My ‘favorite’ plane is probably the F4U Corsair, but that’s not the one I would want to fly. The Corsair is beautiful, powerful, and fast, but I’d prefer something I could fly that can carry a few people and can be serviced at any airport, etc.
So I might go for a HondaJet. Made for owner pilots.
Other options would be a Glasair III with an Allison Turbine, A Van’s RV, or I’d like my old AA1 back, except with extended range tanks and a 180hp conversion.
I don’t want to have to notify the flight department and crew every time I go flying. Keep it simple!
All depends on one’s objectives. A lot of you guys are opting for small “fun” planes, in some cases military planes that are the equivalent of a two-seater sports car. Fun, but very impractical. Especially the sports cars with hardtop convertible roofs that manage to eat up all the trunk space when the top is down. I’m more in the minivan or SUV or even RV class. My ideal airplane is one that can take me anywhere in the world in comfort and style, that I can walk around in without stooping or feeling claustrophobic, and that I can even use as a hotel when I get there! But my environmentalism will not allow me to wish for anything bigger than a BBJ2 (737-800 with extended range).
I’d love to have my old Boeing Stearman N2S3 again. I sold it due to having no time to fly it, nor the tons of money needed to maintain it. Here’s a lookalike.
I miss my dad’s old Fairchild PT-26 also. That’s the one we crashed in. I still have the splintered wooden propeller as a decoration. Here’s a similar one.
But I’ve known too many physician pilots that got themselves and others killed in the course of piloting. So while I regret giving up that passion, I think I made the right choice. Doctors tend to make less good pilots overall, and statistics bear that out.
I’ve flown Piper Cubs, and damn I love those big ol’ box kites. I liked those better than the ultralights, which I have also flown.
I flew in a P51 Mustang piloted by the legendary Bob Hoover. OMG could that man fly!! I flew in the copilot seat (and got to fly for a bit) in a Cessna Citation too. I learned to fly sailplanes in a Schweitzer 2-22 and that was sweet.
Yeah, fave plane is that damn Stearman. The wind in my face, the oil on my goggles, the bugs in my teeth! And wherever we’d land, we’d be the star attraction (except at EAA, where we were just “pretty cool”).
Despite my long-held (and often-stated) belief that the Supermarine Spitfire is the most beautiful airplane ever, it’s actually #3 on the WWII aircraft dream list. #2 would be a Hawker Hurricane. Number One? That would be the F4U Corsair.
I agree. If given the choice of one all-expense-paid aircraft, I’d choose the Northrop T-38 Talon. I’m a NASA fan who was born and grew up in the Space Age, and it’s what the astronauts flew.
(I’d settle for a Beechcraft T-34C Turbo Mentor in 1990s NASA livery, or a T-34B Mentor in the same scheme. If anyone is giving one away.)
I agree with Qadgop that Stearman biplanes are really cool and wonderful, but I’ll also point out to the good doctor that he’s at least a half a foot taller than I am. I have some difficulty just hauling my middle-aged-and-aging-further butt into a Stearman and, to be frank, the forward visibility of that one is… less than great. But, oh, yes, I do like an open cockpit!
I still have great fondness for the Cessna 150, which is where I have the most hours. Also for the Citabria where I earned my taildragger rating. The Citabria has much to recommend it.
Still love the Max-Air Drifter, a.k.a. flying telephone pole. Not the one I actually flew but another one of the same model:
But… if I was being practical and chose the airplane that is cheapest to maintain/most versatile I would have to point to the smaller end of the Piper Cherokee line. So many of the others I’ve named require either specialist care or being able to track down an A&P willing to work on something unconventional. Piper Cherokee is almost common as dirt. It’s either that or an older Cessna 172 (Cessnas ARE as common as dirt), back when they had fewer instruments and more windshield to look out of, preferably back when they had the “Johnson bar” for the flaps instead of electrically driven flaps. Got to fly a very old one once, with a 6-cylinder engine instead of a 4-banger, much smoother ride. While I, personally, prefer the high-wing single-engine Cessnas I’ve found that the non-flyers seem to feel more comfortable in the Pipers.
Now, if I could get something with the ease of handling of a Cessna 150 or 172 that also had an open-cockpit option… well, I learned a long time ago that every airplane is a compromise.
Sure, others have named higher-performance airplanes but those airplanes, while faster (or something else more) are also more actual work to fly. I’ve flown high performance planes, and retractable gear, but I’m really not in love with the extra workload. I’m definitely a fair-weather flyer
I prefer the travel opportunities to the flying opportunities. Gimme a Concord SST so I can fly all over the world and bring my stuff (and friends) with me and essentially have a free hotel room on the tarmac.
If I had to pick a plane just for the fun of flying and to impress the hayseeds, I’d take a replica of a WWI fighter like a Sopwith Camel or Fokker D.VII.
Favorite plane I have actually flown: Hawker 900 XP
Nice combination of a tried and true airframe, coupled with a modern avionics suite. Completely dependable, never breaks. And it even has a ram’s horn yoke, like the Concorde!
But if money is no object… I’m fascinated with early jets. I’d line up a series of them and take turns learning to fly them: Gloster Meteor, DeHavilland Vampire, ME-262, maybe a MiG 15 (which I’ve also flown in real life, but found a bit scary).
Moving up a few years I suspect my daily ride would be an F-86 Sabre. Pilots who flew them loved it, said it had beautifully harmonized controls and very few bad habits.
I’m not so much into planes now, but as a kid I loved them. By far, number one was the SR-71. Number two was the P-38. Also was a big fan of the F-15E. Does the X-15 count as a plane? It was more of a piloted rocket than anything else. Always found that one pretty cool. On the civilian side, I always loved the 747s, of course.
An excellent choice. I saw the only remaining XB-70 as a kid, when we visited the Air Force Museum at Wright-Patterson AFB in the '70s. Such a cool-looking plane!
But yeah, for total coolitude your XB-70 wins the thread hands down.
I have a PDF copy of the XB-70 pilot’s manual. They only built two airplanes, and they were significantly different. About 1/3rd of the bulk of the manual is repetitive paragraphs describing how the [whatever] system works in serial #1 then again how the same [whatever] system works differently in serial #2. That had to have been a PITA for the test pilots.
Me?
For a low-n-slow fun prop plane I’d get something like a Kitfox
For a yank-n-bank prop, something like this will kick the sorry ass of a primitive WWII warbird and cost 5% as much to operate. With an engine that will last your lifetime, not just a couple weeks.
Yank-n-bank jet? F-16A of course. For personal nostalgia if nothing else. Though maybe an F-16B would be better so I could take the wife along, but maybe not: she gets airsick easily. If operating cost was an issue, the T-38 mentioned upthread is an excellent fall-back. Nobody who flew them ever said a bad word about them. Fond memories there too for me.
Go-places jet? One of the high-end Gulfstreams or Bombardiers. I don’t actually know them well enough to offer an informed opinion, and don’t want to just give a WAG. Gulfstreams are well-regarded but are also weird in a lot of ways.
