Favorite Aircraft

[LN400]

1 hour ago, UnusualAttitude said:

We have one of those in the museum where I work. I find it a bit scary... but I find all helicopters a bit scary.

Ours belonged to the French Navy, hence the wheels. The team that restored it found it in a barn in 2005 in this condition:

 

 

Niels Bohr once said: "Anyone who can climb into a helicopter without being scared dizzy has not understood any of it". (Might not be word by word accurate)

That is totally awesome and what a lucky find that was. What made someone stuff a heli inside a barn for that long is a mystery perhaps best left to psychiatry but the restoration work looks awesome.

[UnusualAttitude]

36 minutes ago, LN400 said:

Niels Bohr once said: "Anyone who can climb into a helicopter without being scared dizzy has not understood any of it".

Heh, I agree with him entirely. And that's coming from a guy who flew from Sweden to Britain during the war in the bomb bay of a Mosquito.

[LN400]

1 minute ago, UnusualAttitude said:

Heh, I agree with him entirely. And that's coming from a guy who flew from Sweden to Britain during the war in the bomb bay of a Mosquito.

Who did what now?! o_O that is crazy.

[Columbia]

Messerschmitt Bf 109 for one; It looks like one of the few aircraft that a non-aircraft enthusiast can distinguish from, say, a Spitfire and a P-51D, and it's also pretty badass-looking. Would've put the Fw 190 in here as well but that thing keeps betraying me in War Thunder.

 

Boeing B777-300, because it looks sleeker than so many other airliners, and not to mention it's GE90s;

And Boeing B-29 Superfortress. Honestly, only the Heinkel He 111 looks more fear-mongering as a WW2 bomber, in contrast to the B-17 which seems to be on the lines of pure beauty. I would've put it here but my post's already pic-heavy.

 

[UnusualAttitude]

45 minutes ago, LN400 said:

Who did what now?! o_O that is crazy.

Not me, Niels Bohr.  BOAC flew from Scotland to Sweden and back during the war, carrying strategic cargo (ball bearings) and passengers. The Mosquito was used from 1943 onwards because it could outrun all of the German night fighters. Since it is only a two-seater, passengers travelled in the unpressurised bomb-bay with an oxygen mask and a flask of hot coffee. Apparently Niels Bohr forgot to put his on and passed out from hypoxia when he was evacuated from Sweden. You can read about these wartime civilian operations here...

Edited February 1, 2017 by UnusualAttitude

[LN400]

8 minutes ago, UnusualAttitude said:

Not me, Niels Bohr.  BOAC flew from Scotland to Sweden and back during the war, carrying strategic cargo (ball bearings) and passengers. The Mosquito was used from 1943 onwards because it could outrun all of the German night fighters. Since it is only a two-seater, passengers travelled in the unpressurised bomb-bay with an oxygen mask and a flask of hot coffee. Apparently Niels Bohr forgot to put his on and passed out from hypoxia when he was evacuated from Sweden. You can read about these wartime civilian operations here...

As crazy as it sounds, I read about something similar but on a slightly larger scale. When the Germans abandoned North Africa they  left in a hurry. They were in such a hurry that there was sometimes no time to organize the evac of air force ground crew so what happened on at least one occation was, each pilot in this squadron packed his personal mechanic inside the tiny luggage compartment of his Bf-109, took off and headed for Italy. Only some made it across as many were shot down carrying both the pilot and the mechanic to a watery grave. The ones who did survive probably became mass consumers of alcohol, tobacco and sedatives.

Edited February 1, 2017 by LN400

[InterCity]

2 hours ago, LN400 said:

Niels Bohr once said: "Anyone who can climb into a helicopter without being scared dizzy has not understood any of it". 

Paul Slattery has once said this gem:
"Real planes use only a single stick to fly. This is why bulldozers & helicopters — in that order — need two."

OT:

I love the DC-10. I have a poster of it with a small man under one as it takes off. One of the most beautiful photos I've ever seen, but can't find it online, sadly.

 

Another plane I love is the DC-3. One of them (C-47, the military variant) used to stand our air club's hangar. They say it served the American military first, then the Russians, then the Czechoslovak People's army, then the Czech army before finally being sold in 1990s. Before we bought an L-410 Turbolet, it was the plane used for parachuting. Now it's the property of the local air museum. Apparently it's still airworthy. That thing will be there long after humanity goes extinct, I guess.

I hope I don't like a McDonnell Douglas shill now...

 

 

 

[LN400]

There is always room for another DC-3, here with one of her little friends, a North American Harvard (T-6), during a display flight. That is one impressive lady.

 

Now, I feel a bit bad for forgetting to mention another icon, a workhorse that played its part in making places like Alaska accessible. The DeHavilland DHS-2 Beaver. Another favourite for sure.

