Summary The Supermarine Spitfire was famed for its design and number of airworthy aircraft. The Hawker Hurricane played a crucial role in securing victory during the Battle of Britain. The North American P-51D Mustang had significant success in both Europe and the Pacific during WWII.
"Rut-Roh" (as Scooby-Doo the cartoon dog would say), here we go again with yet another sure-to-be controversial Top 5 military aircraft list. In particular, I'll never forget the proverbial feathers I ruffled with my June 2024 piece titled "Top 5 Historic Military Aircraft That Changed Aviation" due to the conspicuous absence of any British warbirds – Royal Air Force (RAF) and Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm alike – from that particular list. Many military aircraft have made their mark on aviation history.
But five in particular have been true game-changers. Well, I promise to make up for lost time by including some very iconic British fighter planes on this list. And I apologize in advance to the fans of the following excellent Allied warbirds for excluding them, as they just missed out on this Top 5 List (though they certainly would qualify for a Top 10 Most Iconic Allied WWII Fighters list): America's Republic P-47 Thunderbolt (given the plane's impressive performance , this was a really tough one to exclude) The Soviet Union's Yakovlev Yak-3 (described by Business Jet Traveler 's Jeff Wieand as a "small, light, excellent Russian fighter") America's Grumman F6F Hellcat (shot down over 5,000 Impe.