Your Favorite Aircraft

[Wilber]

The 180 has much better carrying capacity than the 140. Less time weighing luggage and getting the ladies to fess-up their real weight.

True, unlike the 140 it was a real 4 passenger aircraft with full tanks and at least some luggage. Mine was quite an early version, early 60's. It looked like a 140, with the same clamshell type engine cowling. The only giveaways were the external baggage door and the larger propeller. It was nicely equipped though, dual navcoms, one with G/S, ADF, King Txpdr and audio panel, interphone, EGT and Cylinder head temps, Updated flight instruments and gyro's, toe brakes, rudder trim, strobe, lots of good stuff. One thing I didn't like about it was the smaller stabilizer which made it difficult to hold the nose off on landing because of the extra weight up front. You needed either rear passengers or land with no flap which kind of defeated the purpose. Later versions had a larger stab.

Had a lot of fun with that thing and miss it. I sold it to a Canadian DC-10 captain and his family learned to fly with it. According to Transport Canada, the registered owner is now a company in Victoria. I learned to fly on a Fleet 80 and if I was looking to buy another aircraft, I'd be trying to find a decent example somewhere.

Edited August 24, 2009 by Wilber

[DogOnPorch]

True, unlike the 140 it was a real 4 passenger aircraft with full tanks and at least some luggage. Mine was quite an early version, early 60's. It looked like a 140, with the same clamshell type engine cowling. The only giveaways were the external baggage door and the larger propeller. It was nicely equipped though, dual navcoms, one with G/S, ADF, King Txpdr and audio panel, interphone, EGT and Cylinder head temps, Updated flight instruments and gyro's, toe brakes, rudder trim, strobe, lots of good stuff. One thing I didn't like about it was the smaller stabilizer which made it difficult to hold the nose off on landing because of the extra weight up front. You needed either rear passengers or land with no flap which kind of defeated the purpose. Later versions had a larger stab.

Had a lot of fun with that thing and miss it. I sold it to a Canadian DC-10 captain and his family learned to fly with it. According to Transport Canada, the registered owner is now a company in Victoria. I learned to fly on a Fleet 80 and if I was looking to buy another aircraft, I'd be trying to find a decent example somewhere.

Ours was a 1969 Cherokee 180 with a similar set-up inside. Ours also used LORAN-C which was about as nice as one could get for navigation before GPS. But, for just getting around BC, the ADF was plenty fine.

[DogOnPorch]

Speaking of twin amphibians...here's one of the greats...probably #2 behind the Catalina/Canso...the Grumman Goose.

An amazing shot of one 'crashing' into the beach...

...I'd be crying if that was mine.

Plus a nice blurb on the Goose from Antilles Seaplanes Aviation which is apparently putting it back into production. Betcha they're pricey!

Edited August 25, 2009 by DogOnPorch

[DogOnPorch]

Flying the Lancaster...cockpit view.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIEg27PNL5U

[DogOnPorch]

Another cockpit view...this time a 747 landing at old Kai Tak in the rain.

[DogOnPorch]

Here's a very oldie.

The Caudron G.III which was used in the first year of WW1 by the French, Belgians and Italians.

Notice the real Gnome-Rhone engine! Used castor oil as a lube.

[ironstone]

I read through all of the post's on this topic and was quite surprised that nobody mentioned one of the finest military aircraft of all time,the F-4 Phantom.First flown in 1958 and hundreds still active in non-US service today according to Wikipedia.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F-4_Phantom_II

[ironstone]

Despite what these aircraft were designed to do,there were numerous WW2 fighter aircraft that had such gorgeous lines.One of my favs is the FW-190,especially the long nose D version.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:FW190-D9.jpg

Which was the fastest piston engine fighter of WW2?I have seen different claims to that title,including the P-51H,and last week watching Wings of the Luftwaffe,they claimed it was the Dornier Do 335 Pfeil(Arrow).Rather an unusal inline push-pull propeller arrangement.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dornier_335

[lictor616]

Despite what these aircraft were designed to do,there were numerous WW2 fighter aircraft that had such gorgeous lines.One of my favs is the FW-190,especially the long nose D version.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:FW190-D9.jpg

Which was the fastest piston engine fighter of WW2?I have seen different claims to that title,including the P-51H,and last week watching Wings of the Luftwaffe,they claimed it was the Dornier Do 335 Pfeil(Arrow).Rather an unusal inline push-pull propeller arrangement.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dornier_335

the dornier would have changed the course of the war if it had been released one year earlier and produced in large enough numbers. What an amazing aircraft.

