Favorite Aircraft

[Andrew S]

Thought it might be good to have a audiance participation thread on here.

Simple question. What is your favorite aircraft and why ?

This could be an aircraft that you have flown on, are the pilot of, or just a plane that has a special spot.

To get the ball rolling my favorite modern day aircraft would have to be the PC-12 as its efficient, has great lines and performance and a great avionics suite.

Past Aircraft I can't go past the P-51 Mustang for pure sound and performance.

[Greg F]

Commercial Aircraft,

1st - Boeing 727 sitting up the front of the aircraft!
2nd - A320 Family

Most Disliked
1st- Bae 146
2nd - Fokker Family

[Lukas M]

A318 for me, I love the babybus:)

Love this photo
http://www.airliners.net/photo/Frontier-Airlines/Airbus-A318-111/1351095&tbl=photo_info&photo_nr=35&prev_id=1351410&next_id=1350988

[Grahame Hutchison]

Here are my favourites:

Historical

Best Fighter - P-51 Mustang
Best Bomber - B-17 Flying Fortress
Best Commercial - Constellation (http://cdn-www.airliners.net/aviation-photos/middle/2/8/9/0322982.jpg)
Helicopter - Bell 206B Jetranger III (http://cdn-www.airliners.net/aviation-photos/middle/7/6/5/0704567.jpg)

Present Day

Best Fighter - FA-18F Super Hornet (http://cdn-www.airliners.net/aviation-photos/middle/8/0/0/0323008.jpg)
Best Bomber - B-1B Lancer (http://cdn-www.airliners.net/aviation-photos/middle/4/8/9/0322984.jpg)
Best Commercial - B-747-400 (http://cdn-www.airliners.net/aviation-photos/middle/9/9/8/0846899.jpg)
Helicopter - Eurocopter EC-120B Colibri (http://cdn-www.airliners.net/aviation-photos/middle/4/6/4/0435464.jpg)

[Montague S]

present

Ilyushin -IL62

Bomber Tupolev TU-95 Bear, you can't dream up a plane so graceful.

fighter Sukhoi SU-27

cargo - MD11

bizjet - Citation X

[Andrew McLaughlin]

SR-71A Blackbird - simply the fastest, horniest jet ever designed...and that was in 1959 with a slide ruler!!!

Otherwise, Military - Me-109, MiG-15, F-4 Phantom, F/A-18 Hornet (slight bias there sorry)

Commercial - Cessna 172, Boeing 707, Learjet, Concorde, Boeing 777, Airbus A380

[Tim Bowrey]

Favorite:

1st- 747-300 i love listening to the old Qantas(any airline in fact) 300's roar especially when i got a return SYD-PER-SYD flight for the day on 2.(EBX, EBW) Deffinatly be a shame seeing them dissapear.

2nd- Airbus A340-600 because of their shear grace as the silently cruise past and how they're sooooo long. I will fly on a 2 Virgin Atlantic to HGK in November which i cant wait for. This is my 18th B'day prezzie.

Least Favorite:

1st- 737-800 Sorry to anyone who likes the 737 but i think that there are to many in and out of SYD and im sick of them :(

2nd- I cant say that i really dislike any other aircraft i dont think.

Tim

[Rhys Xanthis]

747-300...VH-EBU exactly...i liked the aboriginal livery, plus i flew first class on her :D

[damien b]

Favorite Military - C-130 (Slight bias!), F-14 and SR-71

Favorite Commercial - A340/A330, 777, Constellation and Concorde.

[Jayden Laing]

Helicopter:
BELL 412:D reason for this is just the sound of those 4 rotor blades slapping the air plus u can hear them from a mile away.

Commercial:
BOEING 747-400 reason being is that when the rotate the look so good climbing away from the runway.

Fighter:
F/A 18 HORNET just due to fact that the are such good fighter planes in the way that they can turn so sharply etc:)

[David E]

My most favorite aircraft to fly in was the 727 ! Always comfortable and plenty of room (esp at the front !).

