Poll: best looking GA prop plane of all time?

Dave,

True, which is partially why it's in a class by itself g.

All the best,
Rick

xerj,

Good question.

Hmm, Biplane: Beech 17 Staggerwing series. Monoplane: Cessna AW
(Cessnas never had wing struts until 1945) or Cardinal, military, the
Mk. IX Spitfire. Twin biplane: DeHavilland Dragon Rapide. Twin
monoplane: DeHaviland Mosquito or early Cessna 310. Three engine:
Stinson trimotor (high wing version, the low wing was hideous) or
Boeing 727. Four engine: DeHaviland Heron.

Cheers,
Rick

wrote:
Twin monoplane: DeHaviland Mosquito

I know it is a matter of taste, but the DeHaviland Comet
(the DH 88 of the 1934 MacRobertson Air Race, not the airliner)
looks a lot better to me in this category (and there is a superb
replica flying in Hollister...)

--Sylvain

Sylvain,

DH 88. Sound of forehead slap. You're right, one of the sharpest
looking airplanes ever, although I would not care for its forward
visibility in three point attitude.

Cheers,
Rick

wrote:

.... although I would not care for its forward
visibility in three point attitude.

It has some? :-)

George Patterson
Drink is the curse of the land. It makes you quarrel with your neighbor.
It makes you shoot at your landlord. And it makes you miss him.

wrote:

DH 88. Sound of forehead slap. You're right, one of the sharpest
looking airplanes ever, although I would not care for its forward
visibility in three point attitude.

If you're starting to discuss characteristics other than appearance, I think you
would also dislike the two-speed props the DHs had. Most people hated them.

They were locked into fine pitch on the ground before takeoff. They had a sort
of flywheel arrangement that would shift them into coarse pitch once a certain
airspeed was reached. They could not be changed back to fine pitch in the air.
Invariably, one prop would go into coarse pitch before the other, which I'm told
led to a period of interesting flight characteristics. Occasionally one prop
wouldn't go into coarse pitch at all, and things got *really* interesting.

George Patterson
Drink is the curse of the land. It makes you quarrel with your neighbor.
It makes you shoot at your landlord. And it makes you miss him.

George,

Hadn't known that about the props on the DH88. (Sort of ties in with
the seeming proclivity of British engineers to make things as complex
as possible g.) That could get interesting, especially back then
when the designers seemed to like little bitty vertical stabilizers and
rudders. I also wouldn't much care for it if I had to make a go-around
in coarse pitch when very slow. Differential activiation of devices
that affect yaw and roll are usually just disconcerting rather than
dangerous, but I can't help but wonder how many Allied pilots were
saved because the slats in the Bf-109 usually wouldn't deploy together
when turning tightly, and would throw off the pilot's aim at least
briefly.

All the best,
Rick

Of course. Best looking plane of all time: Spitfire. Best looking GA plane:
DH88.

All the twin deHavillands were gorgeous, sometimes in a kind of
alternative-universe ancient-science fiction manner. Consider the DH84
Dragon. And it all leads to the Mosquito.

Wasn't it Geoffrey deHavilland who said "If it looks right, it is right?"

How about the ugliest GA airplane of all time? I exclude military a/c so as
to disqualify interwar French bombers.

My nominee: Transavia Airtruck.

Seth

Seth

wrote in message
oups.com...
Sylvain,

DH 88. Sound of forehead slap. You're right, one of the sharpest
looking airplanes ever, although I would not care for its forward
visibility in three point attitude.

Cheers,
Rick

In article ,
Sylvain wrote:

wrote:
Twin monoplane: DeHaviland Mosquito

I know it is a matter of taste, but the DeHaviland Comet
(the DH 88 of the 1934 MacRobertson Air Race, not the airliner)
looks a lot better to me in this category (and there is a superb
replica flying in Hollister...)

--Sylvain

I should have included that one in MY nomination list, too! Add in the
Mew Gull, too.

Four engine: DeHaviland Heron.

One of my favorites as it looks like a 3/4 scale DC-6. Now if it just
had round engines... Always had a soft spot for Beech 18s and Twin
Bonanzas too.