This thread’s a bit of a trip, because none of the links posted as yet came up blue - they all came up purple as sites I’ve been to.
One I’ve always liked: P-61 Black Widow
Another, although it was a failure (competitor to the B-29) that I always thought looked like a great WWII era heavy bomber: B-32 Dominator (I believe our last casualty of the war was a Sargeant onboard a Dominator)
One thing I must give to the Brits is their knack for the “sculpted” look. The ducted intakes and outlets, the webbed wing merges, their overall incredible art deco aeronautical antics usually get a “9” out of “10” from me.
Ringo, gotta love your P-61 Black Widow, that aft canopy is the cat’s pyjamas. It gives the Twin (forked) Tail Lightning a run for her money.
PS: You gotta be kidding! You had a previewed status for the N9MB link?!? I’ve never even heard of the thing, and I’m somewhat of a fiend. Do you have dangerous amounts of spare time, or what?!?
[dazed and incredulous look]
What! No Women In This Thread?
I wasn’t a plane freak growing up, but my older brother was. And of all the numerous models he showed me, the P-51 stood out head and shoulders. I still love it. Ironic (?) that I love the original “Mustang” design of both plane and car.
As far as fighter jets go, I’m partial to the Dassault designs. Check out the Rafale, successor to the legendary Mirage series. What a looker!
For slightly patriotic reasons, I’m partial to the Fokker 27 Friendship. It’s not a great looker per se (though I really DO like its looks), but this plane has made an impact both on the Netherlands and the world. Examples of this model still fly today, mostly in Africa. It’s almost identical successor, the Fokker F50 is a popular short-to-medium range aircraft all around the world to this day (just don’t get into a thunderstorm with one, they’re bouncy :)). Too bad Fokker went the way of the dodo in 1995. 
I think the new family of large Airbuses are cool, too. They’re huge! The largest passenger airplane in the world will be the Airbus A380, to be launched in 2006. 555 passengers on two full decks! Impressive.
I’m with you, bernse. I’ve always loved WW II era warbirds, and I’ve had a special fondness for some of the German experimental and jet aircraft. I also love flying wings, so naturally the GO229 is one of my very favorites. The Northrop XB-35 / YB-49 too. I’ve got a bunch of books and models of all of them.
Ringo’s P-61 link is to the Mid-Atlantic Air Museum’s web site. They’re not too far from me, and they’re slowly restoring a P-61 - it’ll be the only one flying in the world.
I mentioned in another thread that they’ve recently started flight testing an exact reproduction ME-262. You can see some video footage of it here. Hopefully it’ll make some appearances at air shows when testing is finished.
There’s a toy company called 21st Century Toys that makes soldiers and vehicles in a few different scales, and they’ve produced several very detailed WW II planes in 1/18. So far there’s been Mustang, BF-109, Stuka, Corsair and a P-38 (the wingspan is almost three feet!). I’ve got them all, of course, even though I don’t really have room for them. 
Over the next year or so they’re planning on releasing P-40, Zero, Spitfire, FW190, ME-262 (Yay!), P-47, A-10 and Cobra and Little Bird helicopters. Crikey, I’m gonna hafta move to a bigger place!
Eric
Oooh! And of course, SAAB makes excellent jetfighters too. Check out the Draken (“Dragon”, if I’m not mistaken).
Yup, the Draken was gorgeous - it’s that whole double-delta wing that does it for me. I’ll put in another vote for the Spitfire, more or less any mark, and the Mosquito.
For some reason I have always had a soft spot for the Westland Whirlwind (sorry, no pics: try www.simviation.com, there’s a download for both Microsoft Combat Flight Sim 1 & 2). Twin-engined single-seat fighter with an unusual high tailplane. It was a clever, unusual design, very advanced for 1938, packed a heckuva kick (four nose-mounted 20mm), but never quite made it into the big time. Westland recycled the name for a helicopter.
Also like the Bristol Beaufighter, another multi-role combat aircraft: radar-equipped night-fighter, superb anti-shipping machine, ground-attack plane nicknamed “Whispering Death” by the Japanese in Burma. Try the same site for pics and downloads.
I do like a nice De Havilland Vampire. I’m also quite keen on the more modern Polish PZL-230 Skorpion.
The Mosquito may have been a huge contributor to the Allies winning of the War, according to a book named Flight that I have.
The scenario is as such: The Mosquito was a fast, nimble, and stealthy (lots of wood construction) fighter bomber that Hitler got real annoyed at seeing over Berlin and other targets. So, he delayed production of the Me 262, demanding that IT be a fast, nimble fighter bomber that he could harrass London with. This delayed the introduction of the jet till late 1944 when the Luftwaffe was very hard put to fly anything. The book asserts that if the Me 262 had appeared in mid 1943 as a pure fighter, it would’ve quite possibly ended the 8th Air Corps’ daylight bombing of German targets, either prolongling the eventual outcome of the War, or changing it to some of WWI type armistice. All because of Hitler’s Mosquito tantrum!
Of course, his blunders against the Soviet Union would’ve cost him all the same anyways in the end, in my opinion. But, it was an interesting take on things.
Go, go Mosquito!
The N9MB was a complete surprise to me… and I have a bunch of insider stuff from my grandpa who was an aircraft mechanic at Tinker during and early post war.
All the links and pics are wonderful… Thanks!
Ah yes, the Spitfire, the Elvgren Girl of the fighter planes.
My favorite thing about the early 50s planes were that were usually left unpainted, which meant the entire plane was gleaming silvery metal.
I’m with Coldfire on the Connie - what a graceful plane - it fueled my travel dreams when I was a kid.
My favorite later ones are the F14 and the SR71. I’m also a Warthog and Harrier fan.
Great choices, all - I refuse to choose a single winner from the days when elegance and grace and beauty were still factors in aircraft design, when most were designed by small teams of what was called “air-minded” people who appreciated those things. Today, economics and reliability, critical as they are, seem to have subordinated aesthetics - that is not a bad thing, of course, but it isn’t all to the good, either.
Airliners.net is a treasure trove of pix of almost every civil aircraft ever made, not specifically airliners, and a nice set of warbird shots, too. There are other photo sources on the Web but that’s where to start.
A few points:
The germans DID indeed make their own version of the Mosquito, it was called the Focke Wulf Ta154, but wasnt successful as they could get the wood glue right, so it tended to break up in flight - nasty.
The problem with the Whirlwind was its terrible Engines, RR Peregrines (Rolls Royce didnt mess up very oftenwith engines, but these werent so hot). Only 112 were produced and they did hit and run bombing sorties (Rhubarbs) across the channel, with a little bomber escorting thrown in.
I have it on good authority, from a book about the plane, that the Beaufighter was NEVER called ‘Whispering Death’ by the Japanese, although practically every site you look at, says this is true.
The term was made up by RAF Officers joking over drinks in the Officers Mess, probably to make the plane sound meaner (if that was needed).
As for modern planes, I love the Mig-21 Fishbed. Stunning looking plane. Luckily we have one where I work, so I’ve climbed all over the damn thing - very interesting, if incredibly crude.
