Dominant in the sky was a fierce battle for technological supremacy during the tumultuous years of World War II.
The unexpected advanced aircraft of the Axis powers caught the Allies off guard and put them scrambling to understand these machines and then know how to counter them.
Early in the war, European forces were faced with a challenge by German aircraft including Messerschmitt and Heinkels, surpassing the Fairey Battles and Gladiators.
This made the French, British, Dutch, and Belgians completely unprepared for this Blitzkrieg strategy. In the Pacific, from Hawaii to Burma, it was the Mitsubishi Zero which destroyed everything in its path.
The Allies were more than desperate to know what capabilities it possessed, the capture of the Akutan Zero turned everything around.
The ill-fated landing by Petty Officer Tadayoshi Koga on Akutan Island provided the U.S. Navy with an intact Zero.
Test flights exposed serious weaknesses: ailerons froze above 200 knots, and engines cut out under negative acceleration.
This knowledge gave Allied pilots a basis for tactics to counter the Zero’s agility.
Meanwhile, the B-17 Flying Fortress became the backbone of the U.S. strategic bombing campaign. Boeing designed this heavy bomber with turbo-supercharged radial engines and the secret Norden bombsight for precision bombing.
Despite its heavy firepower, early B-17s proved ineffective against enemy fighters until the introduction of long-range escorts such as the P-51 Mustang.
The B-17G version with 13 machine guns came to epitomize Allied airpower.
Its huge carrying capacity of tons and a high tolerance for battle damage enabled it to serve well within the European Theatre, while its formation tactics limited precision, scattering over the target.
The designs from German aircraft, most of which never left the paper, demonstrated ingenuity in wartime design engineering on the opposite side.
These designs were later found on the aircraft of the Bell X-5 and the MiG-15, thus their influence is felt up to this day.
During the course of the war, both the warring forces started hunting and analyzing each other’s aircraft in a bid to comprehend their rival’s capabilities, thus fostering a comprehensive appreciation of aerial strategies for the duration of World War II.