I appreciate the German planes of WW2 but...

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Funny how some really look great only in some angles. P47d flying at you from front on is stunning.. other angles not so much. Spitfires doing loops so we see that wing always looks stunning. P51d always looks great looking side on in formation for some reason
 
For me it's the Fw 190D/Ta 152C and Me 109K. While many find the bulges on these and other very late war machines ugly (well, the blisters above the cowl guns of most the 109G series ARE ugly), I think they just project the hardly tamed power underneath their skin.
The right bulges on the right places just makes them look muscular and ripped while still in proportion. Don't like the wider span of the Ta 152H too much though.
 


When you stand in front of the P-47 feet away from it, it feels like it's going to chew you up with it's paddle props and eat you.
 
[SC] Arachnicus;923084 said:
When you stand in front of the P-47 feet away from it, it feels like it's going to chew you up with it's paddle props and eat you.
Click to expand...

I see that in the Focke Wulf Ta152, it looks like such a mean plane but it also has a lean quality too



This pic seems to capture it well.
 
But for me this is the summit of all that is ugly in the flying world: the Fighter/Glider prototype Blohm Voss Bv 40:
 

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WWII was a transitional period where old met new, so you had almost an art-decco influence on the earlier designs which gave way to the "modern" school of design.

The end result were some incredibly beautiful aircraft from all corners of the world.

Some of my favorites were the He280 jet with it's "twin tail" and elliptical wing, the Macci M.C202 which looked even better with it's North Africa camo. The Me264 and B-29 both had thier own unique look of the future with thier streamlined bodies and greenhouse cockpits. The A6M series had a certain grace and beauty to it's lines that that almost makes you forget how deadly it was. The He111 was another good looking aircraft that had that art-decco feel of the 30's with hardly any "straight" lines at all...if you look closely enough, you'll realize that it's all gently radiused lines thoughout it's entire structure. And the list goes on

It's hard to nail down any one single aircraft of the war as the most beautiful aircraft, since beauty is in the eyes of the beholder...
 
I always liked this early He 112 model. It looks like a flying cigarette racing boat.


Also, it has a sort of cartoonish "Buck Rogers" look to it, much like the SM.79.
 
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One trait of German design that always got to me was the grouping of all bomber aircrew together in a bulged forward glasshouse, often with beetle-eye glass panels everywhere (Ju-88, Ju-188, Ju-388, Ju-288, Do-17, Do-215, Do-217, Do-317, etc) At least Heinkel did this in a much more attractive way with the He-111. To me this has always made German bombers look less aerodynamic and efficient than most allied (French excluded) or even Japanese types.
 
Those forward glasshouses in the D0-17, Ju-88, and He-111 must have been like a madhouse when they were under fighter attack. All that gunsmoke , noise, and flying brass, in one area. Looks like they'd get in each other's way. It also meant attacking fighters just had to aim in one general area to hurt the crew.

Put one burst into that glasshouse, and you're bound to hit somebody.
 
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