Ugly Airplanes

dmccormack

dmccormack

Touchdown! Greaser!
Joined
May 11, 2007
Messages
10,945
Location
Lancaster County, Pennsylvania
Display Name
Dan Mc
Home Airfield
KLNS
Of course no airplane that flies is ugly, but some paint schemes, engine mounting points, whatever classiy some airplanes as visuallly challenging.

Trapper John said:
Like this...

331bc324f82c10864fe2efd62a7cc0f380c1f956



Trapper John
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Here's one from another thread...
 
dmccormack said:
Of course no airplane that flies is ugly, but some paint schemes, engine mounting points, whatever classiy some airplanes as visuallly challenging.



Here's one from another thread...
Click to expand...

To do that to something as good looking as a Cardinal is an aesthetic felony...


Trapper John
 
dmccormack said:
Of course, I know my Chief is ugly --for now....

N24286.jpg
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A little detailing and spruce up would go a long way, I think. I'd paint the fuselage tubing in the cabin flat black, paint/upholster the bulkhead behind the seats in a charcoal/anthracite color, and give the cowling a little love. Bet it would look much sharper, for not much investment...


Trapper John
 
Trapper John said:
A little detailing and spruce up would go a long way, I think. I'd paint the fuselage tubing in the cabin flat black, paint/upholster the bulkhead behind the seats in a charcoal/anthracite color, and give the cowling a little love. Bet it would look much sharper, for not much investment...


Trapper John
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Good ideas... The cowling's pretty beat, but is as close to original as they get (there is some debate within the Aeronca world on whether the Lycomings used the bug-eye cowling, but there are some very old pictures with this exact same cowl on 65-LAs)

The panel needs to be refinished as well.

ONly advice I've been given on refurbing the cowling is an "english wheel" -- which Harbor Freight does not stock....?
 
dmccormack said:
ONly advice I've been given on refurbing the cowling is an "english wheel" -- which Harbor Freight does not stock....?
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There is always a homebuilder that lives not too far from you that has one (probably a better one than H.F. sells).

The yellow biplane in the middle of this page has a hand hammered / english wheeled nose bowl / cowl (starting from flat sheets of aluminum):
http://pulsevisuals.com/photography/aviation_photos.html
 
dmccormack said:
Good ideas... The cowling's pretty beat, but is as close to original as they get (there is some debate within the Aeronca world on whether the Lycomings used the bug-eye cowling, but there are some very old pictures with this exact same cowl on 65-LAs)

The panel needs to be refinished as well.

ONly advice I've been given on refurbing the cowling is an "english wheel" -- which Harbor Freight does not stock....?
Click to expand...

The HF here does stock an English Wheel. However, you'd be much, much, much better off paying someone to work on your cowl for you than purchasing an english wheel with the intent of repairing your own cowl. Metal working is a real art and you don't want to start on something as complex as a cowl.

Just like if your objective is to make a one time trip from Dallas to NYC, you don't start flying lessons and run out and buy a Learjet. ;-)
 
This one is based at my field, I call it Barney. :D
 

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Mine's pretty bad for the original paint...almost like Frankenstein...:rolleyes: That'll change next month finally....Thought about going retro and just remove what's left of the paint on the wings and go aluminum.

Brian

IMG_6934.JPG
 
There was a 150 on my home field that was white with purple and mauve, outside and in. It was actually pretty attractive, I figured the owner was gay. I was wrong on that count, but the owner painted it himself and did a nice job. Got into the jet wash of a passing airliner and was shaken so hard the insurance company totaled it. The owner was knocked unconscious and the pilot has his head shoved up through the headliner and into the roof of the airplane leaving a hat-button sized dimple in the roof. Wrinkled the wings pretty good too.
 
smigaldi said:
That's a good looking plane!
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:D

There was another Mooney on the transient ramp about 2 months back.
Was a crap brown color with fluorescent lime green control surfaces.

Wish I had snapped a picture of it. It was gone after I got back...
 
AdamB said:
:D

There was another Mooney on the transient ramp about 2 months back.
Was a crap brown color with fluorescent lime green control surfaces.

Wish I had snapped a picture of it. It was gone after I got back...
Click to expand...
I'll bet that is still one fine looking airplane. What with the wing being in the right spot and all. :D:D
 
Our Peregrine. Kind of startling at first, but it goes with the name.
 

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I don't think anything's going to beat the mountain range airplane but here is my entry. I have a lot of time in this airplane, probably the most time in any single N-number that I've flown.

284675.jpg
 
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