Blackburn Shark III May 1939 Jericho Beach Vancouver BC. Crashed at Alliford Bay, BC on July 19, 1940, when landing the glassy water. The RCAF bought 9 already obsolete Sharks from the UK in 1938. 17 more built in Canada by Boeing. 525 was UK built. Used for coastal patrols on Canada's west coast.
Posted 26th Apr 2026r/WWIIplanes
Bf 109E-4 of JG 27 undergoes an engine change at Svrety-Vrak airfield, near Kresna Pass, Bulgaria. Photo by German photographer Hugo Jaeger. Currently held in the Life Magazine archives. Likely taken in April and May of 1941.
Posted 25th Apr 2026r/WWIIplanes
French Friday: Wibault 74 The Aéronautique Navale used it as an advanced carrier trainer until 1940. Despite being considered slow and outdated by the late 1930s, its "parasol" monoplane design, provided pilots with excellent visibility for carrier landings.
Posted 24th Apr 2026r/WWIIplanes
Canadian Vickers Vancouver IIS/S serial 904. Seen here flying over Lions Gate Bridge Vancouver BC. Canada in 1939.
Posted 23rd Apr 2026r/WWIIplanes
French Friday: The crew of a French Bloch MB.131 reconnaissance-bomber, belonging to GA I/35, posing next to their aircraft. Probable location: Dole-Tavaux Aerodrome, September 1939.
Posted 17th Apr 2026r/WWIIplanes
Impressions of flying the Hellcat and Wildcat from an Avenger pilot. This extended passage is from a book I read about 20 years ago and really liked called Flights of Passage.
Posted 15th Apr 2026r/WWIIplanes
Focke-Wulf Fw 58 "Weihe" multi-purpose aircraft with two Argus As 10 C engines, each producing 240 hp. Factory image.
Posted 10th Apr 2026r/WWIIplanes
French Friday: Wibault-Penhoët 280 Series. Sources vary but between 10 and 12 of these aircraft were requisition at the outbreak of war by the French Government as transports from Air France.
In Canada today it is Vimy Ridge Day. The First image, RAF Gloster Gladiators and in the second picture Armée de l'air Dewoitine 510's flying over the dedication ceremony of the Vimy Memorial July 26 1936.
Posted 9th Apr 2026r/WWIIplanes
The Fokker CV-E flown by Estonian volunteers of 1. and 2./NSGr 11. During the summer of 1944 in Rahkla, the unit operated a small number of these alongside their He 50s.
Posted 4th Apr 2026r/WWIIplanes
French Friday: Some details of French Photo Reconnaissance used during the battle of France. Several pictures as well as a pdf and a link to some further details of an aerial camera.
Posted 3rd Apr 2026r/WWIIplanes
He-111 takeoff being challenged by "General Mud." Spring rains turned the Russian airfields into quagmires. One pilot wrote: … "the mud is indescribable."
Posted 30th Mar 2026r/WWIIplanes
Siebel Si 202 "Hummel" (Bumblebee).
Posted 29th Mar 2026r/WWIIplanes
French Friday: Gourdou-Leseurre GL-832 HY. A naval reconnaissance floatplane developed in response to a 1930 requirement. First flown in prototype form in 1931, it entered service in 1934, with 22 built. It served aboard warships until retirement in 1941.
Posted 27th Mar 2026r/WWIIplanes
The last Hurricane built by the Hawker Aircraft Company, Mark IIC, PZ865 "The Last of the Many."
Posted 23rd Mar 2026r/WWIIplanes
French Friday: Arsenal VG 33. Seen here one sits abandoned after the fall of France June 1940.
Posted 20th Mar 2026r/WWIIplanes
French Friday: “Groupe Doret.”
Posted 13th Mar 2026r/WWIIplanes
Thickness of the 109’s armoured glass.
Posted 12th Mar 2026r/WWIIplanes
French Friday: Winter operations of the Curtiss H-75A2. Six pictures.
Posted 6th Mar 2026r/WWIIplanes
Messerschmidt Bf 109E3 4. JG51 White 2 Hans Illner WNr 1160 France July 1940. The starting crank is inserted. The truck I would say is for filling up a compressed air bottle on the plane. Rather than a bowser for fuel. Looks like a flight is soon to happen.
Posted 5th Mar 2026r/WWIIplanes
Line-up of Caproni Ca.164s of the Regia Aeronautica at Taliedo, Italy in about 1941.
Posted 4th Mar 2026r/WWIIplanes
French Friday: Bréguet 270. A variant of this rare French airplane with enclosed cockpit and cabin for passengers. No idea how many were so converted. The conventional version of this plane is in the fourth picture. With the open observers/gunners station evident.
