

Related: Get exclusive online content like this delivered straight to your inbox by signing up for our free enewsletter. The Liberator participated in all combat theaters and was produced in greater number than any other American aircraft during World War II. While the B-24 never attained the kind of fame known by the B-17, it should have. The all-metal airplane experienced reduced drag during combat, thanks to its unique roller shutter bomb-bay doors, and came equipped with the first tricycle landing gear outfitted on a heavy aircraft. Courtesy of Baldur Sveinsson Designed by Consolidated Aircraft in the late 1930s to outperform the popular B-17, the B-24 Liberator could pack more payload, fly faster and go farther than its Flying Fortress contemporary. Get exclusive online content like this delivered straight to your inbox by signing up for our free enewsletter. Today, the Ercoupe is much loved by its hundreds of owners for being a stable, two-seat, fun little flier, just as Weick envisioned. But for all of its safety advances, its safety record was no better than those of its contemporaries, and the design bounced around for decades between numerous manufacturers. The Ercoupe also boasted two-axis, rudderless, “stall proof” control. Designed in the mid-1930s to be so safe that just about anyone could fly one, the Ercoupe, which was an 85 mph cruiser, featured many modern design approaches, including metal construction, excellent visibility and tricycle landing gear. Fred Weick’s little side-by-side flier was a revolutionary approach to personal aviation. Jeff Skiles, “Miracle on the Hudson” copilot and Waco owner Related: Get exclusive online content like this delivered straight to your inbox by signing up for our free enewsletter. grew into the largest aircraft builder of the 1930s.

Ultimately 1,623 of the small biplanes were built between 19 as the Waco Aircraft Co. The Waco 10 was initially powered by the cheap and plentiful 90 hp Curtiss OX-5 V-8 engine, but engines up to 300 hp were eventually mounted to the versatile airframe. It quickly accounted for more than 40 percent of the aircraft sold in that year with almost one per day rolling out the factory doors. Instantly popular when it was first introduced in 1927, the Waco 10 was an open cockpit, three-place biplane of steel tube and fabric construction. Robert “Hoot” Gibson Related: Get exclusive online content like this delivered straight to your inbox by signing up for our free enewsletter. It is the most produced supersonic fighter, more than 11,400 having been built. It employed a lighter wing loading than other fighters of its day and was therefore able to outturn virtually all of its competitors. At maximum gross weight of 15,650 pounds, it has a thrust to weight ratio of over 0.80 for exceptional acceleration and climb.

Powered by a Tumansky turbojet of 12,650 pounds thrust with top speed over Mach 2.0, it is simple and robust, with excellent performance. The MiG-21 was the original “Lightweight Fighter.” Flown by over 50 nations, it continues in use with 19 countries. The list of authors who contributed to the project includes test pilot and airshow legend Bob Hoover, golf Hall of Famer Arnold Palmer, Hollywood A-lister Harrison Ford, NASA astronaut Robert “Hoot” Gibson, aviation training pioneer Hal Shevers, former Cessna CEO Jack Pelton, and more.Ĭlick through the gallery below to check out which airplanes made the list, and which didn’t, and in the process fall in love all over again with some of your favorite aircraft of all time.
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For the full list, see the gallery at the bottom of the page.įlying Magazine is proud to introduce Flying‘s Top 100 Airplanes, a web-based compendium that names the 100 best, most significant and most compelling aircraft designs of all time. Here are some of the distinctive airplanes that made Flying’s Top 100. }(document, ‘script’, ‘wibbitz-static-embed’)) D.getElementsByTagName(‘body’).appendChild(js)
