Best WW2 Aircraft Manufacturer/Designer

[Civettone]

(It's not Messerschmidt but Messerschmitt.)

The answer should also depend on the number of engineers and other employees. One cannot compare a million dollar company like Boeing with a small company like Fletcher. So for that reason I'll leave out American companies like North American although they had great aircraft. Instead I would go for Caudron and Reggiane.

Kris

[FLYBOYJ]

Originally Posted by Civettone

One cannot compare a million dollar company like Boeing with a small company like Fletcher.

Million?!? - add several more zeros...

[dreadnought]

Originally Posted by bigZ

For me the 2 best designers of WWII are James Martin and Kurt Tank. Although none of the Martin Baker planes were put into production.

Not only were their planes excellent. But as an overall package they had also put more thought in for pilot ergonomics, maintenance, ground handling and ease of manufacture than any other design team. Kurt Tank proberly takes the lead due to his range of aircraft from the Condor, Owl, 190/152.

Love the Spit but look at how little thought has been given to the office typical of most British designs.

the spitfire was designed to fight during periods when materials were in short supply, not to be an armchair

[lesofprimus]

Without the brains and innovation of Willi Messerschmitt and Dr Kurt Tank, Germany would never have been able to be as aggressive or as dominating as they were...

Those 2 men made the Luftwaffe what it was...

[bigZ]

Originally Posted by dreadnought

the spitfire was designed to fight during periods when materials were in short supply, not to be an armchair

Where in specification F.37/34 does it say that strategic materials must be conserved or substiuted? If your refering to "Pans to Spitfires" this was the doing of Lord Beaverbrook who understood the need of making the public feel involved(Aircraft manufactures already told him the recycled material would hamper the effort).

I am not talking about making it an "armchair". Merely pointing out the fact that although a superb plane its cockpit could have been better. The trend for poor layout design would be a feature of British aircraft several years after the war ended. Ergonomics is nothing new and serious atempts to improve cockpit layout had been atempted by various nations long before the war.

[Civettone]

How much during WW2 was Willi Messerschmitt still a designer? I have the impression he was most of all a manager running a big company and more interested in becoming the biggest aircraft designer in Germany than in actually building aircraft to win the war.
It seems as if he only put effort in acquiring new orders. "A new bomber needed? I'll build one! A new high altitude interceptor? Just give me more engineers and I'll have one ready next week! Get the Me 262 in production? Well ... then I need more resources and more engineers ... and perhaps you want to consider the Bf 209? Or the Bf 309? Or maybe the Bf 109H I'm working on? Or hey, I've also got a nice single jet design, the P.1095."

And I simply cannot understand why Tank needed over a year to get the Fw 190D in service (and even then it didn't have the necessary MW 50 system.)

Kris

[bigZ]

Originally Posted by Civettone

And I simply cannot understand why Tank needed over a year to get the Fw 190D in service (and even then it didn't have the necessary MW 50 system.)

Kris

Neither could Tank. He was held back by the powers that be.

[Civettone]

Originally Posted by bigZ

Neither could Tank. He was held back by the powers that be.

Care to elaborate?



Kris