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Uglyist Airplane


Ron

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- Agreed that French or English aircraft will hog the limelight on this subject. Potez 63-11! Hampden! Nuff said. IMHO, if you exclude French and English A/C, you run outta ugly! :smiley8: LOL.

- Funny though, that one of the ugliest (Hampden) and one of the most graceful, (Spitfire) aircraft are from the same country of origin.

Edited by Weedeater
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I don't know that you run out of ugly if you eliminate French and British aircraft. The Germans built some truly ugly ones during the War. The one that comes to mind for me is the one with one engine on a fuselage that extends through through the wing to an offset tail while having a cockpit pod added to the wing on the side opposite the offset tail. Nasty looking bird if you ask me.

 

I also don't like the looks of the Huckbein either. It may not have flown, but I heard that there was a prototype/wind tunnel assembly built up.

 

There are a few more, but those are the ones that come to mind the most.

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Transavia PL-12 Airtruk... hands down

 

300px-Transavia_PL12_Airtruk_Hazair_03.88.jpg

I happen to have a 1/32 red one in my case at AAA right now, too. Built by Dr Frank Mitchell. (scratch built, that is)

Edited by jcorley
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I go back to the early days of aviation....the multi-winged aircraft (attempted aircraft, that is) that resembled a set of venetian blinds.

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I go back to the early days of aviation....the multi-winged aircraft (attempted aircraft, that is) that resembled a set of venetian blinds.

 

Do you mean this one?

 

1904_Phillips_260.jpg

 

 

In 1893, Horatio Phillips tested this unmanned "venetian blind" aircraft tethered to a circular track. The back wheels rose 2 to 3 feet above the ground, but the front wheels did not lift off. If at first you don't succeed...Horatio Philips tried again in 1904 gas-powered multi-wing machine. It hopped briefly, but the wings collapsed before it achieved true flight.

 

 

 

http://www.wright-brothers.org/History_Win...04_Phillips.jpg

 

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Transavia PL-12 Airtruk... hands down

 

300px-Transavia_PL12_Airtruk_Hazair_03.88.jpg

I happen to have a 1/32 red one in my case at AAA right now, too. Built by Dr Frank Mitchell. (scratch built, that is)

 

Now that's more like it! NOW I know what you A/C guys are talkin' about. Keep those pics comin guys. They say a picture is worth a thousand words. I kinda like it's looks. :smiley13:

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Do you mean this one?

 

1904_Phillips_260.jpg

 

 

In 1893, Horatio Phillips tested this unmanned "venetian blind" aircraft tethered to a circular track. The back wheels rose 2 to 3 feet above the ground, but the front wheels did not lift off. If at first you don't succeed...Horatio Philips tried again in 1904 gas-powered multi-wing machine. It hopped briefly, but the wings collapsed before it achieved true flight.

 

 

 

http://www.wright-brothers.org/History_Win...04_Phillips.jpg

 

Code named "Levelor".

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A couple of those French Bombers of the mid 30s.

 

BTW - the TRIPLE UGLIEST KIT I ever saw has to be Revell's 1/72nd P-51D of the mid-late 60s.

 

Amazingly, Revell had the nerve to put a photo of the model on the box and continued to market the kit in spit of it's poor quality. It was the only 1/72 P-51D kit (or should I say atrocity?) available at the time.

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BTW - the TRIPLE UGLIEST KIT I ever saw has to be Revell's 1/72nd P-51D of the mid-late 60s.

Amazingly, Revell had the nerve to put a photo of the model on the box and continued to market the kit in spit of it's poor quality. It was the only 1/72 P-51D kit (or should I say atrocity?) available at the time.

- Oh boy Ralph, did you ever hit that nail square on the head. I had thought that Revell's 72nd Buffalo was poorly executed (misaligned wing trailing edge and staggered horizontal tail planes, etc) but their P-51 ONLY barely resembles a Mustang. Poor shape, poor outlines, poor everything except that.....it is possible to actually glue it together. On the up side, their issue of that "Red" (wink, wink) interpretation of "Millie P" 'Stang is an incredibly colorful and attractive box art. Too bad the red is supposed to be green and the checkered nose green and yellow!

RevP-51.jpg

- I built one of the Revell Dueces kits in the 70's of this Mustang and the Ki-84 (of which the 84 is actually a decent enough kit), oblivious to accuracy at 7 years old, and enjoyed the daylights outta the kit.

RevP-51Kibox.jpg

- Two months ago, I thought that I'd take a walk down memory lane and build my collection (thank you evil-bay) of the Revell Dueces series (7 kits total, 14 aircraft). Two months later and I still can't bring myself to build that crummy Mustang. :smiley11: Don't know how I'm ever going to complete this collection. :smiley13:

Edited by Weedeater
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Aw c'mon guys. Not ONE photo?? If you're going to say it's the ugliest, let's see how ugly it is. Those non-A/C types like myself will be thankful. I mean, I don't what the "Flea" looks like although I have heard of it.

Hi-ya Rusty,

- For those aircraft ID challenged members, here's a few photos:

Potez-63

Potez-63.jpg

Hadley-Page Hampden

Hampden48.jpg

and here's Mark D's described Blohm und Voss Bv-141

Bv-141.jpg

 

Enjoy the ugly.

Edited by Weedeater
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Aw c'mon guys. Not ONE photo?? If you're going to say it's the ugliest, let's see how ugly it is. Those non-A/C types like myself will be thankful. I mean, I don't what the "Flea" looks like although I have heard of it.

 

I was trying to find a pic of it, but I couldn't even remember the name of the plane!

 

and here's Mark D's described Blohm und Voss Bv-141

Bv-141.jpg

 

Enjoy the ugly.

 

That's the one! Quick, someone get a flyswatter before it gets away! Truly an ugly plane! Partially because it looks so UNFINISHED!

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How's this?

blackblackburn.jpg

 

O....M...friggin....G! That....is hideous! I feel sorry for any of the air crew having to admit to anyone that they flew in it. Annnd apparently they made a side-by-side trainer version of that!

Blackburntrainer.jpg

 

Eeeeeeuuuuuu!

Edited by Weedeater
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Actually, crews really liked it. It was very stable, easy to fly and roomy. The w/t operator sat in that compartment with portholes, snug and cozy. Unfortunately, it was not very aerodynamic (what a shock, right?) so it was quite slow, even for those times.

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Actually, crews really liked it. It was very stable, easy to fly and roomy. The w/t operator sat in that compartment with portholes, snug and cozy. Unfortunately, it was not very aerodynamic (what a shock, right?) so it was quite slow, even for those times.

 

 

I can't get over how huge it is and only one engine. The pilot's head must be 20 feet above the ground!

 

Strange coincidence: I was looking through a box of old magazines last night and in one of them was a card from the Airfix "how to build a model" series from six or eight years ago. It was the card on vacuum-formed kits, guess what one of the examples was?

Edited by DaveDeLang
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Contrail's perhaps? I've done that kit. The way I did it was very basic, but I've seen it "done up" excellently.

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