National Archives: Aircraft spotter on the roof of a building in LondonAircraft Spotters were trained to look at several aspects of a plane. Since the spotter could potentially sight a plane in any of several profiles, he or she had to quickly observe the wing shape, forward profile, number of engines and any markings on the plane.
The German emblem was a black cross on white . The British emblem was a black outer circle, white middle circle and red center. The US emblem was a white rectangle with the white star on a black circle centered. Some variations in the markings would indicate non-combat planes such as observation planes.
By observing the spotter cards, one can see that there were fairly distinctive body and wing shapes. Generally a spotter could only expect to see certain types of planes based on the location to which he or she was assigned. For example, a British spotter on the Cliffs of Dover would not expect to see Italian or Japanese planes.
Wright-Patterson Air Force Base Museum: Spotter CardsIdentifying Aircraft of the War—with John Nichols
Wright-Patterson Air Force Base: B-24B-24 Liberator
"That's a picture of a B-24 Liberator 4-engine bomber, used extensively in Europe during WWII. In fact, they used more B-24 bombers than any other bomber in the United States at the time for WWII."
P-17
"That's a picture of a PT-17, a training plane. It had an open cockpit, bi-wings, and had a very narrow landing gear. It was difficult to land that airplane, but it was the most fun airplane to fly that I've ever flown. You had to wear a helmet and goggles because your head hung out in to the slip string. When you turned upside down in that airplane doing air acrobatics, there was nothing holding you in there but the strap across your lap. That was kind of tricky with your head hanging out in the wind while you were upside down."
Wright-Patterson Air Force Base: P-38 LightningP-38 Lightning
"That's a P-38 Lightning built by the Lockheed Aircraft Company. A 2-engine fighter airplane with a cockpit and then a cell in the middle of the airplane. If you'll notice the horizontal stabilizer that went from one boon to the other, that goes across here. To bail out of this airplane you had to turn the airplane upside down and drop your canopy off and then fall out of the airplane. If you tried to bail out of it right side up when you got out of the cockpit and jumped, the horizontal stabilizer would hit you."
National Archives: "Corsair fighter looses its load of rocket projectiles on a run against a Jap stronghold on Okinawa."F4U Corsair
"That's another U.S. airplane, used extensively by the Navy and the Marine Corps. A lot of Marine aviators flew that airplane. It's a Corsair...an F4U Corsair built by the Vaught Air Craft Company."
Wright-Patterson Air Force Base: P-51DP-51D
"This is the world's most loved fighter airplane-a Mustang, built by the North American Aircraft Company...a P-51D. Every fighter-pilot that's every flown would like to fly that airplane."
Wright-Patterson Air Force Base: B-29 Super FortressB-29 Super Fortress
"This is the airplane that superceded the B-17 Flying Fortress. They call this the B-29 Super Fortress, built by the Boeing Aircraft Factory. That is the airplane that dropped the atom bombs on Nagasaki and Hiroshima."
Wright-Patterson Air Force Base: B-25 2-Engine bomberB-25 2-Engine bomber
"That is a B-25 2-engine bomber built by the North American Aircraft Company. A B-25 Mitchell...that is the airplane that General Dolittle trained in. He trained in Florida with the flight crews and learned how to fly that airplane off of an aircraft carrier. That was the first airplane that bombed Tokyo during the war. It was just a psychological thing, more or less. It couldn't actually do a whole lot of damage, but they did get to Japan and drop bombs on Tokyo. That was the airplane that did that."
