[badidea]

Since it seems that many people here like airplanes very much I would now like to see which you guys think are the coolest ones ever made!? This should not be a thread about "the best" but about the ones that made you go when you first saw them...

Here is my TOP3






because I have seen them in action at a flightshow and the sound really made me go

[demograph68]

Is the top one still the fastest?

[bubblewrap]

There were warbirds at the small airport where I keep my Cessna not too long ago. There is NOTHING like the sound of that 12 cylinder Rolls Royce engine in a Mustang!

[badidea]

Originally posted by demograph68:
Is the top one still the fastest?

It's still the fastest ground-to-ground airplane but there have been two other planes the have been dropped from a carrier plane that have been faster, a lot faster!! All of them are more than 30 years old, I think!

Mach7, the X-15

[f1000]

Originally posted by badidea:
It's still the fastest ground-to-ground airplane but there have been two other planes the have been dropped from a carrier plane that have been faster, a lot faster!! All of them are more than 30 years old, I think!

You forgot to mention NASA's recent scramjet flight, which was certainly less than 30 years ago.



Mach 9.8

[Sherwin]

I suppose I'd better be a bit local here and go with this:

[badidea]

Originally posted by f1000:
You forgot to mention NASA's recent scramjet flight, which was certainly less than 30 years ago.

This one?
http://www.nasa.gov/missions/research/f_scramjets.html

Did they make a successful test yet?
It's remote controlled, isn't it?
That does not count!

[f1000]

Originally posted by badidea:
This one?
http://www.nasa.gov/missions/research/f_scramjets.html

Did they make a successful test yet?
It's remote controlled, isn't it?
That does not count!

You've been working too hard, badidea. They flew it twice, and the second time it nearly reached Mach 10. You're right, though, it's remote controlled, and it was never meant to survive the tests.

Linky: http://www.nasa.gov/missions/research/x43-main.html

[badidea]

Originally posted by f1000:
You've been working too hard, badidea. They flew it twice, and the second time it nearly reached Mach 10. You're right, though, it's remote controlled, and it was never meant to survive the tests.

Linky: http://www.nasa.gov/missions/research/x43-main.html

Nice!
But let's keep it to planes made for people to sit in there...(and not bullets with wings)

[bubblewrap]

This is my favorite warbird.

[f1000]

Fair enough. I've seen these fly by occasionally:

[bubblewrap]

And you Brits:

My uncle is one of the founding members of this museaum.

(He is a WWII veteran pilot also)

My Uncle Bill.

[badidea]

another one for the Brits:

how could I forget the Harrier?

I have seen one of them at the same airshow as the ME-109 and it was standing in the air right in front of me - I thought I would be deaf in seconds!



edited for a better picture

[f1000]

Videos of the F-35B Joint Strike Fighter hovering,

http://www.lockheedmartin.com/wms/fi...=0&ti=0&sc=400

EDIT: I just noticed that the links were dead. Here's the original link, but you'll have to fight the autoredirect in order to download the videos,
http://www.lmaeronautics.com/gallery...mbat_air/x-35/

[chris v]

[bubblewrap]

A Constilation! What a gorgeous aircraft!

[chris v]

[mitchell_pgh]

[chris v]

What the...

[f1000]

What the...

[badidea]

----

[bubblewrap]

OMG! A flying vacuum cleaner?

[Joshua]

[wdlove]

Awesome airplane pictures. They remind me of attending an air show on and Air Force Base.

[mitchell_pgh]

[macroy]

World smallest piloted plane... I was floored when I saw it in AZ.

But my all time favorite is

A Grumman Goose



If I every have enough money (and a license)...

[SimeyTheLimey]

Even though the Vulcan is the more famous V Bomber, I always had a soft spot for the Victor:



Note: this is the later tanker variant.

This is a fairly cool bomber, too.



And let's have a little history in the making.

[discotronic]

The P-38 Lightning is the coolest fighter plane of all time:

http://www.1000pictures.com/view.htm....jpg+x798+y532

http://www.1000pictures.com/view.htm....jpg+x797+y549

http://home.introweb.nl/~erics/p-38/images/c98-grt.jpg

[cszar2001]

How about the Messerschmidt ME 163?:

[f1000]

Boeing 747




Concorde

[turtle777]

Originally posted by chris v:
What the...

Mwahahahaha.

Is that for real ?

-t

[ThinkInsane]

Some of my all time favorites:

B-58 Hustler


A-10 Thunderbolt II


AC-130 Spectre


B-25 Mitchell


FB-111 Aardvark


F-15 Strike Eagle


Mig 29 Fulcrum


F-4 Phantom II


Saab Gripen

[olePigeon]

My absolute favorite:



F-14 Tomcat just sitting there looking badass!



F-14 in VF-2.



F-14 breaking sound barrier.



P-38 Lightning



F-22 Raptor. Concealed weapons is da shiznite!

[iLikebeer]

Seeing the Harrier hover and the Concorde take off w/ max afterburners are some of the coolest things you can ever see
besides rocket and shuttle launches. Nice pics.

XB70 The Air Force's experimental Mach 3 bomber. Engines were set up like the Millenium Falcon: 6 in a box at the back.


