Worst airplanes and helicoptors ever made

[Snake45]

8 hours ago, alexis said:

I did not know that Air Classics was still around.

I'll need to dig up that copy.  The Aero-Bullet was easily the worst American plane ever built.

 

Looks like it was the April 2019 issue. You can get it here: 

http://www.airclassicsnow.com/back-issues-2019.html

[Snake45]

10 hours ago, GLMFAA1 said:

I'd have to add any of the vertical take off planes, Ryan x3, Convair xfy 1 'pogo' , etc

and they had models of these aircraft!

 

Lindberg did a kit too, and it's been reissued several times, the latest not all that long ago. Should be readily available and it's not a horrible kit, considering its age. 

[Snake45]

On 12/28/2019 at 12:12 PM, Snake45 said:

I apologize. Please don't take it personally. 

I've just become very contemptuous of those clickbait sites that make you click through 40 screens to read a four-paragraph story of some sort. 

And three times now, I've been taken in by a clickbait that said something like "50 Amazing Photos from the '70s You've Never Seen!" or "Uncensored Photos from America's Past" and baited with a picture of...Jungle Pam! All three times I clicked through all 50 pics and not a single one, or a word about, Jungle Pam! GRRRRRRRR!

And here's exactly what I'm talking about, from this very site, today! 

If you see something like that, don't click on it. There will be no Jungle Pam in there. 

[SfanGoch]

1 hour ago, ChrisBcritter said:

The Brewster Buccaneer/Bermuda is a favorite of mine.......

The Brewster Aeronautical Corporation was a division of the Brewster Carriage Co., an early automobile manufacturer which, in addition to manufacturing Brewster cars, assembled Rolls Royces from 1931 to 1934. Auto and aircraft production took place in the Brewster Building, opened in 1911 and located at 27th St. & Queens Plaza North (two blocks south of the 59th Street Bridge). The USN seized the company in April 1942 because of mismanagement and Brewster Aeronautical Corp. was dissolved by its shareholders in April 1946. The Brewster Building is now occupied by Jet Blue and other commercial tenants.

 

The Brewster Building in 1912. The clock tower was removed in 1950.

[Snake45]

On 12/28/2019 at 9:54 AM, Mike999 said:

Many years ago, HAWK did a 1/32 scale kit of the H-43 Husky.  It had counter-rotating rotor blades just like the real things.  As a product of the 1950s it was simplified.  But the Cobra Company fixed that with a resin upgrade set for the interior and other parts.  I have both of those kits in the stash, but my H-43 is the much later TESTORS re-issue.  One of these centuries, I'd like to build a Vietnam rescue version of the H-43.  Some of those had a six-barreled mini-gun mounted inside.

I've done a LOT of reading and study about the air war in Southeast Asia, and this helicopter almost NEVER comes up in either words or photos. I did some quick web research today and found out that yes, they were used in Vietnam, and one source even said they were involved in more rescues than any other helicopter. I guess most of these must have been in South Vietnam or maybe southern North Vietnam; much of my reading has been about the air war in Route Pack VI and Laos, and I don't think the H-43 had the range for rescues in those areas. That was HH-3 and, later, HH-53 work. 

I'm gonna try to find a pic of one of these with a minigun on it. 

[Ace-Garageguy]

22 minutes ago, Snake45 said:

I've done a LOT of reading and study about the air war in Southeast Asia, and this helicopter almost NEVER comes up in either words or photos...

Pedros flew air rescue and support through '75 in Southeast Asia, though the Hueys were more universally known.

 

Edited December 30, 2019 by Ace-Garageguy

[stavanzer]

Those HH-43s were excellent fire fighting helos. The down draft from those twin rotors could clear a path through the fire around a crashed plane. They saved a lot of lives from planes that crashed on base.

Also, Aurora did a kit of the Lockheed tailsitter. Ultra rare, but not a bad kit.

[Mike999]

11 hours ago, Snake45 said:

I'm gonna try to find a pic of one of these with a minigun on it. 

No luck for me on that search yet.  Haven't found a single picture online of an armed HH-43.

Unless my memory is failing...which is quite possible...I saw that pic in one of my books about helicopters in Vietnam.  I have several of those books and will just have to look thru them.  I remember seeing that photo and thinking it would make a great addition to the HAWK/Testors kit.

