best and worst looking aircraft.

Silenceisbliss

So, as the title suggests, tell us what in your opinion is the best, and the worst looking aircraft ever have taken to the sky. images would be nice.

Best looking.

The predictable: Lockheed Martin SR-71 Blackbird (DROOL....)



- Ugliest (...shiver...)
It was a close call between the 747 Dreamlifter and the Super guppy, the latter won.

+

it reached a heigth of 60 feet, collapsed, and plummetted toward the lake just after take off, killing both pilots.

- (let it be known though that I think the beluga is one of the COOLEST airplanes EVAR!!!)

Danbo!

I fully agree about the beluga, but also think the dreamlifter aint so bad..

But Favourite for me - c'mon you gotta love em 747SP


And Least favorite, the carvairs aer lingus had...

highlydebased

Worst looking is probably the A321. the MD82 aint exactly pretty either.

Anything else really I'm all for.

ronnie3585

Best looking;

SR-71 closely followed by the North American P-51 Mustang;




Worst looking;

Wilga;

vulcan57

IMO there is no contest for the best looking.



Yep the beautiful Rockwell B-1B Lancer.

And the ugliest, There a few of them, one of the ugliest must the Bristol 170.

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Ugliest first:



Nicest looking, well one of em....:D

WexCan

Best looking has got to be the BAe 146.

Worst... that monstrosity made out of a 747: the "Dreamlifter".

Silenceisbliss

WexCan wrote: »

Best looking has got to be the BAe 146.

Worst... that monstrosity made out of a 747: the "Dreamlifter".

massive thumbs down for the first.
thumbs up for the second

Davidth88

Think we had this thread before , no harm always fun .......

Best looking , really I have a few that I just cannot chose between

Spitfire , I grew up in 60's England , the Spitfire was an real symbol of freedom. Living next to RAF Northolt they used to have the Battle of Britain flight visit often, so I remember the Spitfires doing touch and goes , and my mum in tears listening to the engine ( she lived through the Blitz ).

Concorde , without a doubt the best looking airliner ever .

Worst looking :-

Airliner :- Controversial one here , the A380 I think ...... if it was 10 feet longer it would look better. I never liked the 747 SP either

I have a general dislike of helecopters here ( I know I am going to get shot down for this ! ) , but I cannot see how they can ever look good with a horrible palm tree sticking out of the top.

I think the Carvair was a fantastic aeroplane , I only remember them at Southend , the thought of driving your car onto an aeroplane is just brilliant .... a' la the Channel Tunnel.

Danbo!

noblestee wrote: »

But Favourite for me - c'mon you gotta love em 747SP
And Least favorite, the carvairs aer lingus had

Davidth88 wrote: »

I never liked the 747 SP either...
I think the Carvair was a fantastic aeroplane

Grrrr.....

Henry Ford III

No contest.

Davidth88

Arhhhh sh*t Noblestree , I truly didn't mean to sl*g your choices , only when I saw your post did I look back at your choice .


Sorry.

APM

one of my fav's has to be the A340-600, elegant



least favourite is probably the Nimrod.



A very ugly and noisy old machine!

Fratton Fred

I dunno what it is about the Mossie, but i think it is a lovely looking plane



I'd have to agree with the dreamlifter, can that even fly??

Davidth88

Ok, Just seen the Dreamlifter for the first time ( via wikipedia )

Ill change my choice , that is one damn ugly bird !


The A340-600 is very nice, and very comfortable too , having been to Pudong a few times on the VS version ( once in upper class which is just amazing ). It's so long that LHR only has about 3 stands that can accomodate it ( open to correction but thats the excuse we were given for sitting off stand for 1 hr on my last trip causing me to miss my flight home.

*Kol*

MD-11 good.

Bad

dogmatix

Best -
1. Concorde
2. Convair 880
3. DH 91 Albatross.

Worst looking -
1. Convair 990 (pimped 880 - but butt ugly)
2. 737 series 300 and above.
3. Pl 12 Airtruk (Ugly but in a good way).

