I mean, seriously, the A-10 is just too damn sexy. It’s not fair to all the other airplanes. It’s just not.
Moar here. What do you guys got?
-Tom
It would be unfair to pull out some Soviet planes so early, so I’ll go with one of my favorite since my childhood: the F-4 Phantom.
I absolutely dig that reversed inclination on the tail wings. And that nose. Ah, I just love it.
I don’t have my old air show pictures digitized, so I looked for a good photo, but I don’t know if it’s authorized or not and this is all too tricky so feel free to delete it and then I’ll post some stupid model from xplane in place or something.)
I love both those planes!
Now it may have been down to Top Gun, but I’ve also had a bit of a lifelong crush on the F-14 - hence super hanging for the overdue DCS module… :)
Love how it’s simultaneously slick, yet kind of unwieldy
A handful of shots my brother took, at this years Danish Airshow. It’s a biannually event that we’ve attended the last 10 years. Strictly father/son/uncle/etc tour. It’s a great day with lots of afterburner noise and smell of airfuel.
As if the Sukhoi 27 wasn’t already the most beautiful bird in the world: it features pixel art. Awesome.
Yeah, that Ukrainian Airforce camouflage is really awesome on the Flanker. To quote Deep Purple: “Uuuh, it’s a killing machine…”
I’m not saying bigger is better, but you have to give some props to the Spruce Goose.
(Click to embiggen.)
Grumpy wins. Nice try, everybody.
First has inspired a short story I’m currently in the middle of. Second led to the novel I just finished…
Sexiest airplane ever.
From one of my favorite artists, Bruce McCall, and his “Major Howdy Bixby’s Album of Forgotten Warbirds:”
Or, for that matter, the A-12 OXCART, commissioned in 1959. It was a single-seater. Here they are next to each other.
There’s a captivating series of 4 articles about a Pan-Am Boeing 314 that was forced to fly around the world during WWII. I highly recommend reading them. The articles are here.
One of my favorite cold war jets, the Handley Page Victor, which looked like it was pulled off of a Buck Rogers set:
How about the A-10’s grandpappy?
This is my favorite WW2 plane.
Luftwaffe ace Heinz Bäer said that the P-47 “could absorb an astounding amount of lead [from shooting at it] and had to be handled very carefully”
Also, affectionately called the “Jug” due to the shape of the plane reminding people of milk jugs.
2nd favorite WW2 plane is the P-38 Lightning
The fighter plane that won the pacific theater
Yeah, I constantly vacillate between overdesigned future wedge-mobiles…
to cigar shaped hoovers with wings
also, the flying lawnmowers
my heart has so much room for love