Least favorite airplane

any cival airliner

My least favorite would have to be those stupid pogo prop and jets planes.

I can't stand the Eurofighter Typhoon. The super square intake just looks wrong. And this one will get criticism but the Thud is UGLY. Guess I'm a top-40 guy... P-51, tomcat. Though I've always had a weird facination for RF-8's and 50's navy jets.

F-107, F4D Skyray, F7d Cutlass.........UGH!!!!!

The uglier the better-even for the aforementioned Chrismas Bullet. I just don't like the overdone modern jets: F-15, etc. Not that I hate them just don't wanna model them.

I have a Love/Hate relationship with the F-4. Pretty, mean, and a pain to work on. Anyone who's had to remove 101L&R know what I mean.

If we're not talking production aircraft, how about the Convair XFY-1 Pogo? Not ugly enough? Try the SNECMA C450 Coleoptere. Heinous!

For me the least favorite will be the WWI biplanes. Most hated? I love all airplanes no matter how ugly. Hate to model? This goes to the WWI biplanes again because of the rigging

Inter war French bombers-yes and the B-18-yes. I'll also give you some of AF's EC and RC-135 conversions. All Hail 6 CAMS, 6 Strat Wg, and the Rock.

My ugly birds are the Hamden and Canberra. Yuck..

Oh, eh, MikeV, the Mig 29 and Sukhoi 27 family are not copies of American hardware.. They simply resemble them. THe aerodynamics on these aircraft (the 29 isn't even FBW in some cases) is far more superior than anything the west can offer. I saw the Su-37 flying at le Bourget in '97. Anyone who saw that thing do the manouvres that thing was doing would agree that the Russians are lightyears ahead in aerodynamics. This thing ambled along at near stall speed, hoiked up the nose, rolled over backwards in mid air (i.e. didn't go anywhere but do a backflip), then happily carried on its original vector..

least favorite, birds that are built to race, b-18, and french attempts between 1912 and 1941.

joe

There are a number of fine contenders here ... J-Hulk, I do believe you mean the Swordfish (aka Stringbag) as your nominee for ugly torpedo bomber? I supposed the Italians and Germans thought them pretty ugly too, coming at them head on and blowing up their ships real good!

I agree with nominating the Fairchild Metro (aka Screaming Salami). The only airliner where you have crawl in on hands and knees almost, and when seated they pass out earplugs (need 'em too!).

In the same vein was the YS-11. I spent 11 flying hours strapped into one of Transair's rice burners once going from Winnipeg to Coral Harbour. No fun!

Ugly? I'd go with the Bristol Freighter. Looks like the designers couldn't make up their mind what it was going to be when it grew up.
Bruce

Mostly the one I'm modeling But as far as a real aircraft goes I gotta vote for the Boulton Paul Defiant. Hey! let's make a fighter, we'll put no guns in front so the pilot can't shoot at anything! Brilliant! Let's put a big ol' turret with four small caliber machine guns in back, that way the huns have to be on your tail before you can shoot at them! Brilliant! Oh, and let's make it heavy, underpowered and clumsey! Brilliant! They lasted in combat, what, about a week? Just long enough to get a bunch of people killed. Brilliant! Happy modeling all............. G.L.

According to a vet I know his least favorite a/c was everyone he was shot down in. He was brought down three times but always made it over friendly ground first.

Well, I think every plane is the results of it's designer's hardwwork and ingenuity. But, please for heaven sake, I really realy won't try to fly the Me-163, I don't even want to get close to it. It's the most dangerous plane even designed. Some German pilots believed getting killed in an accident during take off is higher than being shot down. In fact, I've heard in an incident that a German pilot died in a crash during taking off and his dead body was dissolved by the leaking chemical from the engine.

As for ugliness, I vote for the RAF Nimrod, especially the Nimrod AEW. That terrible nose on it looks like a...(well you know).

But I don't understand why some of you folks hate F-111, after all it did teach Col. Qaddafi a lesson in 1986 and served quite well in the Gulf War in 1991.

If we're talking UGLY, then it's the airtruck, hands down...



Second place is the X-35 JSF



If we're talking lack of success, it has to be the Martin 202 airliner...I mean, after all, just because a wing comes off in mid-flight doesn't mean it's not a good airplane! :-)

Jeff

Oh yeah, I forgot about the metroliner.. Strange safety record, them. I remember a bus crash in south Germany or somewhere, and some of the people being flown home afterwards to England. In a metroliner. Which ended up ditching in a field. What are the odds, eh?

As for the nimrod.. Apart from the bizarre tail, Its really a pretty elegant machine, based on ye olde Comet, which was built when aircraft were still designed with esthetics in mind.. Shame about all the desintegrations..

