Originally Posted by
III Corps
But think about it. Most aviators that know a bit of history know the P-38, P-39, P-40, P-47, P-51 and then it gets fuzzy. P-60 but it really was a night fighter. P-82 known because it was sort of a twin Mustang but between the first mentioned and the last, there was a P-something that has basically disappeared into the pages of history, not to mention the various models (A, B, C, etc). Lots of weird stuff around the world.
A while back I met a guy who flew in WWII and trained first on Stearmans. He left the USAF after flying F-106s. 100kts to Mach 2+. And then did the airline thing retiring off the -1011. The span of history is incredible.
There was a book I used to check out at my local library when I was in high school that showed
every bomber
ever proposed. I think it went from B-1 (of 1920-era) to XB-70. Every
proposal (fighter, bomber, transport) gets a number assigned. Of course, most of us only know the ones that at least made it to mock-up stage, or further.
The authors had
models of the airplanes that weren't built, and took photos of them. It really helped you visualize what they would have looked like. The facing page had a write-up on estimated performance, strengths, weaknesses, and why it wasn't built (or built, in the case of the ones that were).
I always wanted to see a similar book for fighters, but never did.