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.