[Marty H]

I have a love of three holers B727, MD-11, DC-10 love em;)

[Mark Grima]

744, simply because it was the first ever aircraft I stepped inside of. QF11 in September '91. I was 7 years old. I only wish I was smart enough to get her registration all those years a go!!!

It would be closely followed by the A330 though, I think they look very sleek and stylish any any airlines paint.

Cheers

M

[Philip Argy]

Historical favourites:

Concorde which I flew a number of times in 1982 and 1983 between London and New York - it felt like a Fokker Friendship in terms of body and window size but I enjoyed the 'second take-off' acceleration thrust during transition from subsonic to supersonic, the Mach speedo (which was the main IFE), seeing the curvature of the Earth from the 45,000 feet plus cruising altitude, and even the very bumpy approaches caused by its poor aerodynamics at low speeds. But apart from that I always thought of a Concorde flight as a long lunch in a grey leather seat preceded by what seemed back then like obsessive security screening including luggage strapping by BA at Heathrow!

DC-10 - a disaster of a design (poorly concealed by the MD-11 'renaming') but certainly in business and first class extremely comfortable and quiet compared to their contemporaries in the late 1980s.

Fokker Friendship which I first flew in 1961 between Sydney and Wagga Wagga - loved the great view from the windows unobstructed by wings.

Sunderland Flying Boats - only flew in one in Fiji but they were ponderous and noisy things that you thought would never take off. They had a charm that was captured by the Film Australia documentary 'The Last of the Sunderlands' when the Rose Bay service ceased in the late 1960s. Co-incidentally the Museum of Sydney has a current exhibition of Sunderlands memorabilia.

Current day favourites:

B747-400s - love the upper deck as it still has the feel of a small aircraft and a window seat with capacious storage lockers.

A380 - yet to try it but if I could win Lotto the SQ flying bedroom would be the only way to go to London!

Least favourite:

Any a/c but especially the B767s without individual air control nozzles and which blast cold air down the wall and window without regard to the window seat passenger's comfort.

Any a/c where you can't read a laptop screen if the pax in front has the seat reclined.

And the Dash 8 for its inadequate storage space and misnamed 'Premium Hand Luggage' which goes in the hold. And seat 1A only has about 2 inches of legroom with certain entry-partition configurations. It should not even be in the seat allocation system!

[ChrisG.]

Andrew,
I've just come back from a fairly lengthy stint of flying PC-12's overseas and have to agree, the PC12 would definitely be my favourite, :D:D.

For a single engine turboprop, to be able to do 250kts TAS at up to 30,000ft, now THAT is good, :D.

Cheers

Chris

[Adam P.]

http://i297.photobucket.com/albums/mm232/RickoRB/Lancd.jpg?t=1210948125

...and the boys who flew them.

[Jamie D]

A332 for me, i love them, i think they look stylish, they are quiet, comfortable andi just love them in JQ colours

[Chris Griffiths]

Bomber Tupolev TU-95 Bear, you can't dream up a plane so graceful.


Have to agree with that, but graceful is not what one would describe the sound as.
One of my goals in life is to get close enough to a "Bear"(will settle for an AN-22) just to hear those big Kuznetsovs and their huge contra rotating props beating the air into submission.
One might wonder what would have been the outcome if the USAF/Boeing/P&W et al had gone down the turboprop route and developed the B-29/50 family further... oh wait a minute!!!

[Will T]

747-400 (RB211-powered), DHC-8-100/200, and Airbus A300B4 - in that order! :D

[steve k]

LOCKHEED L 188 ELECTRA, CONVAIR 440, FOKKER F 27, BOEING 727's
steve k

[Montague S]

Have to agree with that, but graceful is not what one would describe the sound as.
One of my goals in life is to get close enough to a "Bear"(will settle for an AN-22) just to hear those big Kuznetsovs and their huge contra rotating props beating the air into submission.
One might wonder what would have been the outcome if the USAF/Boeing/P&W et al had gone down the turboprop route and developed the B-29/50 family further... oh wait a minute!!!


