Nyyyeeeeeeeeeooooooooow!

December 6, 2003 7:25 AM

An airplane hall of fame. Talk about rekindling childhood passions. I got a real kick out of reading this.
posted by nthdegx (12 comments total)

One of the runners up: the Lockheed Constellation. What a beautiful aeroplane.
posted by nthdegx at 7:28 AM on December 6, 2003

We've still got DC-3's flying round Cape Town. except now the once mighty 'Dakota' has been relegated to schlepping tourists round the peninsula.
posted by PenDevil at 7:37 AM on December 6, 2003

Bummer: not even a mention of the Concorde... How soon they forget...
posted by JollyWanker at 9:06 AM on December 6, 2003

Actually, it is mentioned, if not by name.
posted by nthdegx at 9:10 AM on December 6, 2003

I flew in a DC 3 as a teenager - pretty amazing.
I was lucky enough to fly in the Concorde around the same time...can't believe it wasn't mentioned...

I've taken flying lessons in a Cessna...there's nothing to beat the feeling of it struggling to leave the ground, then doing so when you have the airspeed...it just floats up and you take it higher and higher.

One thing though - the Me262 was the second production and combat jet aircraft - Britain's Gloster Meteor beat by a week, and stayed in service for about 40 years in various capacities...
posted by tomcosgrave at 9:15 AM on December 6, 2003

This reminds me of my very favorite feature of Philadelphia's Franklin Institute when I was two. It was a glassed-in display case the entire length of a corridor, in which depended fanatically detailed models representing the history of aviation, in sequence.

Mmmmm, North American B-70 Valkyrie. Mmmmm, Ryan X-13 Vertijet. Etc. ad libitum.
posted by adamgreenfield at 9:44 AM on December 6, 2003

American Plane Hall of Fame. There was one nod to the German first jet aircraft. B-17? Victors write the history, Germans, Russians, Japanese all had important WWII planes. No British planes?
posted by stbalbach at 9:55 AM on December 6, 2003

adamgreenfield, if you ever find yourself within 100 miles of Dayton, OH (you're a bit far, judging from your profile), go to the AF museum. They have a hall of experimental planes, including the Ryan X-13 and the only XB-70 left in existance. The Valkyrie is ENORMOUS. I have no idea how they got something that gigantic going that fast. The SR-71 looks like an ant next to it.
posted by zsazsa at 10:27 AM on December 6, 2003

they listed the b-17. wasn't that the plane (ater the raf's lancasters) used for the massacre of civilians in dresden? and also famous for being shot down (they flew during the day). seems an odd one to remember. if you're going to recognise something from ww2 wouldn't a spitfire be more appropriate?

oh, and the b-29 below just. boy, they're on a roll... (and then they rate the spitfire lower than the mustang. sigh.)
posted by andrew cooke at 11:34 AM on December 6, 2003

Man, they left out the U2, the Rosencrantz to the Cold War's Hamlet.
posted by ssukotto at 12:28 PM on December 6, 2003

The Udvar-Hazy Center opens December 15, with the original Enterprise, an SR-71, and the Enola Gay.
posted by Wet Spot at 12:35 PM on December 6, 2003

Yeah, it's msnbc, so we can't expect a lot of international variety. What about the dehavilland Beaver? Or the Dash 8?

/sarcasm\ Or... nevermind, nothing good ever happens outside the US... /sarcasm\
posted by damclean2 at 10:41 AM on December 7, 2003