What is your favorite aircraft of all time...

[KIR]

Title says it all...
Mine is the SR-71 Blackbird which I just missed out seeing at Beale AFB as I ended my enlistment several months before it arrived. I finally saw one when I was playing tennis at a park in N. Reno. The air show was going on at Stead Airbase and did a low flyby, turned around and flew back to the show. When I got home, I called the tower at the RNO airport and they confirmed it for me. When my G'daughter was born, she got to touch an SR-71 before I did. When I was in L.A. visiting family I went to the park where the Coliseum and several museums are located. Outside of the science museum there is an A-12 trainer (two seater) which I could reach up and touch. It was not painted black. The SR-71 is my fave plane as it was a close design that I had made while in middle/jr. high school. Mine were more delta wings though. The SR-71 is still the fastest and highest altitude jet plane ever made.

 

[dannyd]

Testing a H-60 at 160 degrees on the rotor head, fun times. We were testing to see when the composite blades would come apart.

 

[Snake45]

I love dozens, but have four particular favorites.

1. Grumman F8F Bearcat.

2. Douglas AD/A-1 Skyraider.

3. Grumman F4U-4 through F4U-7 Corsairs. (Basically, the late ones in overall Glossy Sea Blue paint with 4-bladed props.)

4. Douglas B-26 (nee A-26) Invader, the only American combat aircraft to see action in WWII, Korea, and Vietnam.

 

[Fox Mike]

Always thought this was a classy looking and very efficient fighter.

 

[RC44Mag]

Yamamoto found that out a little too late

 

[sfhogman]

Many years ago I was riding my Harley south on the PCH, past the little Half Moon Bay airport just north of town... When I looked to my right I saw a magnificently restored Lightning just about to touch down.
Well, I couldn't help but wave, and he waggled his wings back!
Made my day, maybe my week...

 

[375hh1973]

Spruce Goose

 

[jimbo1096]

That's a very hard question with so many fabulous aircraft over the years, both British and American, Canadian and other foreign countries. I don't think anything else performance wise in the realm of strategic aircraft would beat the SR 71. In my bedroom when I was in HS there was a P-38, a B-58 hustler hanging over my bed. And a F4 Corsair, all I built from models When I was in the Navy, the F4 Phantom was really a sight to see on the runway doing performance max take off. I wish the Aveo CF105 Arrow would have been completed. The Harrier is also an interesting aircraft but if I could fly one I think it would be the A-10 Thunderbolt (Warthog)

 

[hittman]

The one that lands safely

 

[WAYNO]

I have been exposed to many, so while I have many favorites, I cannot narrow it down further.

The very first model airplane my Dad and I built together was a B-24. That airplane is magnificent.

As a youngster, while the Portland Air Force Base was still active, we had P-89's roaming the skies. A slug by todays standards, in the mid-fifties it was bad-ass.

Shortly after, F-102's were the jet of choice at the Air Base. I have a real soft spot for them too.

I attended A&P school at the Portland Air Base after it became an Air National Guard facility. F-101 Voodoo's were assigned to Portland at that time. I had complete freedom of the tarmac, and I was often up close and personal with these F-101's. When they took off, every time with full after burner, they were incredible. They'd speed down the runway on takeoff, stay just barely above the asphalt with gear retracted, and do a near 90-degree rotation at the end of the runway until they disappeared. Noise abatement was not an issue in 1971.

I've been around many more, many of extreme performance, but I cannot forget my Slick's. The UH-1H. The non-essential bus. Inanimate objects don't have souls. I'm still trying to convince myself of that, as the Huey, as well as a C-47/DC-3 come darn close to having a soul.


I also must give honorable mention to some others...
The A1 Skyraider, The F-4 Phantom, the Beech C-45 , the C-124, the Cobra. For different reasons, airplanes/aircraft that I've rubbed shoulders with or otherwise respect.

 

[Ray Newman]

F-4 Phantom II

F4U Corsair

Dr-1 Fokker Triplane

 

[Jeepnik]

This will always be a personal favorite.

 

[Dave P.]

I haven't had a chance to fly very many different planes but of those I have, hands down it was the
Extra 300. The build quality and precision of it was just about perfect. Controls had zero slop and response
was basically instant, you ask for it you get it. Rated 10G positive or negative solo. Have a few hours of
dual instruction in them, a couple of hours just messing around, and about 15-20 minutes of absolute
crushing violence courtesy of Patty Wagstaff.
Military stuff would have to be F4 Phantom.....big, smokey and noisy. Wish the Blue Angels still flew them.
.

 

[RSIno1]

KIR when you were in LA you should have hopped over the hill to Blackbird Park - https://www.google.com/maps/place/Blackbird+Airpark/@34.6028678,-118.0859739,99m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m6!3m5!1s0x80c2570b9a70c3ab:0xc58c2f27a378bda7!8m2!3d34.6027242!4d-118.0858523!16s/g/1tcxvhk8?entry=ttu
Lockheed was one of my customers in the 70s and I have a booklet they printed on the development of the SR-71. One thing that was interesting was some of the parts were cracking. They were all forged at the same time but some had been machined during the summer when the chlorine in Burbank water was higher. They went to distilled water to cool the machine tools and the cracks stopped occurring. I think that the 2 seat SR-71 trainer is still at Edwards and used to fly experiments - a guy I knew developed a new wing design that kept the laminar flow attached longer which decreased fuel use. They flew a section of it on the SR-71. They painted it with a pressure sensitive paint and filmed it in flight. The paint changes colors where the air pressure is greater. A place called Actron made the cameras. They were also a customer and they had the photos on the wall of an SR-71 out running a SAM. Their little booklet talked about having to relocate the cameras further forward due to problems with the plane generating so much heat that the heat waves blurred the photos.

dannyd - I also had Hughes Helicopter they had a spot in the field where they tested rotors to failure. It was a big round cage with layers of chain link fence around it. The place is all apartments and commercial now. The cage was about where the little park area is on the right of the picture. I was in a building that was just west of the still existing Spruce Goose Hanger when one let go. We heard it close to a mile away.

Google Maps

Find local businesses, view maps and get driving directions in Google Maps.

www.google.com

I too have many favorites but I'd love to own a DC-3 - pretty sure it saw action in 3 wars too.

 

[MHtractorguy]

OV-10 Bronco followed closely by the A-10 Warthog

 

[protoolman]

1980s A-6 Intruders just because I probably rebuilt the engines in 1/2 of them personally over a 4 year period or my buddies did. Only 2 places rebuilt them my shop at NAS Whidbey Island and the Marine Corps built a few at Cherry point. We built all of the Navy's and most of the Marines. Otherwise NARF Jacksonville used new ones from Pratt and Whitney.

 

[sceva]

My Favorite is the XB-70 Valkyrie

 

[g5m]

The title is a good question. I once asked a man I worked for that question. He was a WW2 fighter pilot in the Pacific. He said, "The one that got me home".

I've always liked the WW2 planes. If I had to choose one it would likely be the P-51. But there are a lot I really like.

 

[hittman]

That Valkyrie thingy looks like those Concords from years back.

 

[Snake45]

I too have many favorites but I'd love to own a DC-3 - pretty sure it saw action in 3 wars too.

You are correct, it did--and many other smaller wars as well--but I carefully said the Douglas B-26 was the only combat aircraft to see action in WWII, Korea, and Vietnam. The C-47 wasn't a combat aircraft in WWII or Korea, though it certainly was in AC-47 (Spooky) gunship form in Vietnam.