MAKS 2009 would be the go...

but for now you can kick back and listen to them on youtube! there are a few newer bears flying now that have a slimmed down cockpit.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=9T4ySB8NRRQ

http://youtube.com/watch?v=4nwTUgdz7nM&feature=related

second one is AN-22.

[Adrian C]

I seem to recall a thread similar to this on the old board a few years ago.

Anyhoo, it's the Fokker Friendship for mine. It's probably the reason I'm a plane nerd in the first place. :D

To cut a long story short, the first house we lived in when I was born was literally over the back fence from the Runway 08 end of the old 08/26 at Wynyard (YWYY) in Tassie. So naturally, whenever I was out in the yard (this is in the mid-70s) you'd have Ansett and TAA's finest coming in and out on a daily basis.

We moved to Hobart when I was a toddler, but as the grandparents etc were all in Wynyard, whenever we went back for holidays the best bit for me was seeing the Friendships again. It used to be a great delight when I saw a different one like the Air Queenslands or ASAs rotating through Melbourne for whatever reason. Then there was the sighting of the rarest beast of all, the ex-Airlines of Northern Australia VH-MMO before it was repainted.

Over the course of my childhood I think I notched up every Friendship Ansett, TAA and East West had in their fleets.

Although I never flew in one, I've got a DVD of the Grand Canyon Scenic tours run by an F27, and there's also some wonderful videos of them on Youtube so I can hear those Darts one more time.

And on a more recent note, the Upper Deck (Economy :p) on the SQ A380 is the most stunning piece of aviation technology I've had the pleasure to ride in.

[Paul C.]

I have many favourites, commercial airliners and fighters, past and present. I'll list mainly the passanger planes I like.

TURBOFAN PASSENGER PLANES

* Boeing 747, no doubt the greatest icon to grace the skies!
* Airbus A380-800 (though I think the slightly longer -900 would look better)
* Airbus A330-200
* Airbus A340-600
* Airbus A319 and A320
* Boeing 777-200 and 300
* Boeing 707
* MD-11's (I've flown on two Finnair MD-11's, plus many freighters land in Australia)
* Virgin Blue's 50th aircraft VH-VBY (since my first flight on Virgin Blue was on this aicraft)

PROPELLER PASSENGER PLANES

* Douglas DC3 and C47
* Saab 340 and Saab 2000
* ATR-42 and ATR-72
* Q400

SUPERSONIC

* Blackbird
* Concorde

I dislike

* Cessna 172's (ahh, because there are just so many and they look "tooty")
* Dash 8-100 and 200
* Fokker 50 (not a big fan of their shape)
* BAE 146-100
* Any short modern looking Boeing 737's, oh they look so fat and squashed. The old -200's are fine!
* Airbus A318
* DC9 and Boeing 717 (don't know why)

There's many, many more.

[Paul C.]

I seem to recall a thread similar to this on the old board a few years ago.

Anyhoo, it's the Fokker Friendship for mine. It's probably the reason I'm a plane nerd in the first place. :D

To cut a long story short, the first house we lived in when I was born was literally over the back fence from the Runway 08 end of the old 08/26 at Wynyard (YWYY) in Tassie. So naturally, whenever I was out in the yard (this is in the mid-70s) you'd have Ansett and TAA's finest coming in and out on a daily basis.

We moved to Hobart when I was a toddler, but as the grandparents etc were all in Wynyard, whenever we went back for holidays the best bit for me was seeing the Friendships again. It used to be a great delight when I saw a different one like the Air Queenslands or ASAs rotating through Melbourne for whatever reason. Then there was the sighting of the rarest beast of all, the ex-Airlines of Northern Australia VH-MMO before it was repainted.

Over the course of my childhood I think I notched up every Friendship Ansett, TAA and East West had in their fleets.

Although I never flew in one, I've got a DVD of the Grand Canyon Scenic tours run by an F27, and there's also some wonderful videos of them on Youtube so I can hear those Darts one more time.