Posted 27th Feb 2026r/WWIIplanes
Severely aesthetically challenged planes that few people care about deserve to be resurrected too! : )
Posted 25th Feb 2026r/WWIIplanes
Detailed pictures of the rear seat position (Bordfunker - Radio/Radar operator) of an Me 262 with FuG 218 Neptun set.
"Both sides liked cartoon characters, like the one on this Republican Chato." Mickey gets around. Polikarpov I-15 of Republican forces during the Spanish Civil War.
Posted 24th Feb 2026r/WWIIplanes
An S.79K returning to Reggio Emilia airfield from a test-flight as a father and son watch curiously as the large tri-motor makes its approach.
Posted 21st Feb 2026r/WWIIplanes
French Friday: Air & Space Magazine The French-Russian Connection.
Posted 20th Feb 2026r/WWIIplanes
Focke Wulf Fw 56A1 Stosser or Goshawk Stkz CA+GS Neukuhren 28th Apr 1943
Posted 17th Feb 2026r/WWIIplanes
French Friday: Hanriot H 232 a two-seat trainer with counter-rotating engines/props. France received 35 of 57 ordered before the armistice in June 1940. Germany captured 22 scrapping them in 1942. Finland ordered 3 of the 22 losing 1 en route. The other 2 served until Jan 2nd 1950.
Posted 13th Feb 2026r/WWIIplanes
A Halifax tows a Horsa Mk.I using the divided cable tow. Note the landing skid beneath the Horsa's fuselage. [From Aeroplane Monthly November 1974]
Posted 10th Feb 2026r/WWIIplanes
Nose art of a B-17 Flying Fortress (serial number 42-39777) nicknamed "Stumble Butt", used for weather reconnaissance (mounting a psychrometer) by the 25th Bomb Group.
Posted 6th Feb 2026r/WWIIplanes
French Friday: The Romano R.82 was an advanced trainer still in French service at mobilization in 1939. Though obsolete, it was used for pilot training, liaison, and communications. 180 were made.
Picture of a P-38L showing the AN/APS-13 tail warning radar antenna added to the bumper fairing beneath the right vertical tail.
Posted 4th Feb 2026r/WWIIplanes
Exhibition of American planes in Paris August-September 1945. With a link to many more pictures and a film.
Posted 2nd Feb 2026r/WWIIplanes
Peter Townsend and other RAF pilots of No. 85 Squadron wearing Mk1 night adaption goggles, March 22, 1941. And the second picture shows their counterparts in the Luftwaffe doing something similar.
Posted 1st Feb 2026r/WWIIplanes
French Friday: Curtiss H-75A-3 Free French CGIII/2 No. 230 Captain Jacques Rougevin-Baville (1907-1987) Thies Airfield - Senegal late 1940.
Posted 30th Jan 2026r/WWIIplanes
Michael Robinson of 601 Sqn (The Millionaires Mob) at Tangmere in the summer of 1940 with his Hurricane which had been damaged by cannon fire.
Fokker C.XIw with registry W-4 is prepared on the catapult of HNLMS De Ruyter, shortly after arrival in the Dutch East Indies.
Posted 29th Jan 2026r/WWIIplanes
Under the bonnet of the British Airborne Interception Mark VIII set (AI Mk. VIII). Here seen mounted on the nose of a Beaufighter.
Posted 27th Jan 2026r/WWIIplanes
He's everywhere.
Posted 25th Jan 2026r/RedLetterMedia
French Friday: Potez 63 poised to soon takeoff.
Posted 23rd Jan 2026r/WWIIplanes
French Friday: Potez 25 a remarkably prolific and successful plane. France operated some 2500 of 4000 produced. The Potez 25 saw service in over 20 air forces.
Posted 16th Jan 2026r/WWIIplanes
French Friday: Nieuport-Delage NiD 62. In service 1931 but perhaps more fitting for WWI. By Sept 1939 all were withdrawn from front-line service, used only as trainers or target tugs. 719 of various versions built. After the June 1940 armistice the survivors were scrapped and none survived the war.
Posted 9th Jan 2026r/WWIIplanes
Three pictures of the night binoculars for the use of the pilot in the Black Widow.
French Friday: Bloch MB 152 line up during the Phoney War period.
Posted 2nd Jan 2026r/WWIIplanes
The caption from - A History of the Mediterranean Air War 1940-1945, Vol 1 "A Hurricane, probably of 33 Squadron, tests its guns into a solidly-constructed firing butt." (Health and safety 1940's style.)
Posted 30th Dec 2025r/WWIIplanes
"Ginger" Lacey explaining in an interview his view of the place of chivalry in the air. The video itself is colourized.
Posted 26th Dec 2025r/WWIIplanes
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