Most beautiful Navy jet ever?

In his oral history, Geroge Spangenberg said that an unofficial
requirement was that an aircraft for the navy "had to look good". The
F3H was bought during his tenure...not sure what happened there.

Without a doubt, the finest fighter both in visual appeal as well as
turn-n-burn fighting, the last of the gunfighters wins - The F8
Crusader. Sure, there were some pretty birds... but the F8 was the
baddest of them all. Why the Navy let the boys in DC stick them with
the F4 is beyond me... what a dog! I bet the gooks breathed a sigh of
relief when they heard the fierce Crusaders were being retired in
favor of the 'dump truck'.

The Cougar was a cutie, but it wasnt 'beautiful'. The A5 reminds me of
a dachsund with a kite on it's back, yech! LOL

As far as all warbirds - I'd say the F104 with wingtanks is far and
away the sexiest airplane ever to fly. It's only competitor would be
the XB-70.

TA4-J, even if it does have a small engine...

"Judge" wrote in message
...

As far as all warbirds - I'd say the F104 with wingtanks is far and
away the sexiest airplane ever to fly. It's only competitor would be
the XB-70.


B-58

That's a tough call. Easy to pick out the uglies and even the
average lookers, but for the 10's, it is a close call between the
F4D, the A-5, and F8U. Ahhhh crap . . . I'll go with the A-5 just on
looks and, for lethal looks, the F8U.

Rich

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but my candidate is the Douglas
F4D Skyray.

On Wed, 03 May 2006 01:36:25 -0400, Judge wrote:

Without a doubt, the finest fighter both in visual appeal as well as
turn-n-burn fighting, the last of the gunfighters wins - The F8
Crusader. Sure, there were some pretty birds... but the F8 was the
baddest of them all. Why the Navy let the boys in DC stick them with
the F4 is beyond me... what a dog! I bet the gooks breathed a sigh of
relief when they heard the fierce Crusaders were being retired in
favor of the 'dump truck'.

The Cougar was a cutie, but it wasnt 'beautiful'. The A5 reminds me of
a dachsund with a kite on it's back, yech! LOL

As far as all warbirds - I'd say the F104 with wingtanks is far and
away the sexiest airplane ever to fly. It's only competitor would be
the XB-70.

"Ed Rasimus" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 2 May 2006 11:14:41 -0400, "TV" wrote:

I've narrowed it down to two:

http://www.voodoo.cz/tomcat/b/f14058.jpg

I'd have to go with the one on top.

While the paint jobs are good, both aircraft are loaded with too many
engines and too many crewmembers, not to mention all those lumps,
bumps, proturbences and projections. They might even be some British
design rejection that was insufficiently ugly and abandoned in favor
of a Buccaneer.

No, the most beautiful Navy jet ever was the A-5 Vigilante--it also
had an overabundance of engines, etc, but it was beautiful.



Ed Rasimus
Fighter Pilot (USAF-Ret)
"When Thunder Rolled"
www.thunderchief.org
www.thundertales.blogspot.com

You got pretty good taste for a Air Force puke, I gotta agree the Viggie was
the most beautiful ever.

Diamond Jim

One of the most beautiful must be the early F7Us with the needle nose
and it's predicessor the F6U the ugliest.

On Tue, 2 May 2006 11:14:41 -0400, "TV" wrote:

I've narrowed it down to two:

http://www.voodoo.cz/tomcat/b/f14058.jpg

I'd have to go with the one on top.

TV



*** Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com ***

I second John's nomination.

--
Mike Kanze

"Owl", B/N
A-6A, A-6B (PAT ARM), KA-6D


"John Weiss" wrote in message ...
"John A. Weeks III" wrote...

How about the most ugly? The Cutlass?

The A-6 Intruder -- especially if you are on the receiving end!

John Weiss
ex Intruder Aviator

Wingtanks on a Zipper? (104 for you noncognoscenti) Okay for long
crosscountrys but the bird is really a 'Zipper' with naked tips - also
pulls yards of streamers in the pattern, too. Of course, it'll pull
about half a G more with Winders aboard - less tip loss but for an
extreme look - leave the wingtips naked. BTW the USN had some ugly
birds (F6U, F12C, F13C, very first FJ1) but the Brits and French beat
them all hollow for uglies.
Walt BJ