The He-162 started out as a promising little craft, sturdily built with a streamlined modern fuselage and designed for an excellent performance. Hitler Germany’s Volksjäger, the “people’s fighter,” was a single-engine jet-powered fighter with wood construction, as metals were in short supply due to the war effort. Its first flight took off in 1944.
The race to get the fighter planes out caused the craft’s difficulties, but its design was sound. A rudder assembly broke off to cause one crash. Flameouts and structural failures caused at least 13 losses. An ineffective glue was responsible for some structural damage. Some pilots were killed due to the limited fuel capacity of the He-162. After 30 minutes it ran dry and pilots were not able to land successfully.
The F2A-3 Brewster Buffalo
The Brewster Aeronautical Corporation was the brainchild behind the F2A-3, one of the first and one of the worst WWII fighter aircraft. The Brewster Buffalo looked slick with its single wing, as opposed to the more common, bulky biplane. It beat out the Grumman F4F Wildcat in 1939 to become the U.S. Navy’s first single-wing fighter plane. All these “firsts” did not add up to “best.” It was unstable and overweight and lagged far behind the Japanese A6M.
The Brewster Buffalo was built by a former carriage and automobile manufacturer in 1938, a time when technology was rapidly improving. By 1941, U.S. Marines hated the Buffalo as it was outmatched by Japanese fighters whose battles made the Brewster’s F2A-3 obsolete. A report by Navy pilot Capt. Phil White stated, “Any commander who orders pilots out in [a Buffalo] should consider the pilot lost before leaving the ground. It is inferior to the planes we are fighting in every aspect.”
The ATR 72
The ATR 72 is the result of an Italian and French venture to build a twin-engine turboprop commuter plane that could carry at least 72 passengers. The larger-capacity regional airline is still in use today. But some people are questioning why the ATR 72 is still in service. The aging craft’s safety record has been plummeting in recent years. Since 1995, the plane has experienced catastrophic flight control problems due to a failure to deice the wings during flight.
In total, the ATR 72 is responsible for 46 crashes or incidents. Eleven of the failures caused fatalities, and at least three were due to de-icing problems. The most severe crashes killed 68, everyone on board, when it crashed in the U.S. in 1994, and in Cuba in 2010. In 2018, everyone on board was killed when a ATR 72 crashed into Mount Dena in Iran. Sixty-six people died.
The Fairey Battle
The Royal Air Force regretted ever ordering the Fairey Battle. By its first battle in 1937, the WWII fighter plane was obsolete. The British single-engine light bomber was manufactured by the Fairey Aviation Company. The head of Fairey complained that the specifications for the plane by the Air Ministry were not possible but offered an alternative design which was accepted by the ministry.
The very modern-looking aircraft was powered by a Rolls Royce engine and could carry six 250 lbs. bombs. The three-seater held a gunner seat with one machine gun. Compared to other fighters, it was weak on firepower and much slower, causing it to be easily shot down. The enemy fighters flew 100 mph faster than the RAF’s anachronistic Battle. In all, 2,201 were built. Many were lost. In May 1940, for instance, 60 of 118 Fairey Battles were lost in four days. The same losses were endured in four separate combat missions.
The Douglas TBD Devastator
A prototype of the Douglas TBD Devastator was ready in 1935, but the torpedo bomber was obsolete by the time of WWII, notwithstanding the fact that the TBD was considered the world’s most advanced technology upon completion in 1937.
The technological advance was fierce during these years, and it was devastating for the TBD. During the Battle of Midway, 41 of the Douglas Aircraft Company’s torpedo bombers were sent out. They came back with zero torpedo hits and 6 left—35 were shot down. They became known as a death trap for the pilot and crew. The TBD crawled through the sky at 200 mph, and, at that speed, they could not defend themselves. To fire a torpedo, the plane had to flying slower than 115 mph, a speed that makes it very easy for the enemy to shoot at. After the Midway catastrophe, the Navy withdrew the TBD from battle. Out of the 139 built, only 39 were left by that time.