quote:

Originally posted by erj_pilot:

Thank you. That thing is hideous. And I think I know why - it's the one guy you know with the giant forehead that could be used as a movie screen.

And the Victor- that thing is pure awesomesauce. More vents! More inlets! More crazily canted aero surfaces! And shit, stick a refueling probe on the front because we don't have enough things sticking out! Go!

quote:

Originally posted by pbramlett:
Handley Page Victor.

The more I look at this thing the more I love it.

I can't find a single pitot tube on it.

And I would love to see the checkride on it. During the walkaround "So, Leftenant, you see that horizontal stab up there that we probably put on upside down so we had to put strakes on it to make the airflow behave like every other aircraft that has it's stab installed properly? Yes? What are the holes on each side of the stab for?"

Also in the design phase. Hey, the hydraulic pumps always run hot because the engine is completely encased in the fuselage. OK, add a cooling air inlet. One? Bollocks that, one for each engine! Hey, the fuel/oil heat exchanger is running a little....ADD AN INLET! Hey, these giant fuel tanks on the wings are...ADD AN INLET!

Just pure fun, that plane is!

The Brewster Buffalo is my trophy winner.

WWII. Things broke, the Cyclone engine oil leaks and guns that often didn't fire.



Against Japanese fighters, many didn't come back. Yet the Finns blew away Russian planes with a very similar plane.

I'm not sure if this belongs in the 'ugliest airplane' thread or 'prettiest airplane' thread:

GeeBee R2

quote:

Originally posted by 4x5:
I'm not sure if this belongs in the 'ugliest airplane' thread or 'prettiest airplane' thread:

GeeBee R2

New category: Most Dangerous Plane?

quote:

Originally posted by 4x5:
I'm not sure if this belongs in the 'ugliest airplane' thread or 'prettiest airplane' thread:

GeeBee R2

Nice pic! Delmar Benjamin, who along with Steve Wolf, built this R2 replica and then donated the plane to the Kermit Weeks Museum in Florida. Delmar is back wheat farming in Montana.

quote:

Originally posted by newtoSig765:

quote:

Originally posted by 4x5:
I'm not sure if this belongs in the 'ugliest airplane' thread or 'prettiest airplane' thread:

GeeBee R2

New category: Most Dangerous Plane?

Yep. Plane most likely to kill you?

quote:

Originally posted by egregore:

The picture is black and white, but that thing has to be French, right?

quote:

Originally posted by furlough:

Yep. Plane most likely to kill you?

Anything built by Airbus.

quote:

Originally posted by cjevans:
The Brewster Buffalo is my trophy winner.

WWII. Things broke, the Cyclone engine oil leaks and guns that often didn't fire.



Against Japanese fighters, many didn't come back. Yet the Finns blew away Russian planes with a very similar plane.

Yeah, the Buffalo was a real POS airplane. It's amazing that it won the pre-war competition for production, beating the Grumman F4F Wildcat. Fortunately for the allies, we built the F4F anyway. It wasn't until it saw real combat (at Midway, 25 took off and maybe one came back) that we discovered just how useless it was.

Brewster license-built F4U Corsairs since Vought couldn't meet the demand (as did Goodyear) (though, in the Navy's convoluted naming scheme, it would have been the F3A, as the Navy named planes based on who built the individual aircraft). They were junk, too. Stuff would literally fall off in flight, and even an outstanding design built by Brewster was garbage.

It's a mystery to me how the Finns seemed to have success with them. Probably because the Sovs (before 1943, at least) had lousy aircraft and the Finns were essentially flying their garbage aircraft against peer aircraft (garbage Soviet junk).

quote:

Originally posted by furlough:

quote:

Originally posted by egregore:

The picture is black and white, but that thing has to be French, right?

Sorry, US.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas_Bullet

quote:

The Christmas Bullet, later known as the Cantilever Aero Bullet (sometimes referred to as the Christmas Strutless Biplane), was an American single-seat cantilever wing biplane. It is considered by many to be among the worst aircraft ever constructed.[2]

The Brits had Blue, White, and Red roundels. The French had Red, White, Blue. The US (in WWI) had Red, Blue, White.

It's confusing, and the reason we switched shortly after the war.

Here's an even uglier one (and it's a Brit):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...and-Hill_Pterodactyl

You ain't seen ugly till you've seen the Bennett Airtruck!

quote:

Originally posted by JJexp:

quote:

Originally posted by furlough:

Yep. Plane most likely to kill you?

Anything built by Airbus.

Yep. Pretty telling that the only Airbus to show up in either thread is the A-380 in the ugly thread.

Also thanks to Hound Dog for the info on the roundels.

quote:

Originally posted by sigmonkey:


Good thing Burt was still soiling his nappy when Boeing was called to action...

Kinda looks like someone put a B-17 together without reading the directions...

SAAB Tunnan.....

http://www.airpower.gv.at/uplo..._J29_Tunnan_5_01.jpg

tac

XF-85 Goblin https://upload.wikimedia.org/w...AF_%28Cropped%29.jpg

Most French ww2 bombers....

quote:

Originally posted by furlough:
I can't find a single pitot tube on it.

Reference: Handley Page Victor

Mid-line right on top of the nose/cockpit. Top of the wing right over the fuel/radar pod.