Most Beautiful Aircraft Ever Built

[BJC]

Amazing design from the 1930s. Too bad the replica crashed. Sad loss.

Yup, replica crashed, and the original never flew. Not a good record for any airplane, much less one proposed as most beautiful.


BJC

 

[EzyBuildWing]

French double-decker looked really great..... from the 1950's..........

 

[Dan Thomas]

French double-decker looked really great..... from the 1950's..........
View attachment 118933

Now, that I have never seen. What is it? Or is it just a painting?

 

[Chilton]

Now, that I have never seen. What is it? Or is it just a painting?

Bréguet 763 Deux-Ponts - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

 

[Hawk81A]

Looks like a pregnant Connie to me. Dennis

 

[Bill-Higdon]

I posted a Meme at a few web sites on Thanksgiving of a Connie & Bréguet 763 for the old before & after dinner

 

[Batjac1]

The GP-4 is what I have always considered the sexiest plane design I've seen. Wish I was smart enough to do one in composite.


Mark

 

[EzyBuildWing]

Spitfire looked good from this angle......it's a painting....

 

[EzyBuildWing]

For "cuteness" this little tractor-gyro looks neat......sounds like a 2-stroke......

 

[Dan Thomas]

Spitfire looked good from this angle......it's a painting....
View attachment 118972

Even sweeter was the Spitfire's Merlin Music:

 

[mcrae0104]

Spitfire looked good from this angle......

You'd hard-pressed to find a bad angle for a Spit. I'm a sucker for elliptical planforms.

Not to take anything away from the Spit's beauty, but one thing I prefer about the Mustang is its mathematically-defined lofting. Pretty airplanes, sure, they're everywhere; that's like Marilyn Monroe. But pretty plus smart, that's like (Marilyn) x (Monroe + vos Savant). Throw in the Merlin song and there's no competition.

 

[EzyBuildWing]

He-119 looked super-elegant...... take a look.......sort of like that Bugatti..... single-prop out the front..... totally-smooth fuse.....

HE-119 airplane - Google Search

 

[EzyBuildWing]

Also:

Luft 46 Heinkel P1055-01-16 Waffenigel

German WW2 project aircraft model made by Mark Stevens Modelcrafter. Using 1/72 scale Planet Models Heinkel he 119 as a base. New wing inner sections, cockpit and forward fuselage, empennage and rear fuselage, turrets, undercariage prop spinner and interior all scratchbuilt. Its taken 18 months...

www.flickr.com

 

[sanman]

I like the fighters - this one was a real beauty for its time - especially with the single engine at the back:

 

[J.L. Frusha]

Not sure if/when it has been listed, but my all-time fav is the North American A-36 Dive Bomber/P-51 B/C (Mark III to Brits) with the Malcolm Hood/Canopy.

 

[EzyBuildWing]

Heinkel 119.......twin Mercedes engines....... love the big props.....

 

[J.L. Frusha]

@EzyBuildWing Have you seen the Buggati Model 100P?

Bugatti 100P airplane reconstructed, will fly again after public debut

Bugatti has been building some of the fastest vehicles in the world since 1909, but its brief history with airplane racing is less well known to many fans. It started in the '30s when founder Ettore Bugatti believed he could build a plane to win the Deutsch de la Merthe Cup Race. He worked on a...

www.autoblog.com

 

[Island_flyer]

@EzyBuildWing Have you seen the Buggati Model 100P?

Post #659 contained a reference to it. I was impressed with the 1930s concept. Very low drag. But I'm not enamored with the idea of driveshafts routed so close to the cockpit. The only one that actually flew was the one you referenced. That was 80 years or so after the original design. Seemed promising to see a historical design take to the air. But it ended with a fatal crash shortly after testing began.

 

[bmcj]

Heinkel 119.......twin Mercedes engines....... love the big props.....

View attachment 119364

That’s a schnoz that only Jimmy Durante could love.

 

[J.L. Frusha]

@Island_flyer

I've read the Accident report. Something strange happened with the throttles. One engine was a runaway and the other gained some RPM. At the same time, his speed was dropping below stall speed. The aircraft itself behaved as expected in a low-speed stall. He didn't have enough control authority to correct the roll.

I agree about the driveshafts. being routed weird. Maybe in a tunnel, like cars and trucks, but not beside and around the pilot. Given the technology of the time, they STILL could have run a steel tunnel and some sort of safety rings, like race cars use to prevent drive shafts from dropping and pole-vaulting cars.

Personally, I don't see the need for 2 engines and 2 shafts, when there are gearboxes that will split and counter-rotate the props.

Still, overall, it was designed for more than double the speed of the racing airplanes of the day. Gotta give the designers that much credit.