A legend of aviation has it that one day back in the late 50's or early 60's a Bristol Freighter in Air Canada livery was on final to Boston airport. Now you must realize that British aircraft come in two distinct categories. Category one is beautiful, a pleasure to the eye. The Spitfire and the Vulcan come to mind. Category two is the abysmally, inarguably, unrepenentently ugly. Examples would be the Handley -Page Heron and the Bristol Brabazon.
But the all-time winner in the Ugly category had to be the Bristol Freighter.
So anyway, this abomination is on final to Logan, when the ATC in the tower says to the flight crew, " Uh, pardon Captain, but did you build that yourself?" Unfortunately, there is no information on the Air Canada's reply.
Tony Ryan

I never liked the lines of the P-36 Aircobra

Fairey Gannet

Ugly well I don`t like the p-51 much. NEVER DID. Think it`s overrated. just as the Hurricane`s underrated in history.
Blackburn roc is also an a/c I dislike. Give me any us nave aircraft and I`ll be one haappy dude

Brewster Buffalo, Douglas Skyraider and that pitiful looking Soviet made I16 Ishak

All a bunch of hideous dogs.

well By my standards I have a 4 way tie;
the B-2, BF-109, P-51, & Spitfire, first off I live in Batwinged country and I sick and tired of the media stating that the B-2 did all the work in OEF & OIF the bomber is no longer in those campains (and the only deployment the 509th went to was Diego Garcia and their hardest day was catching Marlin in the Indian Ocean) but everyone else still is, and for the other 3 I think between all the model companies producing just those 3 kits and the different releases I think that they made every version for each pilot who flew them included the unknowns, why can't they make something else like a 1/48 F6U, or P-66, or something on those lines and not just those three

As previously stated the Curtiss Shrike is a leading candidate but the UGLIEST is the Farwellum RH-09 Ingratiator.Now there is ugliness.However you must give it credit for the job it did on the hay runs over Saskatchewan in the winter of 1926.
Teise

QUOTE: Originally posted by glweeks Mostly the one I'm modeling But as far as a real aircraft goes I gotta vote for the Boulton Paul Defiant. Hey! let's make a fighter, we'll put no guns in front so the pilot can't shoot at anything! Brilliant! Let's put a big ol' turret with four small caliber machine guns in back, that way the huns have to be on your tail before you can shoot at them! Brilliant! Oh, and let's make it heavy, underpowered and clumsey! Brilliant! They lasted in combat, what, about a week? Just long enough to get a bunch of people killed. Brilliant! Happy modeling all............. G.L.

Oh dear! Seems you didn't read the script then! BP actually challenged the Air ministry requirements for the Defiant and were miles ahead of the fact that 4x .303 guns were less than desirable. Following it off the drawing board was a twin engined version carrying 4x 20mm in a turret mount! The AM spec was for a bomber interceptor not a fighter! This was under a mistaken theory that the bombers it would meet would be unescorted. In every encounter of this scenario the Defiant was victorious! Under powered was natural considering the single merlin engine and extra weight but clumsey?? Not when the pilot realised that he had a passenger. An account by a Hurricane pilot of the time compared it favourably with the Hurricane and is noted as stating it flew just like one when suddenly the centre of gravity seemed to shift! The gunner had swung the guns out to test them! Of course this got more amusing when they were fired! The Defiants career was somewhat longer than you suggest and you obviously refer to the dark day when 264 got 'rumbled' by a bunch of 109's while not with the usual accopanying Hurricanes. Up till that point they had been holding their own. Defiants were withdrawn from daylight ops from that point. However they were then modified and re entered service as night fighters carrying the first fighter mounted AI radar. Considering Britains lack of any developed Night interceptor at the time this was lucky and it found itself once more doing what it was originally designed to do.

a-10
Il-2
stuka

just gotta hate those tankbusters

For me it has to be the Shorts 360. Ugly, uncomfortable, slow. I used to fly a lot out of Augusta, Georgia in the late '80's, and the Shorts was puddle jumper to the big airport in Atlanta. I was waiting for my flight in Augusta once when I saw the inbound Shorts dip a wing on the flare and come within a foot or two of dragging the wingtip. The gate agent gave a little shriek, put her hands over her face, and said, "Oh my God, NO!" It was that close. I was really anxious to get onboard for my outbound trip.

I had considered doing a model of every airliner I have flown, but I wouldn't do the Shorts, even if someone gave me a kit for free.

I have another candidate. Take a gander at the Douglas YB-11. For a company that produced many good looking aircraft, somebody must have got smacked by an early Mack truck that morning. I wonder if this guy had his hands in designing the C-124 and the C-133?

my least favorite aircraft is the f-117 nighthawk. it is very ugly. looks coward because of that stealth machanism! -my opinion-

QUOTE: Originally posted by salbando I personnaly think the F-104 is a great looking jet. I think the ejection seat firing downward was due to the possiblity of the pilot hiting the vertical stab during high speed ejection. If you want a scary ejection seat, think about the Russian KA-50 attack helicopter. Pull the ejection handle and the rotor blades blow off, just prior to the seat firing. Now I'm not trying to put a digg on soviet aircraft, but this ole crewdog aint gettin in any helo that has a system to BLOW OFF THE ROTOR BLADES. Murphy is alive and well thank you very much! Back to the original question... My least favorite aircraft would be the one on my six blazzin away.

And that chopper looks ugly too!! I sorta associate ugly with cool tho...

Just wondering: is the KA-50 the first (and only) chopper with ejection seats?