Cool and Ugly Looking Airplanes

[Eran of Arcadia]

Good idea; here is my trip to the 101st Airborne Museum at Fort Campbell:

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]

F-11 Tiger

I always thought it looked a bit like Gogo, last of the Do-Dos.

Now the Su-25 Frogfoot, the Soviet version of the A-10, is just butt ugly.

I did always love the Yak-141 Freestyle, though. It was supposed to be a fantastic VSTOL plane, to operate off Soviet carriers, but it was cancelled with Ulyanovsk when the USSR broke up.

Oh, and I like the Tu-95! Nothing says "Soviet Air Power" like it does.

But if you're looking for an ugly plane, look no further than the LA-7 Nimrod, of RAF pride.

 

[citedon]

 

[Taras Bulba]

P-51 Mustang

Global Hawk

 

[Verbose]

"The Flying Barrel", the 1950's SAAB J-29. Ugly, as recognised by its nickname, but traded speed records with US and USSR planes in its time.

 

[say1988]

I agree with the first pic in this thread. The Corsair just looks awesome.
About the Warthog: That thing looks great in pictures, would be great to see it going.
My second favourite plane, after hte F4U:

One horribly ugly plane, though:

The best looking planes are generally WWII era, biplanes and jets (especially modern ones like the SR71, B2, or F117) just don't cut it most of the time.

EDIT: sorry if anyone ran into those massive images (can you scale images on these boards?).

 

[really]

About the Warthog: That thing looks great in pictures, would be great to see it going.

I think the A-10 looks good in action. When it is coming in low and slow it is noisy and intimidating (as far as I can remember)

 

[say1988]

It looks real, and ready for action. Something I find the new sleek jets lack, they look too showy. But see an A-10 (even just a picture of one), and it looks like it is ready to blow something up.

 

[citedon]

The A - 10 maneuvers like a biplane except that it does it at 300+ mph. I am kind of surprised that we haven't seen any biplanes (until now).
cool:
Sopwith Camel

Spad

Fokker D - 7

ugly: Curtiss Jenny

 

[Taras Bulba]

I am kind of surprised that we haven't seen any biplanes (until now).

really?

I'd say that bi-planes are rather hideous aircraft... very inefficient and very primitive aircraft that frankly weren't all that great looking
IMO, they rather ugly aircraft (like the Wright Brothers airplane)

 

[Cutlass]

There were bi planes in the group of pics i posted...

 

[citedon]

There were bi planes in the group of pics i posted...

Sorry. I should have said that we haven't seen a lot of biplanes.

 

[say1988]

In general biplanes don't look good. There are exceptions, and I have seen many with great paint schemes, but they look old and rickety. I love to see older biplanes and see them fly, but it is not that they look nice, but that it is amazing to see something like that fly and to imagine men flying around in them, be it at airshows, delivering mail (there is a great novel about mail pilots, but I can't recall the title right now), fighting dogfights, or even just flying in a straight line.

 

[Dubai Vol]

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]

The only thing I don't like about biplanes is how flimsy they were. ACM was a very delicate thing, comparatively speaking.

 

[Verbose]

The Niuport, "Bébé".
Got a US WWI fighter ace? The odds are overwhelming this is what he flew, never mind the French aces.

 

[Zardnaar]

SR71 and Spitfire are 2 of the best looking machines flown by man. Biplanes, A10 warthog, most early jet fighters and alot of German WW2 planes are ugly.

 

[Perfection]

Cool

 

[RomeoTheCat]

What is that silver NASA plane in post #2?

 

[Cutlass]

What is that silver NASA plane in post #2?

Check the file name Super_Guppy_N941_NASA.jpg

Nasa modified a few transports to carry very odd sized loads.