Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire List your favorite aircraft.....

I have not seen those photos before. Very interesting.

A small private plane that I really like and have ridden in is a Helio Courier. Military plane would be a U2. My Son retired after 22years in the Air Force. Except with a year in the middle east with the A10s, he was a U2 crew chief. He retired when he was stationed at U2 Flight Test Plant 42 in Palmdale, Calif. He was given one of the windscreens and the flag that flew with his bird when it set a World Altitude Payload record. They reside in my shop.
My Dad was career Air Force and I have a love for all of the military birds.

To be perfectly honest, my favorite airplane is any one that I am not in.

Always thought the P-38 Lightning was really cool

The Beechcraft Model 17 Staggerwing is an American biplane with an atypical negative stagger (the lower wing is further forward than the upper wing), that first flew in 1932.The Staggerwing's retractable conventional landing gear, uncommon at that time, combined with streamlining, light weight, and powerful radial engines helped it perform significantly better than other biplane designs. Setting the standard for private passenger airplanes for many years to come. It was considered, during its time, to be the premier executive aircraft flying, much as the Gulfstream executive jets are considered in contemporary times.

You needed to watch the video further

but maybe this will make up for it...

oh, I watched the entire thing Keith...

Like the Limey waving the British Flag out of the cockpit of one in US Navy Markings...

I use to love Air Shows on base as a kid, where at times they would have one, with a full weapons store loaded on it... sure it was stuff that was decommissioned and dummy, but they sure looked cool fully loaded... the Skyraiders were able to carry more bomb load than a 4 engined B 17....

In Vietnam, they sure had a long loiter time on target...

A-10 and SR-71.

That's okay.. I am more than making up for it, to fill the void...
and have been since I was 12 years old...

Speaking with people who flew them the F-104 was very good inside the curve, but monumentally unforgiving. The thing with the NF-104 was that the rocket would push you to altitudes where the aerodynamic surfaces were ineffective, essentially you were flying a missile controlled by reaction jets. Hopefully.

Just needed a pic.

In that realm I guess my favorite would be the Fieseler Storch (stork) mainly because it looks so, um, ungainly with the extended landing gear. Excellent STOL characteristics. Looking up close at the gear you can see it was designed to handle rough fields very well. Of course STOL and rough fields was what it was designed for, and all the glass for recon visibility. Sure wasn't looks!

I am a fan of about anything that flies but there are a few that when I see them, I have to stop, listen, and watch. I have a thing for the sounds they make. Pretty much like anything that takes to the air but a few that stand out to me.

P-51 I'd give my left nut for a 30 min flight.

B-52 Big hurt that just sounds vicious.

C-47/DC-3 Love those big radials. Get to see them often heading out to the bush doing cargo runs up here.

C-5 The big GE turbofans can't be mistaken for anything else.

UH-1 Huey Who doesn't like the sound of one?

F-22 Much maligned but still a very impressive aircraft that I get to watch fly nearly daily now that the F-15s have been reassigned. Their turbines make a howl that gives me goosebumps.

A-10 If I had been a pilot I would have loved to fly a flying tank.

SR-71 Never got to see one in flight but was an airframe that is still ahead of the times.

A3J/A5 Vigilante, the prettiest plane to fly off a carrier deck IMO.

F-14

Grumman F7F Tigercat

For the fan of the P-38 AND the fan of the P-51, North American introduced the P-82 just a bit too late to see service in WW II.

Two Allison V-12's with a top speed in excess of 450 mph

Just a note; Baffled flaps allowed the Stork to fly at 19 mph.

It's been a long damn while but, when I got out of the service and for a few years after I made a few jumps from these two.

A Norseman, only picture I could find is this military one, or those with floats.



and a Cessna 195




Phil