New one for aircraft fans

[Aidey]

Whats been the best looking aircraft ever designed?



To me, it was the Folland Gnat.


Small, sleek, beautiful lines.




A thing of beauty, by any standard

 

[Artemis]

Whats been the best looking aircraft ever designed?



To me, it was the Folland Gnat.


Small, sleek, beautiful lines.




A thing of beauty, by any standard

The old pocket rocket, eh? Bastard to work on,though.
Now the Hawker Hunter, there's a superb bird, and simple to fix.

 

[mikew]

F104G Starfighter,


looked like a proper fast plane, and sounded feckin awesome on max reheat!





also the Hawker Hunter has a lovely curve running from the canopy along the spine to the top of the fin, almost like it was drawn freehand on a bit of paper, but the Starfighter still gets my vote!

 

[derek kelly]

My all time favourite

 

[ianrobbo1]

F104G Starfighter,
looked like a proper fast plane, and sounded fekin awesome on max reheat!, but the Star still gets my vote!

I "concur" with Mike :bow: beautiful

 

[Artemis]

F104G Starfighter,


looked like a proper fast plane, and sounded feckin awesome on max reheat!





also the Hawker Hunter has a lovely curve running from the canopy along the spine to the top of the fin, almost like it was drawn freehand on a bit of paper, but the Starfighter still gets my vote!

It wasn't called the Widowmaker for nothing Mike. Anyway, that's not an aeroplane, it's a rocket with stubs on the side. Had one parked next to us at Fairford Airshow one year, feckin repulsive thing up close.

Derek, you've got taste.

Another lovely aircraft is the Lightning, trouble is, it runs out of fuel before it leaves the airfield!

Hunter's all-time second favourite is the TSR2. Criminal that it was pulled before going into production, in favour of the F111, of all things! I'm sure you can guess his No 1, and having flown in one, I have to agree with him. Pure thoroughbred.

 

[mikew]

It wasn't called the Widowmaker for nothing Mike. Anyway, that's not an aeroplane, it's a rocket with stubs on the side.

It was only the European countries that had problems with the F104, hence the widowmaker handle. The Japanese Self Defence Air Force (as was) never lost a single one, cos they used them as they were supposed to be used.

We had a squadron exchange with a german Starfighter outfit, and this thing landed with so many extra external stores added to it, it was ungainly when taxiing in, and then the germans used the things as a ground attack weapon ... FFS it was designed as a high speed, high altitude interceptor, so consequently everything was pared down to the bone, so when it was used outside of it's original designed criteria, it became a bit of a liability. All the flying control PFCU were designed to operate in thin air conditions found at high altitude, not 50 feet off the deck with dozens of extras weapons bolted to the thing.

IMHO the Widowmaker handle is undeserved and had the aircraft been used as intended, then it wouldn't have earnt this name.

 

[Artemis]

Still more of a rocket than an aeroplane, though mike. But each to his own.

 

[chuffmeister]

purely from a biased work point of view but the

Hercules R#?


ten happy years of global recoveries :neenaw:

 

[Aidey]

Lumpy, thank God youve surfaced again.
I actually asked about best looking airplane.
F104? Not a chance. Good plane but hardly best looking.
Hunter? Great choice, when they finally got it to work, ie, fire its guns without flaming out the engine!
Spitfire Mk1?
Do you mean the two bladed prop or the 3 bladed De Havilland or Rotol versions. The best looking Spitfire, to me, was the Mk21

 

[Rods]

vulcan please. concorde comes close. f22 has something about it.

and what about the sukhoi su-27 flanker (chinese). only seen a model of it though...%$fan

best sounding aircraft has to be a lancaster though :bow:

 

[derek kelly]

concorde comes close.

When my father left the RAF, he remained as a civvy metalwork instructor at RAF Cranwell, he actually designed and built part of the fuselage for Concorde.

 

[Murt]

I'm no expert, but I always thought the Mk XVI Mosquito was a very meaningful plane.
Murt.

 

[ianrobbo1]

best sounding aircraft has to be a lancaster though :bow:

or the Spitfire also with the Merlin engine!! :bow: a really "distinctive" sound, seems to go through you :bow: seems to have "soul" if you know what I mean!! :dunno:

 

[frenchuk]

And what about the aurora?

 

[Bubba]

Lightining for me. Also the F4 Phantom seems to float me boat, along with the Bristol Beaufighter, Westland Whirwind, Hawker Sea Fury and the P-47 Thunderbolt.

P-51D was, for my mind the best allied fighter of the war and one of the better looking. I know it took us brits to make the mustang what it was but, look what we did!

 

[Centaur]

Why no aircraft section?

Mosquito most beautiful propellor driven (or pulled)
Hunter most beautiful jet (Not NF11 though)
Hercules most practical
Lightning most impractical (but awesome from ground to 40000 feet)
Shackleton (all marks) my greatest love
Fairey Gannett most hair raising sound with those contra rotating props
Corncrake most nostalgic sound; summer evenings in bed, angry cos brothers still up!

 

[R2B2]

For me the sleekest looking aircraft is the long necked Rockwell B1 B.

Outside the military Concorde is a timeless beauty.

 

[ianrobbo1]

Dumpy, was it not the sea going version of the spitfire that had the "clipped" wings, :dunno: the high altitude version was full winged but highly polished and "de riveted" with a camera and no armament:dunno:

 

[parttimepilot]

Boeing 747!































Don't care what it looks like as long as it gets me to my holiday destination:f