Most Unattractive Aircraft of WW2

Ad: This forum contains affiliate links to products on Amazon and eBay. More information in Terms and rules

I was aware of the AirTruck's design features, but was trying to get into the spirit of the thread.

We're all aware of the aircraft below, for instance, but the paint job finishes it off and puts it smack in the middle of "ugly":




At least they didn't add eyebrows ...

How about the Vickers Gunbus:



Perhaps not quite as "ugly" as "strange." Perhaps not. I would NOT have wanted to bail out with an operating engine ... or even in inoperative engine.

Another French candidate:



The Leduc 0.22 might not be exactly ugly, but it ain't cute either. Even has ugly landing gear ... which SHOULD put it into the ugly class. Maybe.

On the other side of the coin, here's a B-24 with a B-17 nose grafted on:




Looks better than a stock unit to me with the nose job.

Honorable "ugly" mention?



Looks like a dromedary to me. They absolutely could not decide where the cockpit should have been, so they provided choices. Maybe the rear cockpits were in case they changed sides in the middle of a mission?
 
Last edited:
I flew on one of these Heathrow to Teesside, it was slower than the train and made half the passengers sick, like being on a powered kite.
 
Here's what happens when you take a part off an ugly airplane and put it on a better one.



What can we take off a Beverley and use for something? How about a SPINNER?

What can we put it on? How about a race plane:



Good use of spare parts! Literally, the racing Bearcat Rare Bear has a spinner from a Beverley! It surely never went so fast as it does now.
 
How about another ... wait for it, French candidate?



Not the Airbus, but the decidedly French SNCASO Onera Deltaviex below. Now those are some bug eyes, huh! Jeepers creepers, where'd you get those peepers? From France.

This next one is more strange than truly ugly. For some reason, I cannot get the Boeing YL-15 Scout pic to post. I tried 4 - 5 different pics and it just won't post. I guess the browser thinks it's ugly, too. So, maybe I'm wrong, and it IS ugly. The Boeing YL-15 Scout. To give it it's due. it comes apart and can be stowed VERY compactly. That doesn't make it any prettier, though.

How about the Nemeth Parasol?



The designed must have had too much to drink, looked at himself in a fun-house mirror and came up with this. The shocking thing is that he persisted after he sobered up.

Then again, the Lanier Vacuplane XL-4 reminds me of the north end of a southbound jackass:



I cannot understand the inspiration for this creation, except that is was designed at the University of Miami, widely regarded as a party school. Still, it looks better than the Scroggs Last Laugh, seen below:



Looks like a paper airplane with the front pointed part replaced with an engine. I don't care who you are, that's funny.

Flying saucers might have inspired the Roe UFO below:



Which apparently flies quite nicely. That doesn't make it pretty, though. Maybe flying saucers got their start early, as seen below:



Don't know much about it except that it apparently was tried in 1911. On the plus side, it afforded plenty of shade if you built a round table under it.

Somehow, the Messerschmiit Bf 109 below just doesn't seem right:



Does it?

Company ... HALT!



All for now.
 
Last edited:
I had to come back in and add this one:



This is how nature says, "Stay Away!" Even children don't like it.

Look! It's a bay window on floats! ... complete with sliding doors in the front.



And here's one standing on its tiptoes!



Not sure if the SNCASO SO-30R Bellatrix qualifies as ugly:



But it DOES make wonder why they spent actual money to build something that screamed, "Don't build me!" so loudly. Which begs the question, "Why, oh why did they build that?" One look at the 3-view should have sent them all to the rest room with gastrointestinal distress. It's like three cigars with wings and a fin ...

Had it been built, maybe the Comet would not have had to be the one that crashed until they discovered square windows and pressurization don't mix.
 
Last edited:
OP put in the thread title "least attractive of WWII".
MANY horrid things seen here have been from post-war years.
One of the least attractive would be The Jug, with 8 guns blazing at you and your Bf 109.
 
Aagh no! Not the 'square' windows myth.............
 
GregP said:
Not sure if the SNCASO SO-30R Bellatrix qualifies as ugly:
Click to expand...

Certainly not with the piston-engined variety - but's that's just my opinion.

GregP said:
But it DOES make wonder why they spent actual money to build something that screamed, "Don't build me!" so loudly. Which begs the question, "Why, oh why did they build that?"
Click to expand...

They built it (SNCASO SO.R.30R-02 F-WAYB with Hispano Suiza-built Rolls-Royce Nenes) at a request by the French Air Ministry to investigate/study the problems of operating commercial aircraft at high altitudes. This was March 1951 and it was never intended for production.
Another, (SO.30P F-WAYD) was an engine testbed for the SNECMA Atar101.

Note that they both adopted a single fin (originally seen on the Bretagne prototype...

 
Oh, the Bf109 was unattractive beforehand. It may soon become unattractive and broken.

Another US entry: the XP-79

By U.S. Air Force photo; The original uploader was Jep2000316 at English Wikipedia., 27 November 2005 (original upload date). - National Museum of the U.S. Air Force photo 110516-F-XN622-003; Transferred from en.wikipedia to Commons by Yousaf465 using CommonsHelper., Public Domain, File:Northrop XP-79.jpg - Wikimedia Commons
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Users who are viewing this thread

Total: 1 (members: 0, guests: 1)

Similar threads

G
Ditching qualities of WW2 Aircraft
Replies
14
Views
1K
ThomasP
T
O
WW2 monthly aircraft production numbers?
2
Replies
25
Views
2K
GregP
Most numerous surviving ww2 warbird type?
2
Replies
20
Views
2K
wlewisiii
Why were most early WW2 fighters designed with limited rear visibility?
4 5 6
Replies
107
Views
9K
buffnut453
D
Total number of USAAF fighter pilots enlisted in WW2
2
Replies
25
Views
3K
J.A.W.
Menu
Log in
Register