Can anyone think of an uglier flying machine than the R44?

[System Message]

It is easy to think of great looking aircraft. Try to find an uglier aircraft without giving regards to flying qualities, usefullness, or anything other than looks.
My vote is for the Robinson R44. The shape looks like Frank Robinson took a plastic ball and left it in the oven until it looked like the sperm that insemminated a tadpole.
The rotor mast is so long that the main rotor must be out of hover ceiling when the skids are at sea level.
The coning angle of the low enertia blades looks like it has the crisp control response of a balloon.
The great blunder of the cyclic. Just put a normal one on the floor please.
Buy Frank a ruler before he designs another helicopter.

[iflyforpie]

I think 44s look great. Even the 22, though it should have a spring to push the collective down before the horn goes off, isn't a bad looking machine.

You want ugly? The S-51. The K-Max. The S-64. The Allouette and Llama. STL might toast this post, but I always thought the 369/500/600 looked like flying eggs and even worse with the NOTAR.

All opinion of course.

[photofly]

This page has some pretty strong contenders:
http://www.techxilla.com/2010/08/19/20- ... igns-ever/

[KT111]

PZ04 Wilga is a stupid looking plane, IMO and from what I have witnessed, incredibly awkward to fly (and land):

[Panama Jack]

You beat me to it KT111.

I am not a fan of the Airbus A380. Looks like a pregnant Beluga Whale with Down Syndrome.

[bmc]

The R44 is downright sexy next to this.

[short bus]

another vote for the a380 fatbus

[iflyforpie]

I just had to put a picture of the K-Max in here....

[Gogona]

The R44 is downright sexy next to this.

OMG! What's that???

To topicstarter:
R44 isn't cute as well as R22, that's true, but definitely you have nothing to compare with.
Try this, for instance:



UPD: I just thought, that the very first version of Navy "Banana" (Piasecki) was even cooler:

[BeechjetYKZ]

What about this monstrosity?



It looks like an anorexic walking stick on all fours.

[andy_mtl]

I think they Skyvan is the ugliest plane!

i wonder what they were thinking to put a pair a wing on a square tube!

[burhead1]

What about this monstrosity?



It looks like an anorexic walking stick on all fours.

hmm would you walk up to this guy and say he is ugly?

[golden hawk]

[Mitch Cronin]

I'm not sure if fixed wing beasties come any uglier than this one:

[KAG]

The R44 is downright sexy next to this.

Didn't they use that plane in a mad max movie...

[zed]

Yes. Its the same plane from Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome.

[zed]

But my vote for Mr. Ugly aircraft would go to either...

Caproni Stipa

Caproni_Stipa.jpg (43.43 KiB) Viewed 3475 times

OR

the Soviet Bartini Beriev VVA-14

vva14-3.jpg (59.08 KiB) Viewed 3475 times

Both of them have some pretty ugly points for me.

[trey kule]

I cant get a picture of it until October 31st, but my X-wife's broom is really ugly

[iflyforpie]

Yes, the Air Truk fit perfectly in the Mad Max movie because it looked like an aircraft that would have been put together from spare pieces in a post global war environment.

The truth is not very far off.... at least in the case of the Air Truk's immediate and quite similar looking (and arguably uglier) predecessor....

A strikingly unusual aircraft, the PL-11 Airtruck was designed as a de Havilland Tiger Moth replacement for the New Zealand aerial topdressing market by Luigi Pellarini in 1960 for Waitomo Aircraft. The prototype was constructed using bits of war surplus ex-RNZAF North American Harvards.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bennett_Airtruck

For those looking closely, that is indeed a Harvard canopy on the top of the plane. Kit bashing is fun, but who knew you could do it in real life?

[Shiny Side Up]

Hmm, the An-2 is getting old, we need a replacement. Let us not do things by halves this time, let there be jet powered biplanes!