Saturday, September 22, 2007

Top Ten Bombers



And the winner is.....? (According to the Military Channel's 'Top Ten Bombers' show)


The Military Channel had a show on last night in which it attempted to analyze and rank the top ten bombers. It was a great show and it is an interesting and thought-provoking list. The planes were ranked on such things as service life, armament, fear factor, defensive armament, range, innovation, etc.



I have no argument with the ranking of the Boeing B-52 as the top bomber of all time. After all, it has been in continuous service for over fifty years. However, I was a little surprised that the venerable Boeing B-17 was ranked tenth on the list. The top four were: B-52, B-2, B-29 and Mosquito--all great planes. The B-17 was ranked low because of its short service life (only really used in WWII, while the B-29 was used in Korea as well) and relatively small bomb load.


The list and arguments are to be found at the Military Channel's website and at this webpage: http://military.discovery.com/convergence/topten/bombers/slideshow/slideshow.html. It's a fascinating and highly debatable list.


10. B-17



9. Handley-Page 0/100




8. Junkers JU-88


7. Tupelov Tu-95 'Bear'





6. Boeing B-47 Stratojet (what a beautiful plane that was!)




5. Avro Lancaster


4. De Havilland Mosquito




3. Boeing B-29






2. Boeing B-2


1. Boeing B-52
Comments? Arguments? Where's the B-24?

3 comments:

Unknown said...

I wouldn't want to debate that one with Maurice or any of the Gents from the 100th I met at the reunion! ;)

Richard Havers said...

The B.24 wasn't glamourous to make the list - it's that simple. The Mosquito, I don't really think so. As with any list it's usually tosh!

Danny said...

The Mosquito is definetely one of the best aircraft of all time ! Nightfighter versions, bomber versions and fighter versions were built. They were used in the Far East, Middle East and the Eastern Front during World War Two.