But the winner for ugliest aircraft of all time must surely be the Caproni CA 60:

http://www.airbornegrafix.com/HistoricAircraft/ToFly/CaproniCA60.htm

Silenceisbliss

*Kol* wrote: »

MD-11 good.

ha, a private one of those is just parked outside my office at the moment, came in yesterday. It's actually amazing how noticable the angle of attack of the engine on the vertical stabilizer is.

@ dogmatix, I have to disagree with the plane you think is "ugliest aircraft of all time". It's shockingg, thats for sure, but it has heaps of character just by looking at it! it looks amazing!

Silenceisbliss

ever have taken to the sky.

it reached a heigth of 60 feet, collapsed, and plummetted toward the lake just after take off, killing both pilots.

hmmm.... dunno if that qualifies....:D

Fratton Fred

wow, that caproni looks like something out of a giant red bull flugtag competition. sheer brilliant madness:D

dogmatix

Silenceisbliss wrote: »

dogmatix, I have to disagree with the plane you think is "ugliest aircraft of all time". It's shockingg, thats for sure, but it has heaps of character just by looking at it! it looks amazing!

lol! Don't know if can agree with you on that! Character is one thing but dear god, it hardly looks like an aircraft at all! The whole looks ready to collapse under its own weight whatever about actually taking to the air.

Somebody called Giorgio Apostolo wrote about the CA 60: "The whole structure would not have looked out of place sailing up the English channel with the Spanish armada".

cyrusdvirus

I think a lot has to do with the colour scheme..

Attachment not found.

The prototype Rafale is a sweet looking bird, Anyone who remembers the take off magazine might remember a beautiful picture of one in these colours, on one of the back covers.

Attachment not found.

This scheme is'nt as good looking.

Personally though, give me an F-14 as the purdiest lady on the block, and a VJ101C as an ugly thing. It was a german designe VTOL replacement for the starfighter.

Steyr

Best

1. Harrier T10


2. Tornado GR4, Something about this aircraft says it should not fly above 200ft EVER.


3. F-15E..........wow


4. F-18E Super Hornet.


5. A-10 Thunderbolt, i dont care what anybody says, this thing is gorgeous and harder than nails. Pity they never kept the 2 seat version, cuz if i won the Euromillions......:pac:



WORST

1. Super Guppy..


2. SU-25 FrogFoot


3. Shorts Sherpa


4. Super Frelon


5. 747SP

donvito99

Worst first,



Electronic prototype. [ABOVE]



I just lurve it.

Blazer

Best.
1. Sukhoi 37

http://images.google.ie/imgres?imgurl=http://www.kitsune.addr.com/Robotech/Robotech-Vehicles/EBSIS_Su-37.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.kitsune.addr.com/Robotech/Robotech-Vehicles/EBSIS_Su-37.htm&usg=__0iZXhAjxx_Si9uJAKUSo6fXaBP4=&h=436&w=640&sz=34&hl=en&start=9&um=1&tbnid=XKZkIadRnyQB8M:&tbnh=93&tbnw=137&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dsu-37%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26channel%3Ds%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-GB:official%26sa%3DN

2. F14 Tomcat

3. F22 Raptor

4. SU -34 (You've gotta love those Russian planes)

5. Gloster Meteor/ ME-262

6. Spitfire- Purely for it's role in Battle of Britan. Great plane in it's day.

Worst:
Guppy--That is one ugly muthafcuker plane

punchdrunk

this is the Queen of the skies!

Captain Chaos

The Russian beauty Su-27



Su-30MK



Rafale B



F-14D hanger queen

mumhaabu

The best looking aircraft ever was Concorde without a doubt it was amazing and a time machine, travelling across the Atlantic ocean at over 1,000mph was something else and New York was only 3 and half hours away.

Concorde cruising over Ireland, I can remember it sonic boom as it accelerated out over the South West heading for America and you could set your watch by it, sadly missed.

The worst I can't really say I'd say the Boeing 737 that Mick and the bandits use daily, it is boring cramped, ubiquitous and actually not very safe as loads of them have crashed. The are the Toyota of the skys, boring unsafe and unreliable but everywhere.

