Ugliest Aircraft Ever Designed, Your Suggestions!

[wonwinglo]

What we must remember is that back then these designers had very little to work on,each one was striving to produce the revolutionery flying machine,believe me there are many more like this ! some of the early Russian large biplanes were so ungainly it is a wonder that they ever left the ground ? coupled with unreliable heavy bulky powerplants some never got past the taxying stage anyway.

We owe our modern sleek designs to a lot of these early pioneers,who developed every shape possible thinking that they would fly.

[Guest]

What is it...?......waht a mess.......looks like shed with wings.

..an early Junkers I think. " ..a shed with wings" , take an old tram-car, a river punt, a tractor engine, set of wings and.........you got a Dornier "Delphin"

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[wonwinglo]

Duncan,that description sounded so funny !! Pugnacious is the word for this ugly duckling.

[Guest]

Love Duncan's Description of the last pic, But as Barry rightly says, those early machines were the fore-runners of many of todays successful machines,

Look at that Dornier Shed again and look how it evolved as per the pics below....what you see here is the Dornier SeaStar.

I think this would make a fantastic Fun R/C Model and with Both engines on the Centre Line would be quite stable too...!! (Pity about the registration number though !!!)

Regards........Mark

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[Guest]

The owner`s name is Richard, stupid.....WHAT were you thinking of?! The family resemblance is there on the two Dorniers right enough.

[Guest]

and in reply to Rj Wood's Post, Yes an ugly Helicopter but they still build RC Turbine versions of it..!!

Notice the spot on Blade Tracking and superb hover too....this guy is an experienced Heli Flyer.

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/540845/rc_turbine_helicopter/

Regards......Mark

[Guest]

Im going to hedge my bets...for the simple reason that i cant choose any one craft im going to follow the trend and give you my faves by type:

Biplanes... The Hawker Nimrod, proof that a bi-plane can look sleek en sexy

Mono/prop... The DeHaviland Mosi (a twin engined spit that pretends to be a bomber, 633 squadron still brings tears to the eyes) and has that eliptical wing and soft lines.

Early jet... The Hawker Hunter, a real lady..i love this plane!

mod jet... The B1B lancer . With a wingspan of a b52 and flys like a buccaneer at 50ft above ground level, not to mention all those feminine curves... wow

As for the ugly ducklings....hrrrrrm, the sabre en early migs looked like barrels with wings, the handly page hamden bomber was a brick with wings as was the guppy transport... but the absolute dog of dogs has got to be the general electric lightning MkII, a pregnant barrel with wings, a comedy nose and a pair of drainpipes for a backside!

A very VERY good interceptor but ugggggly as sin, i hated those swept back wings and the beer gut 30mm cannons... a classic example of a plane that did what it neaded to do with no frills, tons of power and looks that bring to mind the last chicken in the shop!

[Guest]

I'm a fan of all kinds of quirky looking and experimental aircraft designs but one of the ugliest has to be the U.S. UAV "Global Hawk"

It doesn't have many / any redeaming features in my book! Plus it's a pilotless drone which also brings in the creepy no pilot factor too!

:smile11:

Look pretty ugly from the side...



Yup...Just as Ugly on this side too!



Hmm...things dont improve much from this angle either!

[Guest]

Howdy guys,

Well this thread got me to thinking about aircraft through the ages, powered airplanes specifically and I wanted to touch base with some of the thoughts I had.

Do you realize that merely a little more than 100 yrs ago the first airplane took off under its own power? And a little more that 10 yrs after that men were using aircraft in warfare?

When you think about the "Wright flyer" and its construction and lack of horse power and then think that a decade later there were aircraft capable of carrying two or more people and weapons, it can boggle your mind.

Just think, the Albatross, the Sopwith camel, the Spad and all the WWI fighter planes were built a little more than ten yrs after the first powered flight.

Then came the age of the monoplane and WWII. The invasion of Poland by the Germans, Blitzkreig and the Stuka dive bomber were almost synonomous. Monoplanes were the cutting edge of technology at the time.............just a little more than a quarter century after the first powered flight. The latter part of WWII brought us tests with new technologies in aircraft design, the use of rocket and jet engines.

Post WWII brought experiments by the allies of aircraft designed to eventually exceed a barrier which was thought to be unobtainable....the sound barrier, and all of this only about 50 yrs after the first powered flight.

The late 50's and sixties took us into the "Jet age" with aircraft and pilots who both, had "The right stuff". Not only had man achieved and broken the sound barrier, but he had designed aircraft which could exceed twice that speed and one in particular which would set a new world speed record which still stands today, The SR 71 Blackbird, the fastest manned aircraft.

Then came the sixties, Not only had man been flying for less than sixty yrs, but now man had intentions of conquering space travel and aspirations of going to the moon. All of that was achieved in that decade.

The 70's to the present has brought us single occupant jets which can carry more payload than the large heavy bombers of WWII. Where formations of large bombers were needed during the second war, the same effect could be achieved today with 1 or 2 aircraft.

We are now sending men to an artificial "moon" (the international space station) and they are "flying" back to earth in reusable "aircraft" (The space shuttle). But even the shuttle is now obsolete and the next great advance in flight is just over the horizon.

All of these achievements in a little more than 100 yrs. And to think, at one time men thought that "If men were meant to fly, we’d have wings"....well now we do and they are getting faster and better with each generation.

Have a good day,

Greg