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12-01-2008, 08:48 AM
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#1 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Colorado, USA
Posts: 1,541
Country:  | Who was the better designer of German Aircraft?
There are some famous names here, vote for the designer you like best. 
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"His motor's conked out!"
"What's the differance, they're all Nazis!"
"Luke, shut up!"
"Fear the hook!"
"Oh.....I wanna fly."
"You mean the kind that go under water and fly up the stairs?"
"What you doing? Oh Nooooo!" | 
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12-01-2008, 09:25 AM
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#2 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Zlin, Czech Republic
Posts: 1,644
Country:  | Kurt Tank for me...
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Roman Susil
Zlin, Czech Republic
...a friend of Joe Owsianik,So. Plainfield, NJ, a former left waist gunner from B-17G ''Tail End Charlie" from 2ndBG,20th Sqdn, that was forced to bail out on Aug. 29th, 1944 over my country. | |
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12-01-2008, 12:49 PM
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#3 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: oregon
Posts: 2,570
Country: | Willy for me. I like two of Tank's designs but Willy developed a broader range of excellent aircraft.. | |
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12-01-2008, 01:24 PM
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#4 | | Der Crewchief
Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Ansbach, Germany
Posts: 30,527
Country:  | I am going to go with Willy as well, for the same reasons as Bill stated.
__________________  US Army Blackhawk Crewchief 2000-2006 Classic ww2aircraft.net quotes: fly boy said: "isn't that the first jet bomber? becasue i have flown one in a flight sim before and i know how it handles" "wait what ok who made the b-2 crash come on people that messed up its a b-2" "ah yes the mistel those things are so annoying is games and in real life" | |
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12-01-2008, 01:42 PM
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#5 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Dordrecht
Posts: 2,788
Country:  | I'm going with Heinkel. His designteam came up with some exelent designs, He112, He100, He111, He177 (apart from the engines) etc. Willy made some brilliant designs, Bf109 and Me262, but that was about it. Too bad Heinkel didn't get a chance with his fighter designs, could have been at least as good as the bf109.
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"I'm no hero. Soldiers on the ground, they are heroes. In an aircraft you can always evade the bullets."
-Jan Linzel, Dutch fighter pilot | |
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12-01-2008, 02:42 PM
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#6 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: Texas
Posts: 395
Country: | Excellent polling idea.
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12-01-2008, 02:44 PM
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#7 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Jan 2007
Posts: 419
Country:  | Kurt Tank for me. A very impressive CV with the transatlantic Condor, FW 189, FW 58, Biplanes, Trainers, Flying boats, Jets and Fighters.
Test pilot and designer.
Half the poll is manufactures rather than designers. So is it which firm designed(and/or manufactured) the best planes or who was the best chief designer?
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Lord Flasheart: [about planes] Always treat your kite like you treat your woman.
Lieutenant George: How do you mean, sir? Do you mean, take her home at the week-end to meet your mother?
Lord Flasheart: No! I mean get inside her five times a day and take her to heaven and back!
Captain Blackadder: I'm beginning to see why the suffragette movement are wanting the vote.
Lord Flasheart: Hey, hey! Any girl who wants to chain herself to my railings and suffer a jet movement gets my vote!
Last edited by bigZ : 12-01-2008 at 02:53 PM.
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12-01-2008, 04:07 PM
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#8 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Aquincum, Pannonia Prima
Posts: 634
Country:  | A couple of days ago I saw a photo that expressed my thoughts about Willy Messerschmitt perfectly... 
Need to say more? Like Bill said, Messerschmitt's company was responsible for a wide variety of very advanced and successfull aircraft designs, even though Messerschmitt himself was less and less engaged in the actual design work, his philosophy was still there. Also I can't really ignore his skyrocketing career and the heritage he left behind (the Messerschmitt foundation and Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm). | |
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12-01-2008, 04:21 PM
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#9 | | Older Than Dirt
Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Virginia Beach, Virginia
Posts: 5,530
Country: | Kurt Tank for me. Excellent range of aircraft.....
Willy had some good aircraft, [4 or 5] but lots of failures......
Failures: me155, bf161, bf162, bf163, me209, me209-II, me261, [3 built]
me264, [2 built] me265, me309, me310 [1 built], me321, me328, me334,
me409, me509, me510, me600, me609. Was the Komet and Gigant
successful ? I think they were both death-traps....
Charles
__________________  I can only please one person per day.
Today is not your day.
Tomorrow doesn't look good either....
Last edited by ccheese : 12-01-2008 at 04:34 PM.
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12-01-2008, 04:45 PM
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#10 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Cyprus
Posts: 325
| Kurfust do you have any more photos of that airshow? I've been longing to see those two guys gracing the skies together since for ever! 
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And now for something completely different... | |
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12-01-2008, 06:03 PM
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#11 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Aquincum, Pannonia Prima
Posts: 634
Country: | Nope I found them on a discussion board a while ago, they are not mine.. :/
Try googling the file name, perhaps it gives something. | |
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12-01-2008, 09:25 PM
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#12 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Redding, California
Posts: 495
Country: | I'm with Marcel on this one, Heinkel had some notable designs that were world firsts...if politics and circumstances hadn't have intervened in a few cases (mainly being on Udet's bad side), there's no telling how things would have turned out...
I think my favorite Heinkel would be the He280 
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12-02-2008, 12:43 AM
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#13 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Feb 2005
Posts: 5,122
| Guys remember that just because an a/c bears the name of the company owner doesn't mean he was the designer of the aircraft 
__________________  We have built a total of about 1250 of this aircraft (Me-262), but only fifty were allowed to be used as fighters - as interceptors. And out of this fifty, there were never more than 25 operational. So we had only a very, very few.
- Adolf Galland | |
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12-02-2008, 08:15 AM
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#14 | | Member
Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: Greencastle, IN
Posts: 73
Country: | While I do prefer the 109 as an aircraft, and Messerschmitt as a designer, Kurt Tank does deserve some considerable credit. I think it's interesting that 190 aces amassed a huge number of kills in a relatively short time. Granted, there were masters of the 109, but perhaps the 190 was more "inexperienced pilot" friendly and I think Tank deserves almost as much credit. His Fw-200 must also be credited as being possibly one of the best maritime patrol aircraft of the war. So, in other words, while I love Messerschmitt, Tank deserves a darn close honorable mention.
Another interesting note: Kurt Tank helped test-fly his own designs.
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From the sitcom "The Office"
Michael Scott: What's the best piece of advice I've ever given you?
Dwight Schrute: Don't be an idiot. Changed my life. | |
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12-02-2008, 10:28 AM
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#15 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: oregon
Posts: 2,570
Country: | Quote:
Originally Posted by Soren  Guys remember that just because an a/c bears the name of the company owner doesn't mean he was the designer of the aircraft | unquestionably true. that being said, 'owner/CEOs' like Willy and Northrup and Rutan reviewed all of them and didn't depend on a Board of Directors to make a decision - and neither one were accountant/financial types like so many current heads of design and manufacturing groups | |
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