Not a fighter, but they featured on this: Convair B-58 Hustler - Wikipedia
I’m sure many people think the A-10 looks purposeful. But I doubt anyone thinks it’s good looking in the conventional sense - i.e., pretty. It’s the difference between a Kenworth truck and a Ferrari. The truck is kind of cool-looking, but not good looking.
The Lightning’s appearance is very much a function of its design brief: it was an extremely short-range interceptor. Britain isn’t very big, so the Lightning did not need a lot of range. As such, it was able to go very, very fast.
Generally speaking, a military aircraft’s aesthetics will largely be governed by (1) its role, and (2) the technology available to build it. The Harrier is ungainly because stubby wings and a fat fuselage were the only way to make it work. The F-16 is pretty because being single-engined means the fuselage can be narrow. Saab’s aircraft are all wing because they are designed to operate from improvised runways, so short takeoff rolls are a priority.
I remember reading (in Naval History magazine, maybe?) that the U.S. Navy purposefully tweaked the plans of some warships in the Seventies, late in the process, to make them look more threatening and impressive than the original designs. No change to function, just to form.
We even have our own thread!: The A-10 Thunderbolt/Warthog: Air Force: "We don't want it" Army: We'll take it - Factual Questions - Straight Dope Message Board
Check out the last paragraph under “Operational history”!
The Independence-class littoral combat ship looks like something a talented teenager sketched in his notebook during study hall. So does the Zumwalt-class destroyer.
Yes, that first one looks positively Klingon!
I’m not sure to what extent the OP is true, however, one plane mentioned upthread was the Handley-Page Victor. A lovely, crusty, tweedy name for a plane. Very British. but it was a bomber designed to wreak mass death and destruction and I can’t help wondering if the designers thought “right…let’s make this fucker look like a real mean bastard from the front”
Huh. I always thought the Victor was just “ugly as shit,” but it *does *look mean from the front.
The meanest-looking airplane I know of is the F-4 Phantom. It just looks evil from any angle.
I think “purposeful” is the kindest thing one could say about it overall and to be honest, looking at their previous output, I can’t say that aesthetics were ever their no.1 priorities
On the F-4, especially the bottom. Years ago, I had to air start one during a Maple Flag and the advice I got was “Keep your hands away from the doors outlined in red as they can close at anytime and since they’re hydraulically driven they’ll take your fingers clean off…” BTW, the access for the air start conduit is adjacent to them and guess what would make a perfect handhold to steady yourself while you’re squatted underneath it? That is a big mofo of an airplane, especially for a fighter. Asthetically, it’s always been one of my favorites, though. Same with the F4U Corsair.
Not only does it look mean from every angle, every clip of it in flight I have ever seen shows black sooty exhaust trailing behind. Perhaps its engine was not as efficient as modern jet engines are, but it spewed exhaust. You can sort of smell it when you watch video of it flying (and I am not talking about condensation streamers nor the white trail smoked used for demonstration purposes).
It could be argued the F4 was Joss Whedon’s inspiration for Reaver ships. (That might make a good designation too, the A?? Reaver.)
The F-4 was the last generation of U.S. fighter powered by a turbojet rather than a turbofan. Later variants used upgraded J79s which didn’t produce smoke trails.
It’s also - while admittedly cool - only accidentally good looking. The wing dihedrals and anhedral tailplane were workarounds for a fundamentally flawed aerodynamic design.
Oh I don’t think the F-4 is good looking, I think it looks mean and aggressive—like a bully looking for a nerdy victim to torment. But thank you for the information. I might have known that back in the day, but if I did it is long forgotten. I was always a little vague on the difference between the two types of power plants, but did gather the turbofan was more efficient and provided more thrust than the turbojet.
I think the sleeker, leaner planes are better looking; fast and deadly like the ultimate hot rod or formula 1 racer gone mad and given flight. (And of course car designs were copied from the sleek airplane designs. Although Ford’s Mustang was a pony car—it was named after the WWII fighter according to Iaccoca.) The F-4 fits into a category for me that also include the step-side pickup truck beds that reappeared in the late 70’s or early 80’s. An aggressive masculine look that is not meant to be pretty—it is meant to look tough, intimidating; flexed and threatening. Like a big defensive lineman who wants to pummel the ball carrier, the epitome of mindless bruit force. I think the graceful and sleek planes are better looking…… until you get to the old F-5 which although sleek, looks kind of puny and fragile compared to other sleek airframes like the 15 and 16 (which is very similar in many ways).
Several years ago I was at Luke AFB on the west side of Phoenix for “Luke Days” and was talking to a few F-16 pilots. One of them claimed (and others confirmed- but others said they had never heard this story), that because of the flight characteristics of the F-4, in a tactical situation (dogfight) the pilot would pull the stick all the way back to his crotch and use the pedals to maneuver the plane because the tail surface produced quicker responses. Apparently the large tail allowed one to build up quite a bit of negative pressure so he may snap to an opposite direction instantly. They may have been playing me for a rube, but none of the other fliers called bullshit on the claim and some seemed to believe it made sense. Of course the thrust to weight ratio was vastly different for those two aircraft, so tactics would be different.
