The Ugly Ducklings

Whilst we are discussing quaint idioms, many of us trust that old American adage, “If it looks good, it’ll fly good” attributed to both Neil Armstrong and Bill Lear and is something that all pilots understand. There is something about a fine looking aircraft that makes it appear trustworthy and gives one confidence that it will perform well. Sadly, I know of one company, however, who seem to have looked at their aircraft through bottle bottom glasses… or perhaps they never got the memo.

The Dunne D5

 

The Type 184

The Cardington Gasbag

 

The Shorts S38

 

The Singapore

 

The Shorts Empire flying boat

 

The Sunderland

 

The COW gun

 

The Sunderland’s internal bomb racks

 

The Sunderland’s rest facilities

 

The Bombay

 

The long legged Stirling

 

The unlikely looking Seamew

 

Hurel-Dubois Miles 106 Caravan

 

The Shorts SC 7 Skyvan

 

The Shorts SD360

 

The coolest Skyvan ever… Pink!

 

 

Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to Marinha do Brasil, Short Bros of Cardington, the RAF, Shorts, the Library of Congress, SADSM, George Jackman, the Royal Navy, Adrian Pingstone, Tomás Del Coro and those images orphaned or in the Public Domain.