Its modern features included all-metal construction, retractable landing gear and an enclosed cockpit. What makes the CR.42 even more inexplicable is the fact that Fiat actually produced a successful monoplane fighter, the G.50, in 1937. Once the British figured out that their Hurricanes and Spitfires could use their superior speed and diving characteristics to defeat the Italian biplanes, they quickly turned the tables on the CR.42s. The CR.42 enjoyed some initial success against British fighters, mainly because the British pilots attempted to get into maneuvering dogfights with them. Supermarine Spitfire monoplanes, 100 mph faster than the CR.42, were already widespread in RAF service by that time. The bottom line is that the Royal Air Force considered the Gladiator, which was first flown in 1934, to be obsolete in 1939, when the CR.42 prototype first flew. Much ink has been expended arguing whether the CR.42 was superior to Britain’s Gloster Gladiator. Therein, however, lay the fatal flaw: The CR.42 was a fabric-covered, open-cockpit biplane with fixed landing gear - essentially a refinement of the standard World War I formula that was already obsolete. Widely used during World War II by Italy and other nations, the Fiat CR.42 is often regarded as one of the finest biplane fighters ever produced.
Brewster-built Corsairs had so many quality-control issues that none were accepted for front-line service and the company finally went out of business in 1946.įiat CR.42 Falco Brought down by a Hawker Hurricane near Orford Ness, England, on November 11, 1940, this Fiat CR.42 Falco of the 95a Squadriglia, 18o Gruppo has been preserved in the Royal Air Force Museum in London.
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Marines on Midway Island who were unlucky enough to fly it against Japan’s Mitsubishi A6M2 Zero called it the “Flying Coffin.”īrewster later produced the Vought Corsair under license as the F3A-1, but it made a mess of that, too. But perhaps that was the least of the problems with an overweight, underpowered airplane that was consistently outflown by its faster and more nimble opponents. In other words, for all intents and purposes, all Brewster aircraft were built twice. The completed aircraft then had to be disassembled and reassembled elsewhere for flight testing. Components fabricated on several different floors were brought together for the final assembly.
The factory was a multistory building in an urban area of Queens, New York, a venue hardly conducive to the production of aircraft. Only the Finns proved a spectacular exception with the B-239 export version, although that success has been attributed more to the quality of their training and doctrine - as well as the relative incompetence of their Soviet adversaries - than to the Buffalo’s merits.īrewster Aeronautical’s management insisted that they were the victims of sabotage, but perhaps the problem was simply their own poor production methods. Marines and the Royal, Royal Australian and Royal Netherlands East Indies Air Forces.
Produced by a company owned by an aviation consultant to the Navy’s Bureau of Aeronautics, this underperforming carrier-based fighter earned a disastrous reputation with the U.S. Clifton trains in a Brewster F2A-3 Buffalo in August 1942. Here, then, is a modest proposal for such a list, the sort on which nobody ever wants to be included. And there can always be unknown factors no designer could have predicted that can derail a design that looks great on paper. Others suffered from the use of substandard materials in their construction. Some of these airplanes were already obsolescent before they rolled off the production line. While it may be true that no one sets out to design a bad airplane, factors outside a designer’s control can lead to unsatisfactory results. Not so many have tried compiling a list of the worst fighters from the conflict, even though there are plenty of airplanes that could be nominated, from many different countries. Others might cite Germany’s revolutionary Me-262 jet fighter, or Britain’s Supermarine Spitfire. Fast, technologically advanced airplanes like the P-51 Mustang or the P-38 Lightning are almost certain to make such lists. Plenty of authors have expounded their own views of what were the best fighters of World War II. The 10 Worst WW2 Fighter Planes, From Bad Designs to, Well, Worse Close
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