, replacing the Vought F7U Cutlass, and for the French Navy. The first F-8 prototype was ready for flight in February 1955. The F-8 served principally in the Vietnam War. The Crusader was the last American fighter with guns as the primary weapon, earning it the title "The Last of the Gunfighters".
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Martin B-10 The Martin B-10 was the first all-metal monoplane bomber to be regularly used by the United States Army Air Corps, entering service in June 1934. It was also the first mass-produced bomber whose performance was superior to that of the Army's pursuit aircraft of the time.
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Hawker Tempest The Hawker Tempest is a British fighter aircraft primarily used by the Royal Air Force (RAF) in the Second World War. The Tempest, originally known as the "Typhoon II", was an improved derivative of the Hawker Typhoon, intended to address the Typhoon's unexpected fall-off of performance at high altitude by replacing its wing with a thinner laminar flow design. Having diverged considerably from the Typhoon, it was chosen to rename the aircraft "Tempest". The Tempest emerged as one of the most powerful fighters of World War II and was the fastest single-engine propeller-driven aircraft of the war at low altitude. The propeller-driven Dornier 335 was even faster, but it had two engines.
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Wedell-Williams Model 44 The Wedell-Williams Model 44 is a racing aircraft, four examples of which were built in the United States in the early 1930s by the Wedell-Williams Air Service Corporation. It began as a rebuilding of the partnership's successful "We-Will" 1929 racer, but soon turned into a completely new racing monoplane aircraft, powered by a large radial engine. Model 44s became the dominant racers of the 1930s, setting innumerable records including setting a new world speed record in 1933.