Punchy07

Best looking:In terms of civilian I've always loved the A340-600 and the Md-11.In terms of military the B-1 is an incredible machine and also the livery the dutch display team's F-16 makes the jet look fantastic

Worst looking:Hate the Beluga,Super Guppy and Dreamlifter equally

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mumhaabu
The worst I can't really say I'd say the Boeing 737 that Mick and the bandits use daily, it is boring cramped, ubiquitous and actually not very safe as loads of them have crashed. The are the Toyota of the skys, boring unsafe and unreliable but everywhere.

The 737-800 has quite a good safety record so I dont know where your getting that info from?!

Its quite a modern, sleek looking jet imho. Better than the A320 which lacks some nice design lines.

Danbo!

mumhaabu wrote: »

Concorde cruising over Ireland,

is that your video? I love the comment - "youre flying a littlebit high for a plane. "

mumhaabu

noblestee wrote: »

is that your video? I love the comment - "youre flying a littlebit high for a plane. "

No its not mine, I found it while searching for Concorde pics in Ireland!

cyrusdvirus

mumhaabu wrote: »

The worst I can't really say I'd say the Boeing 737 that Mick and the bandits use daily, it is boring cramped, ubiquitous and actually not very safe as loads of them have crashed. The are the Toyota of the skys, boring unsafe and unreliable but everywhere.

Pure total and utter waffle. 289 incidents as of August 2008, of which 140 are hull losses, giving a total of 3830 fatalities.
In 2005 in the UK alone there were 3201 road fatalities.

I'd say that puts an aircraft that's been in production for 40 years with 5854 aircraft built in a different league to your comments

Danbo!

mumhaabu wrote: »

The are the Toyota of the skys, boring unsafe and unreliable but everywhere.

You mean Fiat.

dogmatix

View Profile wrote: »

The 737-800 has quite a good safety record so I dont know where your getting that info from?!

Its quite a modern, sleek looking jet imho. Better than the A320 which lacks some nice design lines.

Your joking right? To say the 737-300 and above series is a better looking aircraft then the A320/321 is like saying TD Mary O'Rourke is a better looking bird then Beyonce. I know that "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder" but thats going to far! That fat stubby body (the 737, not O'Rourke), the short undercarrige (reminds me of a fat chicken on spindly legs). And the worst feature - those awful looking engine cowls that look like someone dropped the 737 on the ground when they where testing the undercarrige but forgot that the plane was'nt jacked up at the time. Boeing have always put function and performance ahead of beauty with regards to their civilian airliners right from the hideous 377 Stratocruiser (later turned into the even uglier Guppy) to the current Dreamliner. Airbus have shown it is possible to have both (apart from the 380 - bit of a slip up there in the asthetics department, Airbus).

cyrusdvirus

noblestee wrote: »

You mean Fiat.

Don't encourage him!!

A_SN

I have to agree that the SR-71 is the best looking. But I'm surprised the B-2 didn't get more love! That thing is gorgeous! I like the F-5/T-38 too.

By the way, while looking up Wikipedia for an ugly aircraft which name I forgot, I read this, can you believe that the USAF is planning to retire the B-52 in 2040, when it first flew in 1952!? Mind blowing, that they'd let an 88 year-old airplane model in active service.

EDIT : The X-32B is the ugly one I was thinking of. I mean look at that http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Boeing_X-32B_Patuxent.jpg

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Originally Posted by View Profile
The 737-800 has quite a good safety record so I dont know where your getting that info from?!
Its quite a modern, sleek looking jet imho. Better than the A320 which lacks some nice design lines.

Posted by dogmatix:

Your joking right? To say the 737-300 and above series is a better looking aircraft then the A320/321 is like saying TD Mary O'Rourke is a better looking bird then Beyonce. I know that "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder" but thats going to far! That fat stubby body (the 737, not O'Rourke), the short undercarrige (reminds me of a fat chicken on spindly legs). And the worst feature - those awful looking engine cowls that look like someone dropped the 737 on the ground when they where testing the undercarrige but forgot that the plane was'nt jacked up at the time. Boeing have always put function and performance ahead of beauty with regards to their civilian airliners right from the hideous 377 Stratocruiser (later turned into the even uglier Guppy) to the current Dreamliner. Airbus have shown it is possible to have both (apart from the 380 - bit of a slip up there in the asthetics department, Airbus).

