Favorite (Post-WW2) Aircraft?

Im not a fan of the night hawk, reminds me too much of a moth

 

I have always wondered what the advantage of foward swept wings were ? I recall in the early 60's the Germans build a business jet called the Hansa Jet with foward swept wings but it did not sell very well.

Seems like if it was a plus to have them they could have made the F-111 so it's wings swept foward and backwards. Of course I know little about engineering or wings.

 

T.A Gardner thanks i did not know that

 

According to wikipedia:

* mounting the wings further back on the fuselage, allowing for an unobstructed cabin or bomb bay, and
* increased maneuverability at transonic speeds, due to airflow from wing tip to wing root preventing a stall of the wing tips and ailerons at high angle of attack.

Forward-swept wing - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sure someone can come up with a better explanation.

 

This has probably been covered already, but I'll post my favorite!

The A-10 Warthog tank buster!!! Maybe not the prettiest, or the fastest, but regged and reliable!

 

With forward swept wings the big advantage is in low speed handling. With swept back wings stall characteristics (eg., loss of useful air flow over the wing / lift) begins at the tip and moves inward towards the root. This means that the aircraft quickly loses use of its control surfaces (usually placed towards the wing tip) as the wing stalls.
With a forward swept wing stall begins at the root and moves outward towards the tip. Hence there is a big increase in low speed performance while the forward sweep has no real effect on high speed performance being roughly equal to that of swept back wings of similar incidence.
The problem comes in placement for center of gravity and meeting the area rule which was made more difficult back in an era of slide rules.

 

And it looks cool.

 

Hawk, it is refreshing to know you are uncorrupted by all the techinical stuff and just go for the skin.

I have not seen the cockpit in one but I bet it has one of those 1930's fans to cool the pilot.

 

Not to mention lots of big levers and gadgets

How about this beautiful beast:

 

ok so i know it is a cargo bird but if any of you have been in it you will know it is amazing that this bird gets off the ground

C-5 Galaxy

 

I saw one manoeuvering once, fantastic! Shakes it's stuff like a fighter (almost).

 

Nonsense! Im sure they've gotten the new '61 wind deploying model in that puppy.

 

My favorite is the F/A-18F Super Hornet

 

Probably the F-117 Nighthawk...only one was ever shot down in its servie history, and the pilot survived even though he got hit by a Serbian misslie. It was recently retired I heard...Semper Fi, old mate. rest in peace.

 

I like the B-52 or the Tu-95 Bear.

 

Was that the C-5 you are talking about or the new C-17. Now that is an awesome cargo plane. I saw it do a very short stop, backup and then take off again!

YouTube - C-17 takeoff and landing

 

Hi I'm new, I registered just to post this:

 

Sorry, that was way bigger than I though it would be...

 

No problemo, the Valkyrie is an all-time beauty!

A sight to wet a Brit's eye

 

Hello Za Rodinu,

The Hawker Hunter and a beauty she is indeed, but not enough My favourit still remains the F-104

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Regards
Kruska