I did find this rare photo of an HH-43 sitting on the ground during a Vietnam rescue mission. It has the "stovepipe" exhaust extension for countering heat-seeking missiles:

[89AKurt]

Funny, I did not expect to hijack a thread so easily! ?  Sorry about that, but since it's been a popular subject, another picture, my dad was talking to the crew:

Saw this model at the last Modelzona contest:

[stavanzer]

That looks like the Aurora Kit, of the Lochkeed Tail Sitter. And, Your Dad's Pedro has the Anti-Heat Seeker exhaust extension too.

[Draggon]

"

On 12/27/2019 at 12:04 PM, Mike999 said:

Here's a training film on flying the Buccaneer, produced by Brewster and the US Navy.

From the clip: "In a rated power climb with service loading the aircraft is slightly unstable" 

If that's what the folks that built it say, I'd turn in my pilot's license before flying that ?

Edited January 4, 2020 by Draggon

[GLMFAA1]

Interesting that the 'eggbeater' was used by the air force, marines and navy , but I don't see any reference to the army using it. If the army did use it I wonder what indian designation it was given.

The evolution of this copter turned into this:

 

 

greg

[stavanzer]

A K-Max! Glad to see one of those.

[Richard Bartrop]

Yeah, a pretty sloppy list.  One of them was even listed twice.

Besides, it didn't have this one https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capelis_XC-12

An airliner held together with screws instead of rivets, and they would all vibrate loose when the engines were running.

If your "worst plane" list that doesn't include one that spontaneously disassembles in flight, you clearly haven't done your homework.

[SfanGoch]

On 1/4/2020 at 6:18 PM, GLMFAA1 said:

Interesting that the 'eggbeater' was used by the air force, marines and navy , but I don't see any reference to the army using it.

The first reason being that the Huskie was primarily used for aircraft firefighting and rescue in the close vicinity of air bases. The USAF, Navy and Marines use fixed wing aircraft requiring airfields; having a helicopter with the Huskie's capabilities makes sense. Secondly, the Army didn't need it because its aviation branch consists mostly of rotary wing aircraft which don't require the facilities required by things with wings. The Army used its own choppers, such as the UH-1, for similar missions.

[Mike999]

Here's a Brewster product I just learned about:  the XA-32 Brewster Blaster (at least Brewster came up with good names). 

Designed as an attack aircraft/dive bomber, the Blaster looked great on paper.  Armed with eight .50-cal. machine guns or four 37mm cannon in the wings, it could also carry 3000 pounds of bombs: 1000 pounds in its bomb bay and 2000 pounds under the wings.

Since this is Brewster, you won't be surprised that the XA-32 was a barking dog and a total flop.  Like other Brewster aircraft, it looked over-weight and was, dangerously so. Only 2 were built before the Army Air Corps decided it would be better off converting P-51 Mustangs into A-36 Apache attack aircraft.

"One disastrous characteristic was that the exhaust scoops that ringed the cowling nearly blinded the test pilots during night flying; the backfiring at low power settings resulted in flames engulfing the nose of the aircraft."  That would be a real confidence-builder...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brewster_XA-32

[Snake45]

On 12/28/2019 at 12:12 PM, Snake45 said:

I apologize. Please don't take it personally. 

I've just become very contemptuous of those clickbait sites that make you click through 40 screens to read a four-paragraph story of some sort. 

And three times now, I've been taken in by a clickbait that said something like "50 Amazing Photos from the '70s You've Never Seen!" or "Uncensored Photos from America's Past" and baited with a picture of...Jungle Pam! All three times I clicked through all 50 pics and not a single one, or a word about, Jungle Pam! GRRRRRRRR!

Believe it or not, I just found Jungle Pam in one of those clickbait things. The weird part is the clickbait story is "Nostalgic TV Sitcoms That Would Be Censored Today." What does Jungle Pam have to do with TV sitcoms? 

https://groovyhistory.com/nostalgic-tv-sitcoms-that-would-be-censored-today/14

[Flat32]

I Googled Jungle Pam and selected images.  There's a lot.  I chose one to look at and clicked on the image which took me to somewhere, but not the image alone.  Then, instead, I right clicked on the image and clicked "copy image address" which I then pasted into Google.  This works most of the time to get you right to the specific image you want. 

Avoids the clickbait.

Extremely helpful when researching.

Edited January 21, 2020 by Flat32

[Snake45]

12 minutes ago, Flat32 said:

I Googled Jungle Pam and selected images.  There's a lot.  I chose one to look at and clicked on the image which took me to somewhere, but not the image alone.  Then, instead, I right clicked on the image and clicked "copy image address" which I then pasted into Google.  This works most of the time to get you right to the specific image you want. 

Avoids the clickbait.

Extremely helpful when researching.

Totally not the point.