Discussion

The Ugliest Airplane: An Appreciation

ziofill: It looks kinda cute if you ask me

m463: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transavia_PL-12_Airtrukaussie plane makes me think of the aussie flyer in the road warrior. (not even the same, but spiritually)

chasil: "He started with a large, steel, barrel-shaped tank and began adding."I thought everybody used aluminum?

EdwardDiego: It was designed to carry have to operate from very rough "airstrips" which is a very optimistic term for "a paddock that the farmer hopefully mowed recently and if you're lucky, they also removed most of the bigger stones".I also imagine in the postwar WW2 antipodes, steel was a lot easier and cheaper to access, as well as work.

mastax: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PZL_M-15_BelphegorThe M 15 is still uglier.

macintux: That was a prototype.Update: I guess the final design also used steel.> The pilot is above both the engine and the load, and is surrounded by a steel tube truss for maximum safety.

JumpCrisscross: …can I still get one?

pimlottc: This is mentioned in the article:> But the airplane never became popular—although it became briefly famous when a heavily made-up example starred in 1985’s Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome.

EdwardDiego: I'll raise you the Blackburn B-54 [0] and the Fairey Gannet [1].0: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackburn_B-541: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairey_Gannet

fwipsy: The fairy gannet looks like two smaller airplanes clipping into each other. It looks like an AI from ten years ago generated an image of an airplane. It looks like they hired engineers who got their degrees in Kerbal Space Program and then paid them by the hour.The Belphegor is still uglier though.

EdwardDiego: I was lucky enough as a young child to see one of these working a high country farm - it was operating off a sloped runway and I was convinced it was going to crash as it landed uphill, then convinced it was going to crash after it took off after reloading due to how slowly it climbed - I can't find a definitive number, but I vaguely recall it had a take off speed that lurked around 50kt...On the subject of top-dressers... ...I was privileged to see a turboprop equipped Fletcher FU-24 in action a couple of weeks ago, those pilots are very darn good at flying very low in hill country. Very loud and notable engine sound.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fletcher_FU-24

userbinator: Did anyone else think the first photo was AI-generated at first, due to how unusual it looked?

pfdietz: Steve Death does sound like a Mad Max name.

somat: here is a great video documentary on the m-15https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlyO9cJ8hiQ (Alexander the ok: PZL Mielec M-15: One of the Aircraft of All Time)

charles_f: > airtrukYou got to love that even its name is utilitarian.This is such a cool story. Airplanes seem such a complex, standardized, full of red tape and elitist thing that such stories of hackers starting to pull random beams together and you get a thing that flies are pretty inspiring... And yet it also sound quite well thought. As usual, there is more than meets the eye