WIX Archives
Re: My picks...
Posted by Steve T on Sat May 10, 2003 04:43:30 PM
In reply top My picks... posted by bdk on Fri May 09, 2003 09:48:10 PM
Prewar:
Hughes H-1 (for overall influence on design)
deHavilland D.H.88 (ditto)
Supermarine S series (Rolls "R" engines' influence)
Travel Air R (overall influence, earlier on)
Percival Mew Gull (incredible efficiency)
...And a couple more included for style and/or audacity:
deMonge-Bugatti T100P (contraprop, duplex mid-engine, V-tail and forward-swept wing...!)
Macchi-Castoldi MC.72 (fastest floatplane ever built)
Napier-Heston (sheer looks...)
Postwar:
Wittman F1 series
Cassutt F1 series
NAA P-51C "Beguine" (if only she'd been flown by someone with more experience on fighters...)
Grumman F8F-2 "Conquest One"
NAA P-51D "Miss Candace"/"Jeannie" (and "descendants")
Things like the Rutan-Pond Racer and Sandberg Tsunami should be on here...but the fact that neither was really ultimately successful shows just how well the true potential of piston-engined high performance aircraft design was realized by the designers and engineers of the 30s and 40s.
S.