Worst looking

[Spiny Norman]

In the interests of balance, what are the real horrors of design? The aircraft only a designer's mother could love.

Almost as hard to decide on as with what's a good looking craft, but this Yak is my pick. It's like a puffed-up toad.

[DeanW]

This ugly Chilean thing!

[phreakf4]

Some of the inter-war Amiot or Bloch bombers?





Pictures from Wiki

[boff180]

Has to be the x32

[tommercer]

Has to be the Beluga

[iaint]

Has to be the x32

Have to agree with you there...


Iain

[Niallxg]

This is possibly an even harder list narrow down.

Here's a few suggestions, in no particular order

1) Fairey Gannet
2) Vought F7U Cutlass, they should have known from the start it wouldn't work.
3) Budd RB-1 Conestoga, apparently only 17 were built, the surviving example is in the Pima museum undergoing restoration, but this link gives a glimpse of what it was like. http://www.pimaair.org/collection-detail.php?cid=44

[Koen L]

Blackburn Blackburn (even the name's stupid)

[Red Dragon]

I've always though that this - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:IAR-80.jpg was something to induce

[T_J]

The F-5 modified as the Shaped Sonic Boom Demonstration. Only a Mother could love it!



The Stipa Caproni.

http://www.seqair.com/Hangar/Zuccoli/Le ... gends.html

[jwarnerxh558]

think personally it has to be the Argosy! cant stand it!!!

[Arthur Tee]

How about the Short Seamew?

Arthur

[Lumix]

This is possibly an even harder list narrow down.

Here's a few suggestions, in no particular order

1) Fairey Gannet
2) Vought F7U Cutlass, they should have known from the start it wouldn't work.
3) Budd RB-1 Conestoga, apparently only 17 were built, the surviving example is in the Pima museum undergoing restoration, but this link gives a glimpse of what it was like. http://www.pimaair.org/collection-detail.php?cid=44

Interesting shot here of the beast in Flying Tiger colours: http://www.avionslegendaires.net/Images/Grb1.jpg

[stratocaster]

The worst looking? Ohh this is a tough one,,but sorry to those who liked it despite it never really entering service but I nominate the "Valkyrie",,Jeez! what were they thinking!!! It looked like a ruined Concorde on steroids! Guppy and Beluga come very close!

[RodMcKenzie]

On the obvious front, I'd back up the Gannet suggestion, especially in AEW form - my dad thinks it falls into the "so ugly it's beautiful" category, I rather favour "so ugly it's damned ugly".

However, others have nominated some weird & wonderful one-offs, so behold the horror that was the Beardmore Inflexible... http://www.aviastar.org/air/england/beardmore_inflexible.php

[Agg]

Apart from the abominations that have already been mentioned in this thread I would like to add the JF-17 Thunder...

[Seahornet]

How about the Blohm und Voss Bv-141? The only things that are symmetrical about it are the type number, and that it's equally ugly from either side...!

[AlexC]

The Avro Bison was very similar to the Blackburn Blackburn, and almost as ugly.

[stratocaster]

Did the BV 141 actually fly? It's hideous! Looks like a motorbike and side car!! A truly terrible aircraft if ever I saw one!!

[Seahornet]

Did the BV 141 actually fly? It's hideous! Looks like a motorbike and side car!! A truly terrible aircraft if ever I saw one!!

It did indeed, and was moderately successful as an airborne observation post. A similar concept to the Edgeley Optica (another one for the 'worst-looking' list!), the weird design was conceived to give near 360° visibility - to starboard, anyway!

[Stonefaction]

Raytheon Premier 1 is one that really sticks out as being an ugly plane to me. Just looks all wrong.

[trebleone]

This must be a contender:

SNUD-U14

"The bent fuselage of the Snud U-14 stood for many years as a Soviet military secret; only after the last example of this little-known type had safely crashed was it revealed. During the design stage in 1938, a blueprint had been wrinkled accidentally and because nobody would own up to responsibility - since damaging state property carried the death penalty - the mistake went unchecked and into production. As a work-horse transport aircraft, this behemoth of the blue, with its four Kapodny-Gific engines, each producing 400 hp, and its vast cargo capacity, "had everything." Unusual features were tiny cockpits on each wing, where an engineer sat supervising the engines, and solid pig-iron wheels. These last ingeniously skirted the Russian rubber shortage, but caused another problem; reports claim the locomotive-style wheels so badly chewed up even paved landing strips that bringing a Snud to earth meant maximum risk to plane, crew and all nearby buildings and collective farms. Obliquely, this may explain the Soviet insistence that a Snud had set a world record for nonstop flight in 1941 - staying aloft over 64 hours while traveling nearly 3500 miles and averaging over 54 mph - and also why the pilot and navigator were transported to Siberia immediately after landing and receiving the Order of Heavy Industry."

Or how about this:
Dombrowski-Sedlitz Helicopter

"As World War Two Loomed on the horizon, a number of the more progressive thinkers on the Polish general staff realized That mobility would be a great factor against the German Panzers if fighting broke out. This meant rapid movement of their elite cavalry and horse-drawn artillery—faster than even the Polish railway system could carry them. Finally, a design submitted by the famous Polish aero firm of Dombrowski-Sedlitz was settled upon, a secret helicopter-an log iro machine powerful enough to lift a mounted cavalry battalion of five 85mm artillery pieces and caissons. However, its 6000-hp diesel locomotive engine, coupled with the riveted, sheet-iron construction of the fuselage, left the Dambrowski-Sedlitz weighing a hefty 56 tons. This gave it barely enough power to lift itself into the ozone, much less its pay load. What's more, the engine took up so much room that the only remaining space was consumed by the pilot and three mechanics it took to operate the craft while in flight.
This handicap, plus a vexing tendency for the machine to break its manual, nonsynchro, three-speed transmission—leaving the propellers powerless—forced its grounding after two flights. Minus its wheels and propellers, it presently powers a Ferris wheel and merry-go-round at the People's amusement park in Bydgoszcz."

[SPLAT]

AEW Nimrod or Japanese AEW C1 are pretty gross.
A10 ugly but"well hung"

[vtwo]

think personally it has to be the Argosy! cant stand it!!!

Have to agree together with the shorts skyvan. Someone mentioned the beluga but I quite like the look of that.

[Unknown74]

"Sorry" A-10A...........