[Clave]

I can't find any good-looking helicopters, so looked for fighters instead.

The Typhoon is pretty nice imho:



But for old-school jet beauty, the Hunter kicks ass:



And for propellor power, I have to vote Spitfire 18:

[Admiral Nelson]

No retirement for AC-130s -- most of the likely opposition America may face in the future in fact has little air defence capability. Thus the demise of the Comanche.

Thw F-14 is a maintainence hog. Those swing wings are cool, but costly to maintain. Additionally the aircraft was designed as a bomber interceptor. It is therefore a rather 'soft' aircraft considerably more vulnerable to damage than the F/A-18. These issues could have been fixed, given time and money, but the Navy preferred not to sink more money in an old platform. Finally, dithering around the procurement of new build F-14Ds meant that a substantial sum of money would have to be paid to restart assembly lines for many of the long lead items needed for the plane.

[Sandwich]

Originally posted by Raa


Truly. Rereading it is paiful.

Feel The Paif!!!





My fav prop-job is the F4U Corsair:



Fav modern jet is the YF-23 (darn that YF-22 for winning!):



And for the chopper dept., I'd have to give the nod to the Russian Hind, beast that it is:

[Col. Fishguts]

Originally posted by Clave
I can't find any good-looking helicopters, so looked for fighters instead.

Oh come on...



EDIT: Sandwich beat me to it.

And just because a friend of mine is flying these things, the Cougar:



Not an attack chopper, but cool nonetheless.

[Corsair]

Blech. I think jets are just so much prettier than helicopters and the F-22 takes the prize.

As for my favorite propeller plane, well... that's where I get my nick from.

[pyro-manic]

I'm not a helicopter man myself, but the Merlin is quite pretty, as is the Gazelle. My favourite aircraft are as follows:

TSR.2 (British nuclear bomber, cancelled before it went into production. Revolutionary, gorgeous.)


The de Havilland Sea Vixen. The best-looking jet fighter ever, no contest. Shame about the Red Bull markings, but AFAIK this one is the only airworthy example left in the world.


Spitfire > everything else. Beauty incarnate.


Most modern aircraft are pretty soul-less in my opinion, however there are a few beauties to be found:

The unique SR-71 Blackbird, one of the few American aircraft I like:


The YF-23. The other modern American aircraft I like. I wish they'd chosen this 'un instead of the fugly F22...


There are a couple of gorgeous Soviet and British concept aircraft from the Cold War, but I can't find pictures of them (as I can't remember their names ).

[Janos]

I go for Hind as well. Soviet design pleases the eye.

[Flipside]

Originally posted by TrashMan


I'm an F-14 man too..
Extreemly fast, manuverable, good looking, deadly.

I would hardly call it outdated, as it can take on most fighters in the world and come out victorious.
why the heck didn't Grumman continue with the development of the F-14S???

Well, the F14 really suffers from restrictive maintenance costs, a lot of them are getting mothballed. The Phoenix missile is an incredibly dangerous Anti-Bomber/Large Fighter missile, and with a range of 200km+ is still one of the longest ranged anti-vehicle weapons. However, they are very expensive to make. F14's also can be vulnerable to returned missile fire, and since the A6 Wild Weasel, their counterpart ECM plane, is starting to be mothballed as well, I guess it was inevitable

[NGTM-1R]

Originally posted by Flipside

and since the A6 Wild Weasel, their counterpart ECM plane, is starting to be mothballed as well, I guess it was inevitable

The Prowler? They're not mothballing the Prowler. The A-6E yes, but they can't afford to mothball the Prowler until the proposed Hornet variant replacement comes into service, since the Navy currently has the SEAD mission instead of the Air Force.

[aldo_14]

I personally prefer the Hurricane to the Spitfire, incidentally.  Plane that won the BoB.....

[Getter Robo G]

Ahem, sexiest attack helicopte goes to (cue fanfare)... AIRWOLF!

http://www.tvshowcentral.net/tvshows/airwolf/airwolf_show_4.jpg

[Clave]

The Hurricane was a good workhorse, but not that good looking imo...

The Sea Vixen was a beauty, like a lot of De Havilland's stuff, I loved the Comet racer as well:



The Mosquito was also awesome:




Back to jets - this is the Avro Vulcan, once our main deterrent bomber:

[Admiral Nelson]

What, no one has mentioned the Blackburn Blackburn??

[Clave]

Oh, just by strange coincidence I have been collecting these type pics:



To put on disc for my dad (he is on dial-up)  I have 595 RAF planes now (so many squadrons in WW2)

I like these style of illustrations a lot, so I could be looking to expand (USA, Japan, Germany etc.)  If anyone has found any, I'd appreciate a link or two...

PS: Must be Gif or Jpg on white, no patterned backgrounds please!

[Flipside]

They always remind me of the instructions to Airfix models for some reason

[aldo_14]

Damn, I miss airfix.  I was ****e at it, of course (nice glue filled cockpits), but I'd be good now, I reckon.  Something else to do other than sketch spaceships........

[Flipside]

I keep meaning to try Airfix again, but then I keep meaning to try painting Warhammer models again etc etc etc...

[TrashMan]

Originally posted by aldo_14
From what i understand, one of the main advantages of the F-14 (over the replacement superhornet) is long range; I guess with the advent of ever more powerful cruise / guided missiles launched from subs & destroyers, they don't feel they need the range.

F-14 was nice though; i remember making a Lego model of it when I was about 11, complete with neat working swing-wings.

Range, yes..and speed too...


Lego model? You too? LOL

[Sesquipedalian]

Fear the L-390!



Now, that's a sweet machine.

[Rictor]

That's one sexy chopper right there.

As for the best looking, either the Hind or Tiger:

Eurocopter Tiger