The 6 Most Lethal Aircraft in History

[Matt Molnar]

Popular Mechanics has published a list of the "6 most lethal aircraft in history", in chronological order.

The 6 Most Lethal Aircraft in History

With the help of some aviation experts and warplane veterans, PM took a look back over the history of single-engine planes, fighters, bombers and attack helicopters and picked out six of the most lethal fliers of the past 100 years, based on their dominance during the years they flew. [Full Article]

1. Fokker Eindecker
2. A6M Zero
3. B-29 Superfortress
4. AC-130 Spectre/Spooky
5. A-10 Thunderbolt II
6. AH-64 Apache

What do you think?

[cancidas]

seeing as i wasn't around to see half that list fly, i'd have to agree. in my lifetime i'd vote for the AC-130. the amount of firepower in that airplane is simply awe-inspiring.

[T-Bird76]

I'd have to say the B17 should be there. That plane destroyed most of the German's war making ability.

[PhilDernerJr]

I don't think that what an aircraft actually accomplished should play a part, but more so by what it CAN bring to the warzone. Some of those mentioned planes didn't even have a war that really let them show off their stuff, but that doesn't make them any less deadly!

Just from my own knowledge, I agree that the AC-130 as about as fierce as it can get, beating out, but not discrediting, the hell that an Apache can lay down.

[T-Bird76]

I don't think that what an aircraft actually accomplished should play a part, but more so by what it CAN bring to the warzone. Some of those mentioned planes didn't even have a war that really let them show off their stuff, but that doesn't make them any less deadly!

That makes no sense what so ever and its totally contradictory... I'm not even going to begin to comment on what the B17 brought to the war zone, that should be obvious by its nick name "The Flying Fortress."

[PhilDernerJr]

I guess it goes on how one defines "deadly". For me, it's about the ABILITY to bring death, not the death it brought. If a Cessna dropped the H-Bombs on Japan, would that make it among the most deadly?

[T-Bird76]

I guess it goes on how one defines "deadly". For me, it's about the ABILITY to bring death, not the death it brought.

That's one in the same Phil. The B17s primary roll was to bring destruction to the enemy and it did. For the time period that plane existed in its ability to bring death to the enemy was unrivaled! Now pay the proper respect to the 17 before Fred see's this!

[Tom_Turner]

Its seems they might just be measuring firepower from the excerpt below....and I guess they're just equating the potential of aircraft from each era (roughly) against each other in that one criteria...

<<The dawn of major destruction from the skies came with the wave of World War II-era bombers, including the German Ju-87s and Ju-88s; Britain's Avro Lancasters which ran nighttime bombing raids over Germany; and the American B-17s and B-24s that ran missions during the day. But none was a match for the B-29, America's first long-range bomber.

Boeing's B-29 entered World War II late. The aircraft began combat service in 1944 as part of Operation Matterhorn, in which B-29s bombed the Japanese mainland from forward bases in China. Each Superfortress could carry six tons of bombs, and scores of them flew together on missions to firebomb Japanese cities. In fact, the death toll from the B-29s' firebombing of cities like Tokyo and Yokohama far outstripped the deaths caused by the aircraft's delivery of atomic bombs to Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945, and to Nagasaki three days later. The planes had killed hundreds of thousands by the end of 1945. >>

[moose135]

Whether you look at actual or potential firepower, how do they leave the B-52 off that list?

[T-Bird76]

Whether you look at actual or potential firepower, how do they leave the B-52 off that list?

Good point Moose! This article is BS! :evil:

[STT757]

Again how could the B-52 not be in the top 3, the LineBacker I and Linebacker II Missions during Vietnam alone should put the B-52 at the top.

Linebacker I involved 83 B-52s from Thailand and Guam, Linebacker II involved 207 B-52s (54 B-52s from Thailand and 153 from Guam).

Linebacker I

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linebacker_I

Linebacker II
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Linebacker_II

There are photos out there (I tried google but couldn't find them) showing Andersen AFB Guam during Linebacker II, those many B-52s in one place is a sight to behold.