[LordFerret]

1 hour ago, LN400 said:

There is always room for another DC-3, ...

One of my favorite planes to fly in FlightSim. I actually flew one (in FlightSim) around the world, took me about a month, a few hours each day. IRL, they are one rugged aircraft, a serious workhorse.

 

For those of you who like helicopters, this is an excellent book you might like to read... Robert Mason's Chickenhawk. Aside from being a fascinating look into his experiences during the Viet Nam war, you'll walk away convinced you know how to fly a helicopter. lol
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/63699.Chickenhawk

[LordFerret]

snip

Edited February 1, 2017 by LordFerret

[razark]

19 minutes ago, LordFerret said:

I actually flew one (in FlightSim) around the world, took me about a month, a few hours each day.

I've been considering doing this myself.  Somewhere I've got some maps of WWII air transport routes that I keep meaning to use.

The DC-3/C-47 is one impressive airplane.

[LN400]

2 hours ago, LordFerret said:

One of my favorite planes to fly in FlightSim. I actually flew one (in FlightSim) around the world, took me about a month, a few hours each day. IRL, they are one rugged aircraft, a serious workhorse.

Good lord I can't even imagine  I still haven't completed my x-country Canadian tour and that's in a Cessna 172 with auto pilot and all.... I have tried the DC-3 in FSX but I really struggle with that one. Multi engines, unfamiliar with the neolithic instrumentation... Maybe... one day....

[StrandedonEarth]

I have a hard time picking a favorite aircraft, because in my book anything that can get off the ground and stay in the air under its own power is awesome. All of the aircraft listed in this thread have their own features that make them uniquely awesome, but I admit I have a soft spot for MOAR POWAH! That would include birds like the Concorde, Blackbird, and all those ground-shaking jet-powered warbirds. In that vein, one thing that I note is missing from this thread is the eight(!)-engined B-52 Stratofortress.

8 hours ago, LN400 said:

The DeHavilland DHS-2 Beaver

Ah, that brings back the memories. As a kid, I would visit my dad in/on a tiny little mining town/island called Tasu, in the Queen Charlotte Islands Haida Gwaii. The only way in was by boat or float plane, usually a Beaver but sometimes its big brother, the DHC-3 Otter (initially called the King Beaver).

In the Clive Cussler book Shock Wave, Dirk Pitt^TM does some fancy flying in a Beaver over the Queen Charlottes trying to evade some bad guys in a civilian chopper. Pitt rocks, even if his death-defying gets a little excessive sometimes.

[razark]

22 minutes ago, StrandedonEarth said:

In that vein, one thing that I note is missing from this thread is the eight(!)-engined B-52 Stratofortress.

Imagine seeing the Conroy Virtus take flight:

Sure, it's only four engines, but notice that each of those fuselages is a B-52.

[cantab]

If you want daffy engine layouts, the B-36 probably takes it. Six turnin' an' four burnin'.

[WinkAllKerb'']

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twin-boom_aircraft

some fun stuff along the list, not my favourites or anithing just some interesting model

[Camacha]

Did we not have a thread exactly like this not too long ago?

[Guest]

-russian bias passing through-

-russian bias passing through-

[TheEpicSquared]

 

[TheKosanianMethod]

F-14 Tomcat.

Or A-10 Warthog because BRRRRRT! 

[XB-70A]

On February 1, 2017 at 4:59 AM, UnusualAttitude said:

Alouette II + A300 proto + MS.760 + Concorde ? Whoooooo Toulouuuuuuuse.

 

More personally, as my pseudonym said my favorite since I discovered it at 4 years old in a book was, is and will ever be the Valkyrie, for the militaries...

 

In the civils, the Boeing 757s rocked me as a child with her Rolls-Royce RB.211 melody during all my afternoons at Juliana airport. An also it was one of the best to go after if we want to play "Superman" at the fence. The 747-classic were too powerful for us and the 727/DC-9/Yak-42 were too weak.

 

Also I feel something particular for the Tu-142...

[Guest]

Another favorite plane of mine is the A-29 "Super Tucano", a light air-to-ground attack aircraft from Brazil

Just look at it. It just looks so darn fine 

[UnusualAttitude]

Just a short video of another aircraft many here will probably know and love...

The video isn't mine but I witnessed this from the carpark of a nearby supermarket. 45 knot winds at Toulouse-Blagnac airport yesterday. Beluga number 2 performed a go-around. They got her down on the second attempt, but it gets a bit sketchy at 0:50"... 

 

[tater]

 

Edited February 17, 2017 by tater

[pTrevTrevs]

All other answers are incorrect