Most Unattractive Aircraft of WW2

[at6]

Not WW2 but the French continued with ugly planes post war.

View attachment 504325

Now that is too ugly even to scrap!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Clayton Magnet]

Steady on there. There's nowt wrong with the Wellesley. Damn fine aircraft!

ok ok, I retract my comments about the Wellesley. Perhaps it isn't "ugly", but it IS bizarre and oddly per-portioned.

 

[buffnut453]

ok ok, I retract my comments about the Wellesley. Perhaps it isn't "ugly", but it IS bizarre and oddly per-portioned.

I guess it's all in the eye of the beholder. I still think it's a pretty amazing design. I'm pretty sure it held the long-distance record for single-engine aircraft from 1938 to 2006!

 

[swampyankee]

i

I must confess I had not considered the effect of range as a limiting factor in the efficacy of ugly as a defensive asset.

Clearly, ugly as a defensive technique had very restricted utility. If it did, war would be a lot less common, considering that it, itself, is uglier than any possible aircraft.

 

[michael rauls]

i

Clearly, ugly as a defensive technique had very restricted utility. If it did, war would be a lot less common, considering that it, itself, is uglier than any possible aircraft.

How true. Think you'd be hard pressed to find anybody here that would disagree with you on that.

 

[GregP]

With regards to post 34, it was a fleet specification (S23.37) for an airplane that could shadow enemy fleets at night, fly very slowly so as to better stay with a ship formation and look for U-boats and other unfriendly things over the horizon and around the ships. The Fleet Shadower stalled at only 39 mph and could fly about comfortably at 50 mph. While I would NOT have wanted to serve flying one, it WOULD have been pretty good at shadowing enemy freighters in the absence of air cover.

Not many freighters were faster than a slow Fleet Shadower, even if it WAS uglier than a mud fence.

Perhaps they did it because they COULD ...

Now here's a ugly airplane:

It's the SD Scout. And here's another one, the French Duck:

But for a more modern look at a French Ugly Airplane:

I give the Deux.Ponts. Looks like an airborne Grouper (the fish).

 

[Clayton Magnet]

With regards to post 34, it was a fleet specification (S23.37) for an airplane that could shadow enemy fleets at night, fly very slowly so as to better stay with a ship formation and look for U-boats and other unfriendly things over the horizon and around the ships.

Also of interest was the odd reduction gearing for the propeller. The result of which is a strange "off-centre" look.

 

[swampyankee]

Also of interest was the odd reduction gearing for the propeller. The result of which is a strange "off-centre" look.
View attachment 506461
View attachment 506463

It's much easier to design and build an offset gearbox like that than an epicyclic or reverted gearbox.

 

[parsifal]

now I know where the inspiration for the International Rescue plane has come from.....GregPs post 46

 

[spicmart]

The most ugly of all heavy bombers has to be the Avro Lancaster. With it's low-lying stabilizer, the non-retractable tailwheel, the hideous protruding bulb snout that is the bombardier's position, the dihedral, which starts at the inboard engine, and the unattractive wing shape it looks like a flying hunchback.
As a comparison the similarly outlined B-24 really looks cool. You could see there that small details matter visually.

 

[special ed]

Oh boy, here we go.

 

[vikingBerserker]

Incomming!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[special ed]

I expect now, someone is going to say the P-51 looks like a guppy giving birth.

 

[Shortround6]

Piaggio P 108
Google it, but only if wearing protective goggles/glasses (tinted)

 

[spicmart]

I expect now, someone is going to say the P-51 looks like a guppy giving birth.

It does, but this is a defining feature. Stylish.

 

[spicmart]

View attachment 532823
Piaggio P 108
Google it, but only if wearing protective goggles/glasses (tinted)

I have to say that, apart from the nose which can be rectified, it is a good-looking airplane with pleasing lines.

 

[Shortround6]

did you see the two staggered turrets on top?

 

[spicmart]

did you see the two staggered turrets on top?

Yes. Could be replaced with a single one B-17 style.

 

[vikingBerserker]

I always felt the Lancaster, Sterling and the Halifax were elegant looking. I liked the P.108 but thought the nose did look a little odd.

 

[special ed]

P.108 would look great with a B-17F nose.