Fighter aircraft are such that the difference between a brilliant idea and a total disaster is very small. One can find numerous aircraft that not only are still mentioned in history but also are considered as legends of the past, and at the same time, there may be an equal number of those that have gone down in history with a bang—either because of their defective design, being hurriedly made, or just being at the wrong place at the wrong time. Listed below are ten of the most notorious military planes and the reasons behind their notoriety.
10. Seversky P-35
The P-35 was the first all-metal, single-wing, cockpit-covered, retractable landing gear fighter produced by America. On paper, it was revolutionary. In actuality, by the start of World War II, it was outdated. Only 76 were employed in the United States, and some were exported overseas, where pilots dealt with Swedish manuals, metric gauges, and a lack of spare parts. Outgunned by enemy planes, most were lost right away. Despite this, the P-35 led the way for the legendary P-47 Thunderbolt, which demonstrated that sometimes even failure can be the stepping stone for greatness.
9. Messerschmitt Me-210
The Me-210 was intended to replace the Me-110 as a multi-role, all-around fighter. It looked so in pictures with its sleek design and massive firepower, but in terms of how it handled on the ground, it spun easily. Worse still, it was less effective than the plane it was replacing. To order thousands before it had ever taken flight was disastrous. Production ceased after several hundred, and the Me-410 was introduced to save the day.
8. Focke-Wulf Ta-154 Moskito
Germany’s answer to the British Mosquito, the Ta-15.4, was a wooden night fighter that was intended to outrun bombers. Early variants only worked after being unbolted from the equipment. When Allied bombers destroyed the factory making the glue for its wooden frame, substitutes made the plane weaker, and structural crashes became the norm. Less than 50 were finished, and none ever saw combat. Plans to adapt them into flying bombs never materialized.
7. Blackburn B-25 Roc
The Blackburn Roc is Britain’s turret fighter craze turned horror. Essentially a dive-bomber with a turret atop, it was sluggish, underpowered, and aerodynamically hideous. It never fought on the front lines, being relegated to service as a target tug or static anti-aircraft mount—a classic instance of committee design gone awry.
6. Curtiss-Wright CW-21 Demon
The CW-21 was a test trainer repurposed as the world’s fastest-climbing interceptor, allegedly. The U.S. Army Air Corps had no use for it, but it sold it to friends. During war, it was quickly outmoded, unarmed, and often lost within months. Speed, by itself, was not enough to compensate for poor combat readiness.
5. Caudron C.714
This French combat plane was initially a racing aircraft, redesigned to be a cheap and light fighting plane with the meager four machine guns. It was good for respectable speeds but possessed terrible range and a weak climb. Retired shortly after being introduced, it did not experience much combat. Not even hungry pilots could get much out of it, and its history is more a story of disappointment than success.
4. Lavochkin-Gorbunov-Gudkov LaGG-3
Built of resin-impregnated plywood to save metal, the LaGG-3 was slow, clumsy, and dangerous to fly. Soviet pilots called it the “varnished guaranteed coffin.” Later revisions evolved the La-5, a much better plane, but thousands of pilots had to endure the original LaGG-3 first.
3. Fiat CR.42 Falco
By the late 1930s, the biplane was obsolete, but Italy continued producing the CR.42, an open-cockpit, fabric-covered anachronism. Although a nimble aeroplane, it was outrun by faster monoplanes like the Spitfire. Italy had up-to-date monoplanes but continued to produce more CR.42s than necessary, demonstrating the dangers of clinging to obsolescent technology.
2. Brewster F2A Buffalo
The Brewster Buffalo has the infamous reputation of performing poorly against enemy aircraft in the Pacific. It was underpowered, overweight, and troubled with defects in its manufacture, and was given the sobriquet “Flying Coffin.” Even very experienced pilots were the only ones to find a measure of success, proving that skill alone would be unable to redeem an inherently faulty airplane.
1. Heinkel He-162 Salamander
The He-162 was a desperate, late-war German jet fighter that was supposed to be cheap and easy to produce. It was constructed from wood and rammed into production, which made it structurally unsound, unstable, and fussy to fly. It was made over 300, but they were largely lost in crashes rather than combat. Pilots considered it a death trap, especially the largely teenage pilots who were instructed to fly it.
These aircraft are a sharp reminder: ambition without test or substance can be fatal. In the skies, the heavens are a pitiless jurist.