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?