Try reading my post before you comment.
:rolleyes:

oztots

Sukhoi Su-47, Just cos it looks unique. And its russian.

And the blohm and voss 141, how they made it is beyond me.

FiSe

We need one more thread or we need to name 2 nicest and 2 ugliest aircrafts, me thinks.
You really can't compare military and civvie aircrafts or helis. Each is totally different. For example, how can you compare, let's say, one of my all time fav FW-190 and Gulfstream?
Uncomparable...

Silenceisbliss

A_SN wrote: »

EDIT : The X-32B is the ugly one I was thinking of. I mean look at that http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Boeing_X-32B_Patuxent.jpg

I was waiting for someone to mention the x-32B

the sole reason boeing lost the contract to lockheed.....because boeing created a fücking monstrosity

dogmatix

View Profile wrote: »

Try reading my post before you comment.
:rolleyes:

Oh but I did - and perhaps you should re-read mine before responding? Also note - I said "737-300 and above series" meaning 737-300 to 800 and above. I thought that was obvious but apologies if it was'nt - I can put it in bold for you in the future if that helps. To my own eyes there is not much difference in appearance since the 300 arrived except for longer fuselage and those unattractive wingtips.

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Well I quite like the nose of the 737 over the A320's and I also find the winglets a nice feature.
As Airbus are considering adding similar winglets to the 320 series I think this will only improve the over all look of the airbus.;)

Boeing have always put function and performance ahead of beauty with regards to their civilian airliners right from the hideous 377 Stratocruiser (later turned into the even uglier Guppy) to the current Dreamliner. Airbus have shown it is possible to have both

And Airbus havn't??

You think Airbus splash out extra cash on sexy designs to make their aircraft look prettier. I'm afraid not dogmatrix. They make them as cheap and functional as they can, just like Boeing.

To say the 707, 747,757, 777 and the Dreamliner are ugly is beyond me!!

The Dreamliner is a very well designed a/c with extra effort put in to please the passengers. Eg; the bigger windows and the lower cabin altitude for better level of humidity and hence passenger comfort.

And in relation to the Guppy, well just look at Airbus' Beluga.

The only sexy Airbus i can think of are the A330 and the A340-600.
A lot of it down to the winglets btw.

I was desperately hoping that the A350 would have some nice design touches . They had two flightdeck window designs/nose section designs and I think they have gone for the more boring choice.

Sexy option:


Bland option: (which they went for)


And don't get me wrong. I'm not a Boeing person, I actually prefer the European company as a whole. Its just a pity manufactures dont put more effort into sleek and sexy designs as they did in the past.

oztots

Its a pity bus manufacturers dont produce sexier looking busses?

Because in all honesty thats all modern comercial aircraft are. They're made for what goes inside, not for whats on the outside.

dogmatix

View profile it looks like the only thing we can agree on is that we have different opinions on aircraft beauty! Many of the reasons you put forward for Boeing aircraft are the main reasons why I think Airbus looks the better aircraft.

I wouldn't say the dreamliner is ugly - but those flippity-flappity flexible wings it has look terrible, in the artisit impressions of flight at least. All points about about efficency and economy aside it almost looks like Boeing could dispense with engines and power the dreamliner by flapping its wings.

But all of the above are just my own views - beauty/ugliness will always be a matter of personal opinion that cannot be explained away with logic or facts. Thats what makes these types of threads such good fun!

Steyr

While on the subject of Airbus, what new Airbus type are EI supposed to be getting? XWB?

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Yeah they've put in an order for six A350-900s and six more A330-300s as far as I can recall.

FlutterinBantam

:eek:

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This order was made a while back so they may reduce the numbers due to the current economic climate.

Fabio

Going back on topic I reckon the Ilyushin IL-62 is one of the sleekest aircraft around though it's slowly but surely dying out (http://www.airliners.net/photo/Deta-Air/Ilyushin-Il-62M/1419836/L/&tbl=photo_info&photo_nr=14&sok=keyword_(%5C%27%2B%5C%22il-62%5C%22%5C%27_IN_BOOLEAN_MODE))_&sort=_order_by_photo_id_DESC_&prev_id=1420935&next_id=1419751)

Worst looking....too many to mention!

Reoil

F-14 for me!