What is your favorite aircraft of all time?

[dhermann1]

F-16XL

Wow.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Dynamics_F-16XL

 

[Diamondback]

For the record, I'm not trying to trash the Strike Eagle--having a second engine is a BIG advantage if one gets shot out, y'know!--but rather saying that both should've been developed, since each would've had edges over the other in different tactical scenarios. You might say the beef is "process", not "product"--the real MacNamara legacy is DOD's practice of having a preselected winner and everybody else is just there to give a token "show of competition".

 

[Dixon Cannon]

Gotta say this on the Sunderland, anything that can fight off three Ju88's with gunship-packages has to be doin' something right...

Aside from the weird double-hinge nose, though, we gotta disagree on SST's: maybe it's a "Home Team" thing since the intended plant for 'em is practically in my back yard, but my money's with the stillborn Boeing 2707, particularly the swing-wing -200 model (which was quickly discarded, the version finally selected for sales offering was the 2707-300, which had 125 on the order books before the EPA killed it). It would've been a widebody with 2-3-2 seating for 30 first- and 247 tourist-class; if my eye for scale is correct those seats would have been more like a regular airliner than Concorde. (When they did a "members' preview" on exhibiting the Concorde up here, I was two seats wide and I'm only 5'4"! )

Perhaps, if Concorde had been allowed to evolve to a second generation, it would've seen 2707 interior features on a slightly upscaled version of its basic planform; either way, we are all the poorer for the fact that these two magnificent speedbirds never had a chance to compete and evolve to their fullest potentials... and we will probably never see the likes of them again.

Concept art of a 2707-200 demonstrator:

Model of "final" -300 design:

Stillbirth by William Proxmire! Thank God; what a boongoggle the SST was!
-dixon cannon

 

[Dixon Cannon]

Lawson C-2

http://www.oldbeacon.com/beacon/lawson/lawson_airliner.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Lawson

The first true air liner.

-dixon 'lawsonomy' cannon

 

[kampkatz]

Thanks for the history lesson about Lawson. I've been an aviation fan all my life and have built over 200 model aircraft(mostly plastic kits) but never came across a Lawson.

 

[stevyn]

Mine would be the F4F-4 and the F3F-3

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Antonov An-20 "Maxim Gorky" (1933)

An expression of the "bigger is better" philosophy that permeated Soviet/Russian thought, the eight-engined Maxim Gorky was the largest aircraft in the world at the time. Intended as a flying propaganda mill the An-20 boasted a radio station, printing plant and movie theatre -- the first inflight movies. In 1935 the Maxim Gorky crashed near Moscow when it collided with a an escorting Polikarpov I-15 fighter when the latter attempted a loop around the Maxim Gorky.

Actually this is the An-20bis built in 1938. The An-20bis was virtually identical to the original Maxim Gorky except that it had six instead of eight engines.

 

[reflected]

The Royal Aircraft Factory S.E.5a - simply gorgeous. Robust, powerful, still beautiful.

 

[benjamin.f]

In the 80's I saw "TALES OF THE GOLD MONKEY" (- the same time I realized Indiana jones on the screen). Jake Cutter, Manfred v. Richthofen and Capt'n Baloo (disney's TaleSpin 1990) were the pilot-heroes of my childhood.

So the Grumman G-21 was my first loved plane and my heart started to tick for these kind of adventures! Thru the years I had a few dates with the P 40 Warhawk, Dornier Do 24 ... but there are to manny other "pilots" hugging and touching this sweeties. Serious: the Grumman Goose aka Cutter's Goose is "my" plane. This amphibian beauty is not only freedom, adventure, ... it makes me smile about my childhood and the dreams that surely every kid has.

b

 

[SGT Rocket]

Ford Tri-motor. Just because I had a super cool model of one when I was a kid.

 

[David Conwill]

The Royal Aircraft Factory S.E.5a - simply gorgeous. Robust, powerful, still beautiful.

My favorite aircraft of the Great War. I drew these more than any other airplane when I was a kid.

