The P-47 Thunderbolt was a versatile US fighter aircraft produced between 1941 and 1945 operating in both the Mediterranean and Pacific theatres. In addition to eight wing-mounted .50-caliber machine guns, it was capable of carrying five-inch rockets or a bomb load of up to 2500 pounds. When fully-loaded up in this manner, the fighter was one of the...
Ivan Kozhedub fought in both WWII and later in Korea. His first combat mission was on 26 March 1943. His first victory came in July over the Kursk battlefields and his record would soon climb. With a natural gift for deflection shooting (aiming ahead of a moving target at the time of firing), his total claims would reach 62 enemy aircraft shot down...
"Gabby" Gabreski was the top USAAF fighter ace over Europe during World War II and would go on to become an Ace of the Korean War (one of only 7 US pilots to become an Ace in two different wars) and a Colonel during his 26 years of military service. He was the son of Polish immigrants to Pennsylvania. Abandoning his second year at Notre-Dame University...
The Curtiss P-40 Warhawk is an American single-engined, single-seat, all-metal fighter and ground-attack aircraft that first flew in 1938. Used by most Allied powers during World War II, it would see service throughout the war. It was the third most-produced of US aircraft of WW2, behind the P-51 and P-47 - with 13,738 examples produced. Its first combat...
Otto Kittel flew first in Yugoslavia and then on the Eastern Front from June 1941 at the very outset of Operation Barbarossa. He claimed his 100th aerial victory in September of 1943, his 150th in April of 1944 and his 200th in August the same year. He was shot down and killed in action in February 1945 over the Courland Pocket, his final tally 267...
Walter Nowotny (7 December 1920 – 8 November 1944) was an Austrian-born fighter ace of the Luftwaffe. Credited with 258 aerial victories over 442 combat missions. He achieved 255 of these victories over the Eastern Front whilst flying predominantly the Focke-Wulf Fw 190 but also the Messerschmitt BF109. He scored an "ace in a day" on several occasions -...
The Messerschmitt Me 262 was the first operational jet-powered fighter aircraft in the world. Though design work began well before the commencement of World War II, problems with development - from the engines to interference from the highest command levels mean that the aircraft did not reach operational status until mid-1944, too late to make the...
While the MiG-3 has the Sluggish trait, it is a serviceable frontline fighter with decent mobility conferred by the Great Dive trait, with an agility and firepower score equal to that of the early war Bf109's it's most likely to come into contact with. A squadron of these could easily support Yak-1s or I-16s without too much trouble. —description from the...