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10 worst aircraft ever built

PostPosted: Fri Jul 11, 2008 6:11 pm
by WebbPA
Link

Controversial?  Nah!

Re: 10 worst aircraft ever built

PostPosted: Fri Jul 11, 2008 6:21 pm
by C
What a complete load of rubbish that article is. Just take the Comet for example. Far from being worst, after it initial flaws, it actually benefitted the aviation world tremedously.

Mind you, I was also expecting to see the "fatally flawed" killer Slingsby Firefly, as I recent saw in the US aviation magazine.

Re: 10 worst aircraft ever built

PostPosted: Fri Jul 11, 2008 6:39 pm
by Souichiro
So basically... almost everything slightly revolutionary is useless?

Re: 10 worst aircraft ever built

PostPosted: Fri Jul 11, 2008 6:39 pm
by Dr.bob7
I can see why the Polish Airforce one was there but the comet was a revolutionary airliner, and the Spruce Goose is far from a top 10 worst

Re: 10 worst aircraft ever built

PostPosted: Fri Jul 11, 2008 6:39 pm
by expat
What a complete load of rubbish that article is. Just take the Comet for example. Far from being worst, after it initial flaws, it actually benefitted the aviation world tremedously.



114 produced and 13 crashes. Not great, but for the first jet airliner, not a bad effort. Now for something a bit more modern, the 737 range is running at about 80 crashes (fatal) to date.

Matt

Re: 10 worst aircraft ever built

PostPosted: Fri Jul 11, 2008 6:44 pm
by Dr.bob7
^ lol 80 fatal crashes out of hmmmm several thousand aircraft?

Re: 10 worst aircraft ever built

PostPosted: Fri Jul 11, 2008 6:54 pm
by C
What a complete load of rubbish that article is. Just take the Comet for example. Far from being worst, after it initial flaws, it actually benefitted the aviation world tremedously.



114 produced and 13 crashes. Not great, but for the first jet airliner, not a bad effort. Now for something a bit more modern, the 737 range is running at about 80 crashes (fatal) to date.

Matt


And if the DH design team had a crystal ball, and knew about the windows, that would have been a lot fewer.

Re: 10 worst aircraft ever built

PostPosted: Fri Jul 11, 2008 7:43 pm
by DaveSims
I would remove several of the planes off of the list.

Re: 10 worst aircraft ever built

PostPosted: Sat Jul 12, 2008 3:35 am
by Hagar
10 worst aircraft - EVER? Depends on the criteria used. I can think of more suitable contenders.

And if the DH design team had a crystal ball, and knew about the windows, that would have been a lot fewer.

I've always felt they should have known. They ignored basic engineering principles. Any engineer could have told them you don't use rectangular openings in a pressure vessel. There is more to this than was admitted at the time.

I don't know the author's credentials but the article has not been very well researched. This statement is blatantly untrue.
Russia's Tupolev TU-144 was the first supersonic transport and the only commercial plane to exceed Mach 2

Re: 10 worst aircraft ever built

PostPosted: Sat Jul 12, 2008 7:24 am
by H
And if the DH design team had a crystal ball, and knew about the windows, that would have been a lot fewer.

I've always felt they should have known. They ignored basic engineering principles. Any engineer could have told them you don't use rectangular openings in a pressure vessel. There is more to this than was admitted at the time.
Are you saying that it's a good thing that naval diving bells weren't designed by aeronautical dumbbells?


8-)

Re: 10 worst aircraft ever built

PostPosted: Sat Jul 12, 2008 2:52 pm
by beaky
This should be called "Ten significant failed aircraft development projects", or maybe "Ten aircraft that failed to perform adequately in their intended roles"... most of the planes listed were simply killed in development (or shortly after comissioning) before all the bugs were sorted out. Yes, even the Comet, which was only flawed in that further testing should have been done before putting it into service, given the new ground they were breaking.
The Christmas Bullet, however, was a fraud created by a notorious con man... it was a deathtrap.   :o

Re: 10 worst aircraft ever built

PostPosted: Sat Jul 12, 2008 2:54 pm
by Dr.bob7
The Polish plane deserved to be on that list random disentagrations and a payload less than a few cartoons of cigarets acording to the page

Re: 10 worst aircraft ever built

PostPosted: Sat Jul 12, 2008 3:00 pm
by Hagar
The article is as flawed as some of the aircraft on the author's list. This is simply his personal opinion. Ask 100 people for a list of the 10 worst aircraft ever built & I wouldn't mind betting they would all be very different.

Re: 10 worst aircraft ever built

PostPosted: Sat Jul 12, 2008 5:24 pm
by C
Yes, even the Comet, which was only flawed in that further testing should have been done before putting it into service, given the new ground they were breaking.


To be fair, the blighting structural failures (windows) did not manifest themselve 'til 1954 - 5 years after the first flight, and 3 after the first commercial trip. :)

Re: 10 worst aircraft ever built

PostPosted: Mon Jul 14, 2008 3:20 am
by pepper_airborne
Wasnt the midair breakup from the TU-144 deu to a france mirage that was tailing it in the clouds and banged straight into it?

Dont know for sure, but that is what i remember seeing in a documentary about the plane.