As long as this response has already grown to unfathomable lengths, I will tell one more story. I was at a small airshow on the east side of Phoenix at a place called Falcon Field. They restore vintage military planes there, and you can get a half hour ride in a restored B-25 or a B-17. But there was little there in the way of modern American heavy metal. It was mostly news choppers, and small fixed wing craft; the best static display was a medical transport helicopter with many pretty nurses in attendance. They did have some prop-plane flight demonstrations, and at the close there was going to be a fly-by of a Navy F/A-18 and an Air Force F-15. Those planes were not even on display, they were way back away from the crowd so they couldn’t be tampered with. The Navy plane had a glitch and was not allowed to participate (although it was a minor glitch and the aviator was willing). The Air Force guy told a few of us he was going to try to make it up to us because “this is a pretty lame airshow”.
He had asked for permission to perform a full military emergency take off. It didn’t mean anything to me, but he told us to stand in a certain place on the flight line and keep our eyes trained down the runway. They made a big production of towing his fighter past the review stand with him standing on the towing tractor with a big ol’ long white scarf (dating back to open cockpits). The PA system sucked, it sounded exactly like Charlie Brown’s teachers, but we could hear permission was denied for blah, blah, blah. Still we had invested hours in this by now, so we waited with our eyes aimed at the exhaust smoke what seemed like a mile down the runway. Tension built, then the PA became very clear for some reason. Lieutenant Whoever is setting his brake and running up to full military power, he has not been granted permission to kick in afterburners…… will slip the brakes …. go for vertical acceleration…… Oh My! He HAS applied afterburners.
Plane suddenly started to roll and was coming toward us for about four seconds and it just hopped about thirty feet into the air. It was on the ground—then it was in the air. The gear disappeared and it became LOUD! The damn plane was screaming right at us and it was already moving fast. Right in front of us he pulled the stick back and I saw disaster looming! It didn’t swoop up like I expected. It was so close—and the ground was literally shaking at this point, it was so close I see the plane pivot around the wings. The nose pointed up, but the tail went down!!! I was sure the cones on the engine exhaust were going to scrape the runway! You could see fire shooting out of the engines for about fifty feet as he approached. By then the flame was pounding against the ground and nothing at all happened for a very long time. I had misjudged, the engines were about five or six feet above the runway, and the plane was faced 100% vertical. We could feel the heat pouring out of the engine and feel its raw power shaking the earth. Then it started to climb. I would swear the thing hung there motionless in the air for two or three seconds before it moved, but I must be mistaken. It reminded me of a space launch, all that smoke and fire- - - then the thing slowly starts to move. It seemed like it was accelerating very slowly at first, but then it was faster than a speeding bullet. It climbed straight up to about twenty thousand feet, then started corkscrew (well the trail smoke was shaped like a corkscrew), the plane actually rotated in a straight line up over a hundred thousand feet. The whole vertical climb seemed to take just a few seconds. One instant it was this big fiery tube of metal, way too close for comfort. Then it was a speck that started to rotate, then a second later it was too small to see and I had to follow the smoke to see where it had been. They made a point of telling us the pilots had to come out of those climbs upside down or all the blood in their bodies would try to cram into their skulls and cause medical problems. The speed jeans they wore kept their legs from being engorged with blood I was told.
Afterward the pilot told us he got chewed out already, and was going to get chewed out again. But he could just say he misunderstood the limitations, and since no harm came from it he would actually be admired rather than diminished by the act. But that was a pretty damn cool thing to experience.
Wow, I bet it was! Thanks for the story.
It was the most famous clean air converter, but it was not the only one in the air fleet.
My favourite story was not an actual air show. I was down in Virginia beach, when NAS Oceana was still an active base, and was home to the East Coast Agrressor squadron, the west coast being NAS Miramar. Sunday when I got there, was a pretty drab day, rainy grey and the most I seen was this Sea Lamps helicopter tooling around, as well as a bunch of Cargo ships transiting the area.
Monday however, that was a very different day. In the movie Top Gun, they went out of their way to nerf the Toms and give the scooters (A-4’s) a punch above their weight feel to them. So here is this glorius Monday morning, bright and sunny and CAVU, and then you hear it, not a noise yet but something thats triggering the hind brain and its danger close. Boom, you got these two scooters screamin out of the west going east over the ocean and they were being pounced by two Toms, and the movie lied.
The toms were going tits and fangs out and they were all over the Scooters, fuck yeah jester is dead.
And then it was over
How low were they? Could you really see the planes clearly? I actually believed the ten thousand feet and above rule.
I always love being at an airshow where the Thunderbirds or better yet Blue Angels are performing, especially with someone who has never been. They do that thing where they suck you into looking forward with a slow moving plane at a high angle of attack- - - then come from behind just off the deck and just sub-sonic. Lizard brain automatically kicks in for a few seconds (even when you know it s coming).
Very cool story! It reminds of this scene from the anime Yukikaze, but I didn’t think anyone would try it in real life (scroll forward to 01:15)
Very clearly, but I cant really judge height very well from the ground. But they cannot have been that low, or I think I would have felt some jet wash, with the speed they were going.
[quote=“Atomic_Alex, post:78, topic:810464”]
Very cool story! It reminds of this scene from the anime Yukikaze, but I didn’t think anyone would try it in real life (scroll forward to 01:15)
[/QUOTE]saweet, is there an english dub of that show