Most Ugly Aircraft

[tiv]

I find it to be one of the ugliest, disproportional, wearing its engineering failure lash up engine layout and the cockpit glasing looks like a wart.

Well it might but it originally looked like this which was presumably found unsatisfactory.

 

[Bodenplatte]

They tried tracks on those at one point
View attachment 539766View attachment 539767

Those would have helped on the B-36 that landed about a mile short of the main runway at RAF Boscombe Down in thick fog in 195(?). (Doing this entirely from memory).

As I recall it had flown directly from Carswell AFB, and stooged around the light on top of the spire of Salisbury Cathedral which was above the fog.
It then attempted a landing at Boscombe from the SW end of the main runway, but the pilots were confused by the runway approach lighting, and touched down in the dense fog on farmland, then crossed the main road which runs north from Salisbury to Amesbury where it came to rest. The story goes that when the crew climbed out, one of them said "That's a mighty bumpy runway you got here, pal."

 

[Bodenplatte]

Talking of tyres, it originally had the largest wheels and tyres fitted to an aircraft before they went to bogies.

View attachment 539741

Interesting that this pic must have been taken before the red stripe was added to the white bars in the national insignia. January 1947.

 

[Bodenplatte]

. . . .and the cockpit glasing looks like a wart.

Similar to the Stirling

 

[flieslikeabeagle]

I never thought the B36 was ugly, quite beautiful in fact
and you can make a beautiful aeroplane even more so by hanging tank tracks underneath
The best of both worlds

 

[tiv]

A massively impressive achievement nonetheless, a transitional machine at the cusp of the jet age. And massively massive too. Definitely in the wrong thread, this is not an ugly aircraft.

Always thought it looked better without the jet pods.

 

[Nimbus]

Always thought it looked better without the jet pods.

View attachment 540079

The change in the skin makes it look suspiciously like a ‘Cut & Shut’ job. I bet they grew some great tomatoes though.

 

[Maalox]

Spitfire T9

 

[Gluteus Maximus]

Spitfire T9

I'm glad I'm not alone on this. A truly horrible thing to do to a Spitfire!

 

[Cloth bomber]

I'm glad I'm not alone on this. A truly horrible thing to do to a Spitfire!

I take your point but the conversions were done so that 3 rd world airforces without fast trainers could convert pilots onto the spit ( which we could sell to them cheap as we had lots) no 2 seaters would probably have meant lots more spits going to kill early.
Also the sleeker 2 seat conversions must have been very sobering for the instructor in the back because the one I sat in had an awful view of what was happening up front. The only aircraft I’ve sat in that was worse was the Fouga Magister.
Coincidentally the Irish operated both types, hats off to their instructors.

 

[Gluteus Maximus]

I take your point but the conversions were done so that 3 rd world airforces without fast trainers could convert pilots onto the spit ( which we could sell to them cheap as we had lots) no 2 seaters would probably have meant lots more spits going to kill early.
Also the sleeker 2 seat conversions must have been very sobering for the instructor in the back because the one I sat in had an awful view of what was happening up front. The only aircraft I’ve sat in that was worse was the Fouga Magister.
Coincidentally the Irish operated both types, hats off to their instructors.

I realise that, I think the first customers were the Gippos. But it still looks bloody awful.

 

[Skunkmiester]

I'm glad I'm not alone on this. A truly horrible thing to do to a Spitfire!

It's bloody beautiful when you get to clamber into the back seat for a quick 30 minute blast and during the flight the bloke in the front says "You have control".

 

[Soluton Architect]

Not sure of the model no. of the Piasecki helicopter shown, but in service models were the H-21.

View attachment 538689

That's the HRP Rescuer

The H-21 came along later and was a pretty decent machine, probably the pinnacle of piston-engined helicopter design. Lots more room and much better hover performance than the rival Sikorsky S-58 ( Wessex predecessor ) despite using the same engine.

Piasecki designed a slot-in turbine upgrade with a pair of T58s that would have been useful in the early days in Vietnam but wasn't adopted so they struggled on with a single R1820. Typical of the period, wouldn't spend money on improving an existing airframe because they were focused on the next shiny thing.

 

[Zhopa]

I take your point but the conversions were done so that 3 rd world airforces without fast trainers could convert pilots onto the spit ( which we could sell to them cheap as we had lots) no 2 seaters would probably have meant lots more spits going to kill early.

Which is also why, as I think may have been mentioned up-thread, the Sovs converted a number of Lend-Lease Spitfire IXs to two-seaters, turning them from Сп-9 (Sp-9) into Сп-9У (У for учебный, "training") - which came in very handy for them in the late 1940s as the much better performance at altitude than Soviet fighters meant Moscow's best high-altitude interceptor in the first days of the Cold War was, erm, British.

 

[Maalox]

Convair XC99

 

[Maalox]

The VTOL Lockheed XV4 Hummingbird

 

[Goldbricker]

Those would have helped on the B-36 that landed about a mile short of the main runway at RAF Boscombe Down in thick fog in 195(?). (Doing this entirely from memory).

As I recall it had flown directly from Carswell AFB, and stooged around the light on top of the spire of Salisbury Cathedral which was above the fog.
It then attempted a landing at Boscombe from the SW end of the main runway, but the pilots were confused by the runway approach lighting, and touched down in the dense fog on farmland, then crossed the main road which runs north from Salisbury to Amesbury where it came to rest. The story goes that when the crew climbed out, one of them said "That's a mighty bumpy runway you got here, pal."

1952

The VHF/DF operator in his little hut near the end of the runway rang the tower to say there was an aeroplane outside his hut. He was told ‘We haven’t time to talk to you now. We’re waiting for a very important aircraft’. Meanwhile, the B-36 shut down all but one of the engines which was kept running to provide electrical power. A crew member shone a torch on the spinning blades to prevent anyone walking into it. A Boscombe Down staff member was driving home after a night out in Salisbury and stopped his car. He politely told a crew member ‘If you want the airfield it’s over there’ and drove off.

Convair's Mighty B-36

Convair’s Mighty B-36

www.a-e-g.org.uk

apparently the pilot busted from Colonel to Lieutenant by General LeMay

 

[Grim_Squeaker85]

The VTOL Lockheed XV4 Hummingbird

Not a pretty thing, no.... It is however kind of cool though.

 

[tiv]

The XV-4 owes it's shape to being an experimental VTOL aircraft and I agree it's kind of cool as has been pointed out.

 

[Gluteus Maximus]

The XV-4 owes it's shape to being an experimental VTOL aircraft and I agree it's kind of cool as has been pointed out.

The Hillman Minx of the aircraft world.....