A long overdue awesome aeroplanes thread!

It sits outside the Dornier museum in Friedrichshafen

Have we done the very cute Bristol 170?

General dynamics F-111

Top thread! Remember one of these buzzing the runway at Finningly when I was a kid, then firing it’s afterburners up like this, and the noise…..!!!

Years later, as an air cadet, I got to sit in the cockpit of one at upper heyford. Awesome!

Anyone posted Grumman F6F-3 Hellcat (G-50) JapLand Zero killer yet? This is the replacement for Wildcat that constantly got shot down by Zero. This Hellcat established air superiority in the Pacific that later help won the war. It comes with the poweful Pratt & Whitney R-2800 Double Wasp engine.

But Sergei, the Americans build their planes with titanium, we have built this from scaffolding poles. How will it go as fast?

Don’t fret, Mikhail, we’ll just stick two massive f-off engines in it.

Mig 25

Can’t resist another photo of the awesome Sukhoi SU-35S, and this is some really amazing camo, too:

Me, 1990 something in the front seat of a Tornado at RAF Leeming.

108 by jimmyg352[/url], on Flickr

Then there’s the MIG-29; I remember the first time I saw one of these fly at Farnborough, literally sat with my mouth open, thinking ‘no *******’ way! It’s not possible for a jet fighter that size to do what I’ve just seen!’

Then there’s the rather beautiful Sukhoi SU-47 Berkut:

And the SU-50: any resemblance to an F-22 Raptor is, of course, entirely coincidental…

Really cool camo on these planes!

These are a few from my work…
J3 Cub Sprayplane we built year before last.

P-51A, Yak-11, (Cessna 180 in background). Ongoing projects…

I have more pics, but having issues with Photobucket… Will check back

Chance Vought V-173 “Flying Pancake”

Lockheed XFV “The Salmon”

De Lackner HZ-1 Aerocycle

You wouldn’t want to fall off that!

”interesting” video of the development of the flying pancake

Some more of ours…
Ayres Thrush S2R in the background and a Cassutt racer up front.

A friend’s 1934 WACO YKC which wins awards in every show it is entered in…

and finally this Grumman Bearcat F8F known as “Rare Bear” which my father-in-law was crew for at the Reno air race last year…

Caproni Stipa

another nuts caproni the ca60

p26 peashooter

Oh, and also, this is a friend of mine flying her Pitts Special aerobatics plane… She’s quite good!

That Caproni Stipa is nuts! Looks like it swallowed a Tiger Moth.

Awesome in a different way to most of those posted here, some of the planes I’ve done work for:

…which doesn’t make me quite as old as you might think – I also did some work for the Nimrod which was supposed to have replaced it, pictured a few pages ago (and also for the other Nimrod pictured).

Then I also worked on what did eventually replace it:

I also did a bit of work on the conversion of these:

…actually come to think of it, here’s 2 in 1

Fits in a suitcase (well, almost, as we all know from Moonraker) Wallis Autogyro:

aracer, the VC10s looked superb, I guess its something about the rear mounted turbines keeping the wing lines clean that does it, it just looks so much more purposeful than the usual boeing/airbus arrangement.

skidsareforkids, what is your job and can I have it?

First of the few, prototype Spit at Eastleigh airport:

These days, Eastleigh airport is guarded by this chap:

Great thread. I see some have posted the original seaplane version of the Spitfire which would have been my top post. Also a Chipmunk which indeed as a young ATC cadet I used to fly out of Hamble. Went to a Spitfire symposium with Douglas Bader and Bob Stamford-Tuck too, airplane anaorak !

I must get searching.

If you skip to 14:30 of this there is some decent helicopter display footage (too little of the Chinook sadly) and some Harrier tricks. If you love planes Royal Dartmouth Regatta in August has a nightly airshow and IMO is the best place to see the Red Arrows (note cover pick is a still and not in the film). Battle of Britain flights are regular visitors too.

A few taken last week

I like the selfie on the last one hustler…. 😆

The autogyro was in “You only live twice” not “Moonraker”

The autogyro was in “You only live twice” not “Moonraker”

gah.

Anyway.

Another leftfield number, Fairey Rotodyne, kind of helicopter (rotors were moved by jets at their tip, for takeoff/landing only) and kind of autogyro (main rotor generated some lift when moving forward and was unpowered at this point) and kind of fixed wing plane (lift from the main wing helped the main rotor in forward flight).

technically successful, but noisy at takeoff (them jets), which killed it commercially

As some others have already said, this is the best thread ever on STW!

sopwith triplane

oldest surviving british airworthy aircraft 1912 Blackburn Type D

Bristol M1C replica from the shuttleworth collection

albatros diii or dv

more shuttleworth avro triplane replica built for those magnificent men in their flying machines

along with the bristol boxkite

Edgley EA-7 Optica

Inspired by this thread, I re-read The Right Stuff over the weekend, and what a fantastic book that is. Thusly, in tribute, an NF104* –

* With apologies if it’s already been posted – not every picture loads at work. 🙁

another relic from shuttleworth the gloster gladiator

A DIY* kit jet, the Viper:

* for about $750k and 3000 hours of building time, or about 18 months as your full time job