And on a more recent note, the Upper Deck (Economy :p) on the SQ A380 is the most stunning piece of aviation technology I've had the pleasure to ride in.

Wynyard Airport has two runways, a main East to West one and another runway that is on a 45 degree angle from North East to South West which cuts through the main runway.

I'm not sure if that main runway at Wynyard existed in the 1970's though and I think anything bigger than a 737 would have great difficulty in taking off or landing on Wynyard's 1.5km runway. The Saab's of today could use both runways if they wanted to but they always use the main East to West runway. The SF340's only need about 800m on a fine day to get airborne.

Its a very good regional airport for photography and I always prefer it to Devonport because of the views. Plus you can go up behind some of the runway.

[Gerard M]

Definitely got to be the C-5 Galaxy...love that plane...used to always come into Richmond, but haven't seen it in years!!!

Does anyone know if it ever comes into Richmond anymore?

[Andrew McLaughlin]

Definitely got to be the C-5 Galaxy...love that plane...used to always come into Richmond, but haven't seen it in years!!!

Does anyone know if it ever comes into Richmond anymore?

Nup - Just KC-10s, C-17s and the occasional DC-8.

[Adrian C]

Wynyard Airport has two runways, a main East to West one and another runway that is on a 45 degree angle from North East to South West which cuts through the main runway.

I'm not sure if that main runway at Wynyard existed in the 1970's though and I think anything bigger than a 737 would have great difficulty in taking off or landing on Wynyard's 1.5km runway. The Saab's of today could use both runways if they wanted to but they always use the main East to West runway. The SF340's only need about 800m on a fine day to get airborne.

Its a very good regional airport for photography and I always prefer it to Devonport because of the views. Plus you can go up behind some of the runway.

Hi Paul,

To fill you in on Wynyard's background, the two runways used to be the gravel 05/23 running NE/SW (used to be longer at the NW end before they displaced the threshold) and what is now the taxiway between the RPT apron and the Wynyard Aero Club was the main runway, numbered 08/26. It was around about 1300m long from memory, and because it was so close to the township arriving F27s onto runway 26 used to skim over the aerials of houses coming in over East Wynyard, almost literally on windy days. :)

The present 09/27 was built during the 1980s saga where the Federal Government as owner upgraded Devonport to full F28 standard but would only agree to upgrade Wynyard to full F27 standard - whatever the hell that was.

After the usual parochial arguments, in the end the powers that be gave in and funded the building of the new 09/27, also to full F28 standard. Only trouble was, Devonport had all the F28s, courtesy of Air NSW and East West. But hey, at least the F27s had a shiny new runway to land on when it opened in late 1986.

For reasons better known to themselves but probably little to do with economics, Ansett roped in Air NSW to run a (I think) 3 x weekly rotation during 1987 that overnighted on the Melbourne-Wynyard-Melbourne run. I can't recall when that was terminated, but certainly by the time my family moved back to Wynyard in August of 1988, it was all Fokker 50s.

If anyone with more knowledge of the topic can jump in, feel free.

[Brendan Lawrence]

Favourite aircraft for me would be the Airbus A330 (-200 or -300) and to refine that even more; the GE-powered variant. The shape of the GE's, tapering to the back with the silver cone at the rear, look much sexier than the hair-dryer shaped RR engines and the stubby/poddy-looking PW's. Overall the A330 has a very sleek and graceful fuselage design, particularly the nose and wings. Airbus cabin interior and flight deck is also a preference for me.

Next favourite aircraft would be the Airbus A340-600; the length is amazing, the Rolls Royce engines look very mighty, and other reasons where they're common with what I said about the A330.

[Blake Riley]

Favorite Aircraft

1st - Boeing 777 - I hope to fly it one day for British airways and its such a amazing aircraft

2nd - MD11/DC-10 love the classic tristar always had something for them and Fedex

3rd - B747 - just a Stunning aircraft

4th - A340 - Really Good modern plane with a amazing Flightdeck

[Tim C]

747, A330, 777 in that order.