ME 262, one of the baddest fighters ever.


Beechcraft Starship and SpaceShipOne, both designed by Burt Rutan.


olePigeon, I don't think that F-14 is not breaking the sound barrier. It is pulling G's, which lowers the air
pressure on top of the wing and condenses the water vapor in the air.
That seems to be a common misconception w/ those kinds of pics.

[Mafia]

[Severed Hand of Skywalker]

Originally posted by mitchell_pgh:

Now that is a crotch rocket.

[KeyLimePi]

Wow, that old Lockheed Connie is something. I'd forgotten how cool those were.

And, while the F-22 does rule the sky today, you gotta give it up for the granddaddy of stealth, the F-117. If ever there was a design that shouldn't fly, this was it. Not really much of a fighter until the lights go out, then it owns.

[theolein]

The Dassault Rafale



Again



The Saab Gripen



and again.



The fabulous Sukhoi Su-30MKI

[busterhide]

<IMG SRC="F182.JPG" WIDTH="500" HEIGHT="339">

[Severed Hand of Skywalker]

Originally posted by KeyLimePi:
Wow, that old Lockheed Connie is something. I'd forgotten how cool those were.

And, while the F-22 does rule the sky today, you gotta give it up for the granddaddy of stealth, the F-117. If ever there was a design that shouldn't fly, this was it. Not really much of a fighter until the lights go out, then it owns.

That is my fav also. They are not the best planes but they look cool. A couple of them fell out of the sky for no reason also.

[busterhide]

<IMG SRC="sm5.jpg" WIDTH="963" HEIGHT="612">

[ThinkInsane]

Originally posted by theolein:
snip
The Dassault Rafale

snip

Again

snip

The Saab Gripen



and again.

snip

The fabulous Sukhoi Su-30MKI

Nice pics of the Gripen. I always wished Saab could make their cars look as cool as their fighter jets.

Oh, and clean out your inbox would ya, I've been trying to PM you for about a month or so.

[Mafia]

Originally posted by busterhide:
<IMG SRC="sm5.jpg" WIDTH="963" HEIGHT="612">

no html, try [img][/img] with the url to the picture inside

[SimpleLife]

Twin Otter

I often flew on these birds in quasi impossible conditions. Very low visibility (blizzards), very low temperature (-40 C). The door twisted, freezing like you would not believe. But we always got home.

Need aces with brass balls to drive them.

[acadian]

This puts Canada on the map although most probably would not have a clue about it's history.

The Avro Arrow was a revolutionary jet interceptor, designed and built by the
A.V. Roe Aircraft company of Canada. The Arrow was a plane of firsts, fly by wire, computer control, integral missile system and capable of MACH 2+. The year was 1958, and the COLD WAR was raging.

[theolein]

Just to completely bust the size of this thread, I thought I'd post a list of all the airliners that I've flown on: (all links are to web pages from airliner.net. Fantastic resource for these things!)

Boeing 707 Luxair The very plane in the photo in fact!, back in 1975. My first jet passenger flight. Had to land all over the place since they didn't have much range.

Airbus A300 in the 80's, Luxair. Very comfortable for those days.

Bac 111 a few times in the 80's, Tarom and Danair. Crowded cabin but a rugged little plane.

Boeing 727, also in the 80's, Danair. Very crappy flight and landed in the middle of a storm.

Tupolev Tu-154 also in the 80's, Tarom (This airlines held the world record for fatal accidents at the time, btw!). Built like a tank with rocket engines and it flies like one too.

Boeing 747. Numerous versions, from the ultra long range SP ( South African Airways) to the mixed cargo/passenger version (Alitalia) the modern 400 (Lufthansa). The 400 felt very heavy and cumbersome on the ground and in the air.

DC-9, Alitalia, during the Gulf War, from Rome to Zurich, just a week after another DC-9 crashed into a mountain on approach into Zurich! Very paranoid flight.

Airbus A319, Swissair, Lufthansa. Very nice cabins and very nice flying feeling.

Airbus A330, Emirates. Very comfortable fligt and seats and the Emirates cabin crew are by far the friendliest I have ever flown with.

Boeing 777, Emirates, from Dubai to Melbourne via Singapore. Dubai airport is like the crossroads of the planet, with every nation on this world milling about. Lovely plane and the first I flew in that had seat back videos.

Bombardier CRJ-100, Lufthansa. Cramped cabin and rough seating, but a real feeling of flying.

Boeing 767. Cramped cabin and shitty seats (Milan-Toronto, Air Canada).

Avro Rj-100, Azurra. Not as cramped as the CRJ-100 but loud as hell because of the engines being right next to the cabin.

[FulcrumPilot]

[FulcrumPilot]

For on ground looks from frontal view I think a Jag looks the coolest. Sexiest undercarriage ever.

[ThinkInsane]

Originally posted by acadian:
This puts Canada on the map although most probably would not have a clue about it's history.



[img]*snip*[/img]

I've never seen that bird before. It kind of reminds me of the the F-106 Delta Dart:

[TailsToo]

Because I've flown several myself!