Edited August 30, 2009 by lictor616

[DogOnPorch]

I read through all of the post's on this topic and was quite surprised that nobody mentioned one of the finest military aircraft of all time,the F-4 Phantom.First flown in 1958 and hundreds still active in non-US service today according to Wikipedia.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F-4_Phantom_II

We yaked about it somewhere...perhaps the Viet-Nam thread. Indeed a great aircraft...one of the first true multi-role jets.

US Navy F-4s doing carrier ops in the SEA theater.

The Do-335 was perhaps the fastest prop plane of WW2, but only 3 were made. The He-219 Owl was a more successful combat machine.

Here's a captured one getting sent to France for shipment to the US.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FLEnG07pXE

[Sabre Rider]

Flying the Lancaster...cockpit view.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIEg27PNL5U

I am always amazed just how agile those great lumbering beasts were. Took my late Grandfather to the Abbotsford Airshow a few years back just to see the only flying Canadian Lanc, a Spitfire and a Hurricane. I will never forget the sound of six Merlin engines screaming as the three old warhorses beat up the runway during a fly-by. And this year I had the honour of arranging the ground transportation of a Mosquito from Vancouver to Victoria so that it could be restored to flying condition. Hopefully in a couple of years time I will again get to hear the sweet music of the Merlins.

[Sabre Rider]

One of favorites is the old Eipper Quicksilver MX, perhaps because that was the ultralight I learned to fly on.

Eipper Quicksiliver MX

However, if I had the coin, I'd love to get my mitts on of these, a Murphy Renegade Biplane/Ultralight.

[DogOnPorch]

A classic. I like how they say the Quicksilver has a service ceiling of 14,000 ft. I wonder if one has actually made it that high...the pilot would need oxygen bottles, etc.

[DogOnPorch]

I am always amazed just how agile those great lumbering beasts were. Took my late Grandfather to the Abbotsford Airshow a few years back just to see the only flying Canadian Lanc, a Spitfire and a Hurricane. I will never forget the sound of six Merlin engines screaming as the three old warhorses beat up the runway during a fly-by. And this year I had the honour of arranging the ground transportation of a Mosquito from Vancouver to Victoria so that it could be restored to flying condition. Hopefully in a couple of years time I will again get to hear the sweet music of the Merlins.

That's really cool re: the Mosquito. My dad and his brothers were all in bombers during WW2. Dad never made it out of training before the war ended (Lancasters), but one flew with both the British/Canadians and the Americans as an engineer....Halifaxes and B-17s.

[DogOnPorch]

T'would suck majorly to live here...

[DogOnPorch]

A3 SkyWarrior...still in use.

[DogOnPorch]

Pan Am's first China Clipper over San Francisco circa 1935.

[DogOnPorch]

Nice documentary from 1960 or so on the short-tailed Boeing 707.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ph1FXcIqnNg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgY6VZvDoAU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVrhE5c_XKM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEFo11YDQcg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4RsBGWZd68

[DogOnPorch]

RC Boeing B-29 Superfort...big!

[Wilber]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJ546BEps-M...feature=related

A Boeing Legend

Edited September 11, 2009 by Wilber

[bush_cheney2004]

North American XB-70 Valkyrie

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lfh-lV_jhzk...feature=related

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/comm...t_EC68-2131.jpg

Edited September 11, 2009 by bush_cheney2004

[kimmy]

North American XB-70 Valkyrie

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lfh-lV_jhzk...feature=related

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/comm...t_EC68-2131.jpg

Great minds.

-k

[bush_cheney2004]

Great minds.

-k

Great plane....it could ride "on top" of it's own shock wave, generating compression lift.

Plus it just looks so bitchin' !

RC Model:

[DogOnPorch]

These two were sort of the same deal...Russian experimental bombers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0xpupTuuOk

[kimmy]

Great plane....it could ride "on top" of it's own shock wave, generating compression lift.

The specifications of the plane are so ridiculous, it's like something from out of a comic-book. It's incredible that they actually made it happen, at a time when engineering was done with pencils, paper, and slide-rules. Just imagine it.

Plus it just looks so bitchin' !

Picture the Valkyrie sharing a runway with other planes... it would be like a '68 Dodge Charger in a parking lot full of Toyota Yarises. Or a Lamborghini Murcielago in a showroom full of Hyundai Accents. Or a Suzuki Hayabusa parked amongst a bunch of old-people mall-scooters. Or, something along those lines.

RC Model:

OMG, that's so adorable!

-k