-Dave

 

[Pompidou]

I'd have to split my favorite aircraft into segments to fully do the topic justice - modern and antique. I like the Red Baron's Flying Circus Fokker triplane - no need for digging a photo up, here. I also like the AH-64 Apache Helicopter. It's the guns/gun mounts. Very cool looking.

 

[HepKitty]

b

That is a cute plane. But your signature quote is awful!

 

[StraightEight]

I have two favorites, both expressing incredible audacity in aeronautical engineering.

The Saturn V
-363 feet high
-7.5m lbs at engine start
-Thrust duration (not including orbital coasting): about 16 minutes from lift off to S-IVB separation.
-S1-C first stage fuel: 203,000 gals of RP-1 and 334,500 gals of LOx; engines: 5x F-1, burn rate of 1350 gals/sec of RP-1, 2000 gals/sec of LOx; thrust chamber temperature: 5970 degrees F; burn duration: 2.5 minutes; altitude of separation: 38 miles at 6000 mph.
-S-II second stage fuel: 260,000 gals LH2, 83,000 gals of LOx; engines: 5x J-2; burn duration: 6 minutes; altitude of separation: 114.5 miles at 15,300 mph.
-S-IVB third stage fuel: 69,500 gals of LH2, 20,150 gals of LOx; engine: 1x J-2; first burn duration: 2.75 minutes, second burn duration (for TLI), 5.2 minutes; altitude of first burn cutoff: 115 miles at 17,500 mph; altitude of 2nd cutoff and separation: trans-lunar orbit at 24,500 mph.
-weapons: none

And, Enterprise (OV-101), Columbia (OV-102), Discovery (OV-103), Atlantis (OV-104), and Endeavour (OV-105)

-184 feet high
-4.5m lbs at engine start
-Thrust duration (to main-engine cutoff): 8.5 minutes.
-SRB booster fuel: 2 x 1.1 million lbs solid propellant consisting of 70 percent ammonium perchlorate oxidizer, 16 percent aluminum powder fuel, and 14 percent binder/catalyst; thrust: 5.3 million lbs, 11,000 lbs fuel consumed per second; SRB separation, 2.25 minutes
-Shuttle main-engine fuel: 390,000 gals of LH2, 145,000 gals LOx; thrust chamber temperature: 6000 degrees; altitude at main-engine cutoff: 65.2 miles at 17,600 mph.
-weapons: none.
-inspiration by our past glories in manned spaceflight to current and future generations: incalculable.

 

[Unlucky Berman]

For me there are three aircrafts I like above all others.

1. the P-51D Mustang, such a beauty and fast machine.
I think you all know a pic of it

2. The "Tante Ju" Junkers Ju-52

I had a small model of it as a child and lately I even could fly in one of the last remaining and still in use. That's a sound!! A real workhorse and in some aspects well beyond its own time.

3. is something I also knew from my childhood, because the father of one my old friends flew in one of them and there was a time when we dreamed all day from doing the same when we became old enough.

But after 1990 it was over with this special dream since the german Luftwaffe did no longer use the machines of the former GDR It's a russian Suchoi SU-22.

 

[cco23i]

Well, I like this one too! It's a PV-2D, yup, 8 50's pointing forward, mean machine!

Scott

 

[HepKitty]

Well, I like this one too! It's a PV-2D, yup, 8 50's pointing forward, mean machine!

Scott

that is a pretty plane

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

I also love the Hawker jets from the '50s and '60s:
Hawker Hunter

Hawker Buccaneer

 

[Smithy]

Hawker Hunter

I had the distinct pleasure of seeing a Hunter make a near supersonic very low level pass at Whenuapai in NZ. Everybody was looking the other way and it came rocketing past and very close. Was hilarious, people got such frights they were "f-ing and blinding", every small child was bawling and crying. Very exhilarating to see.

 

[Berlin]

Berlin, ever seen the F-16XL prototypes? Another bird that triggers thoughts of "what might have been"... especially if you combined the XL's "cranked arrow" delta wing with the Israeli "Viper" variant's dorsal fuel-tank and stuffed a bigger engine into it.

Sorry I missed your post. Yes I am familiar with them, and they are pretty aswell. I am an aircraft girl, barely something that I don't like :$