Some of them are mint.

English Electric TSR2

Convair B58 Hustler

Handley Page Victor

Stanley Miller’s patent

and a Sopwith

Sailor Inhaler

Used for some pretty evil purposes, but still the most beautiful plane that has ever flown:

Except when they do this.

Those Victors look like something out of Dan Dare / Flash Gordon.

They still fly too – occasionally:

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3HaeYVlBw8[/video]

beamers/HTS, “Teasin’ Tina” has gone back to her gulf-era pink-on-top paintjob now. And it really is piiiink! Kept my bored/retired father-in-law busy for a couple of weeks 😯 .

How on earth has this thread got into double figures without a Vulcan?

First saw the “new” one back in the air at Windermere a couple of years ago. Beautiful day, then it came in, sleek and low and almost silent. Until it turned it’s back to us, and pulled up. Oh my God the NOISE. Incredible.

I’d forgotten the sound they make, I was really young the last time I saw a flying one.

That’s a gorgeous shot of the TSR.2, Harry.

Bristol Type 188:

I suppose that the Spitfire could look quite nice in the right light, too:

Now we’re talking.

That’s a lovely shot of the Buran (Russian Space Shuttle) back there.

Vaguely amusing trivia – on the US carrier aircraft, next to the mounting pylon it says “attach Orbiter here (note: black side down)”…

(is the next thread in the series going to be “automobiles”?)

Mighty Bucc.

Best job I ever had.

Someone pretty please post a pic of a McDonnell Phantom!

And a Warthog tank-buster; beautiful yet ugly at the same time…….

How on earth has this thread got into double figures without a Vulcan?

Because the Victor looks better!

How on earth has this thread got into double figures without a Vulcan?

Or a Harrier

Did someone want to see a Phantom?

still the most beautiful plane that has ever flown

The STW forum as always proves that people have differing opinions – I really don’t get the beauty of that at all (not suggesting it’s ugly, just fairly ordinary in a “get a child to draw a plane” sort of sense).

Here’s my far prettier offering:

Goblin Parasite fighter anyone? hairbrained, bloody dangerous and ultimately useless!

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OeYDfeYXetE[/video]

The Mosquito’s a fine looking aircraft but would have looked much better if its inner wings didn’t stick so far forward of its outer wings and if its tail wasn’t behind its rudder. IMO, anyway, and it’s not like these aesthetic things held it back in any way. 🙂

is the next thread in the series going to be “automobiles”?

hmmm… now there’s a thought.

Is that blue Spitfire the Rolls-Royce owned one?

De Havilland Sea Vixen.

My childhood dream…

Is that blue Spitfire the Rolls-Royce owned one?

Yes it is. The photo was taken at the 2009 Leuchars airshow.

As a child I was contrary and much preferred the Hurricane to the Spitfire. Seeing this PR.19 Spitfire in PRU blue was one of the first times that I really appreciated the aesthetics of the Spitfire.

It this CF-18 Hornet crashing

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfiCyVKnSSw[/video]

that I was trying to post earlier.

There’s something very haunting about watching a thing of such beauty just drop out of the sky.

(Don’t worry. It has a happy ending for the pilot.)

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRGwfNrnWsc[/video]

This is kind of hypnotic:

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bIiieWvcRK0[/video]

Sukhoi SU-34

Seeing this PR.19 Spitfire in PRU blue was one of the first times that I really appreciated the aesthetics of the Spitfire.

That’s not a proper Spit anyway, it’s got a griffon engine in it!

I always liked these:

Real purty:

Taken by me at the Dambusters Anniversary flypast a couple of years ago. I was on the hill above the dam, got a great view. And, glorious though the Vulcan noise is/was, nothing beats 4 Roll Royce Merlins.

funny no-ones mentioned:

Russian heavy metal