What is your favorite aircraft of all time?

[KilroyCD]

Nice shots KilroyCD - as you can guesse by my name, it's also my favourit aircraft. With the Hawker Hurricane closing in as number two.

Yes, the Hurricane also ranks as one of my favourites. I had a friend (the late Group Captain Dennis David) who flew Hurricanes during the war, and preferred them to the Spitfire. He flew Hurricanes during the battle of France and the Battle of Britain, later moving to Spits and then I believe to Beaufighters. Interestingly enough, the cockpit door from the Hurricane he flew during the Battle of France still exists, at the Shoreham Aircraft Museum, near Sevenoaks, Kent.

 

[carter]

Originally Posted by Diamondback
Indeed. I was there when they rolled her out from her restoration. Too bad they can't raise and restore one of the sunken 314 Clippers the same way...

A novel by Ken Follet, Night Over Water, is set on a Clipper. You might enjoy reading it if you can find a copy.

 

[Diamondback]

Actually, I own a copy. Used it for research on the Clipper in pop-culture in a report/presentation I did on the prewar Boeing Company in elementary school. Good read, if a little "racy" by a then-sixth-grader's standards... (And by those of the Lounge, too, IIRC.)

Thanks for the thought behind the heads-up, though!

 

[K.D. Lightner]

I like the Gee Bee because it is cute, looks like a toy, and I cannot figure out how it manages to fly with those tiny wings.

http://www.youngeagles.org/wallpaper/GeeBee_wallpaper1600.jpg


Also, Flying Tigers, and all those "painted ladies" planes of WW II.


karol

 

[Diamondback]

Flying the Gee Bee Model R, in three easy steps:
1. Shove throttle to 100%.
2. Hang on for dear life.
3. Start praying--with everything ya got--that you get back down in one piece.

I've seen the R-1 model described as "the biggest engine available, with just enough wing added to get it up and just enough rudder/elevator to make it BARELY controllable."

 

[Absinthe_1900]

There are a number of misconceptions about the Gee Bee racers.

Most of the problems flying the R-1 & R-2 Gee Bee racers were pilots that never should have been in the machines in the first place.

Had they approached the aircraft the way Jimmy Doolittle did, during his successful 1932 Thompson Trophy runs with The Gee Bee R-1, there would have been far less accidents with the aircraft.

The final fatal accident with the R-1/R-2 hybrid was caused by an inexperienced builder, and pilot, that combined the wreckage of the two airframes, along with unapproved changes to the design, that never should have been allowed to take place.
The Granville Brothers would not allow Cecil Allen to use the Gee Bee name, or logo on this aircraft.

 

[Smithy]

I've answered this one before but any excuse to post pics of my favourites. Both of them are Hawker designs.

The rugged Hawker Hurricane I

And the most beautiful biplane ever built, the Hawker Fury

 

[buelligan]

I can't believe nobody has mentioned the good old

Beech 18

Or the Lockheed 12A

As for fighters the P-40 does it for me

The Spartan Executive is a sexy beast also.

 

[buelligan]

For some reason and only god knows why, the old C-133 does something for me

And for you Tri-plane fans don't forget that Waco had one also.

Stinson too

 

[buelligan]

A quick little note that Staggerwing might be interested in. I'm reading a book right now called "They call me mister Airshow" it is written about a guy named Bill Sweet who was an airshow announcer when they first started and really helped to get them (Airshows) where they are today. Anyways in this book he talks about the Staggerwing and how it was one of the first commercial aircraft to have retractable gear, as such people were quite skeptical about it. So in order to put peoples minds at ease about it they had a Beech test pilot go to Airshows and do a nice little routine showcasing the planes abilities, at the end of the routine he would kill the engine with prop horizontal and then proceed to land the plane in the grass with the gear up. Afterwords they would bring out a crane lift the plane up, drop the gear and taxi away. Can you imagine watching a Staggerwing land Gear up on purpose just to prove how sturdy and safe they are.

 

[buelligan]

Dixon: I guess you are reffering to this one?

Yeah, as long as the 262 was sitting on its tail, there was some similarities... when it got a nose wheel - Not so much.

I'm amazed of how many of the DH-designs that became classics.

/F

A little food for thought. Did you know that on the tailwheel 262's the elevator had little effectiveness on take-off roll due to being in the slipstream of the wing so in order to get the tail to come up properly for a good take-off the pilots had to get up to a certain speed and give the brakes a quick stab. imagine that check list.


Normal take off: 1st Full throttle
2nd Rotation speed
3rd Stab brakes
4th Rotate

 

[KilroyCD]

And for you Tri-plane fans don't forget that Waco had one also.

I don't wish to nit-pick, but that tri-motor is actually a 1931 Stinson SM-6000B, not a Waco. I flew on one like that, if not that very one, at Oshkosh a number of years back.
http://www.goldenwingsmuseum.com/Aircraft Pages/Tri-Motor - B.htm

 

[KilroyCD]

I've answered this one before but any excuse to post pics of my favourites. Both of them are Hawker designs.

The rugged Hawker Hurricane I

And the most beautiful biplane ever built, the Hawker Fury

A definite Hawker man, I see, and you'll get no argument from me about the Fury being the most beautiful biplane. Another of my all-time favourites is another Hawker product, the Tempest Mk.V. This type was used quite effectively against V-1 "Buzz Bombs". This 'plane just exudes raw power, with that 2180hp 24-cylinder Napier Sabre engine sitting out front.

 

[buelligan]

I don't wish to nit-pick, but that tri-motor is actually a 1931 Stinson SM-6000B, not a Waco. I flew on one like that, if not that very one, at Oshkosh a number of years back.
http://www.goldenwingsmuseum.com/Aircraft Pages/Tri-Motor - B.htm

Well look at that, I don't know why I was thinking it was a WACO. Thanks for pointing that out.

 

[Smithy]

Another of my all-time favourites is another Hawker product, the Tempest Mk.V

Hi Kilroy, yes I like the Tempest as well, and have a special interest in 486(NZ) who flew it.

BTW Paul Sortehaug's history of 486 "The Wild Winds" is a must for any Tempest fan. Expensive but a huge wealth of information on the Tempest and a very indepth look at a squadron that flew them.

 

[mikepara]

You'll have to forgive this old Paratrooper for his bias! Hurcules, Starlifter and Chinook! Bliss.

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[buelligan]

You'll have to forgive this old Paratrooper for his bias! Hurcules, Starlifter and Chinook! Bliss.

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I believe that this is the starlifter

This is a pic from the last flight of a C-141, all the way from Wright patterson to the National museum of the United States Air Force at Wright Patt. I was a CrewChief on these from 94-98 stationed at Charleston SC. She was a good plane but unfortunately she had been worked hard and was getting tired.

 

[dhermann1]

KC-130

When I got out of the service in 1969 I rode home from Hawaii in a KC-130, all the way to Travis AFB. What a great ride! They let is sit in the cockpit for a while. Just a glass greenhouse, and thousands of miles of ocean below and sky above. Beautiful.

 

[Tony in Tarzana]

Mike, you centre picture is a C-17 Globemaster III, the last military aircraft designed by the late great Douglas Aircraft Company before it was swallowed by some outfit in Seattle.

 

[Smithy]

Mike, you centre picture is a C-17 Globemaster III, the last military aircraft designed by the late great Douglas Aircraft Company before it was swallowed by some outfit in Seattle.

Damn pongos never know what they're talking about when it comes to aircraft!

Just a little wind up Mike!