Most influential aircraft?

[CJS]

What do UKAR members think? What is the one aircraft which has had the greatest impact on history - aviation or otherwise?

It's obviously an unanswerable question but I'm interested to know what you think and why?

The Wright Flyer? Hawker Hurricane? B52? Douglas DC2? Boeing 707? BAE Hawk?

Don't know what I'd go for but one of either the Hurricane - for its role in the BoB and therefore arguably stopping Nazism spreading throughout Europe, 707 for revolutionizing air travel or the Harrier for truly breaking the mould.

But I can't decide!

[Hasboman]

Concorde?

[PhilEAF92]

Grumman Duck

[capercaillie]

Thunderbird 2

[Wissam24]

Montgolfier balloon.

[DanO1978]

Waiting for the first person to say "Avro Vulcan"...

In all seriousness, it has to be the Wright Flyer. Though Brazilians would have you believe Santos-Dumont's 14-bis was the first aeroplane to take-off under it's own power, rather than via rails or a catapult...

[LennyL]

B-47 Stratojet must be a good candidate - in view of what followed from the Boeing design offices...

And by virtue of ubiquity, the Douglas DC-3/C-47 may also have a strong claim on this title...

[WaterBoy2090]

Fokker Eindecker. It's immediate and lasting impact on fighter design, tactics and operations are still apparent today.

[john001]

Comet - particularly after the accidents from which a lot was learnt by the industry on design, metal fatigue pressurisation

[Rampvan]

The Bleriot XI for proving international air travel was feesable

[CJS]

Interesting replies - I bet with 100 replies there'd be 100 different aircraft (and still no one would say the Vulcan Dan .

Or the JP )

I've slept on it - narrowed it down to three, the Hurricane, the 70...doh!!!

[106500]

Gotta be the Spitfire surely; a wartime legend and certainly the most well known?

[Domvickery]

Surely has to be the DC-3?

[Wes_Howes]

I'll throw my hat into the ring with the Sikorsky R-4. The first, mass produced helicopter using the layout we now all recognise. Not much changed in helo design since, apart from the big twin rotor, heavy lift choppers and now the V-22 and AugustaWestland 609

[Aviation94]

I'm with Hasboman

got to be concorde

[DanH]

DH Comet maybe?

[Thumper]

There are influential aircraft for different aspects of aviation, I don't think you can pick 1 that covers the whole thing, at least I can't anyway!

Obviously the Wright Flyer makes everything else possible, the Spitfire, Hurricane and Lancaster for being war hero's, iconic and more, Concorde for supersonic civilian air travel, the XP-86 Sabre the first swept wing fighter, the Lightning for it's insane climb rate and achieving Mach 2, F-8 Crusader the first fly by wire aircraft, the Horten Ho 229 the first stealth aircraft, the YF-16 for it's fly by wire and purposely built to be unstable to aid it's incredible manouverability, the A320 for being the first fly by wire airliner, the super manouverable SU-27, the Harrier for obvious reasons, the DC3 for revolutionising air travel and surely one of the longest surviving aircraft with them still being used commercially today, the VC10 the fastest subsonic crossing of the Atlantic a record I believe it still holds, the 737 the biggest selling jet airliner of all time. I'm going to have to stop now. Sorry I failed to provide just 1 aircraft!

[Spiny Norman]

History-wise - has to be the B-29. It played a major part in ending a world war and ushered in an era of strategic nuclear-armed bombers being seen as the supreme component of nations' armed forces.

[Seahornet]

If the question is regarding the aircraft itself, then I'd propose the C-130, which has been influencing history for nearly 60 years, in war zones, disaster areas and research programmes, amongst many other scenarios. And, it has a good few years left in it yet!

In this context, suggesting Concorde is laughable - for a couple of decades, it allowed a tiny privileged elite to save a few hours across the Atlantic. Its time came and went, and its effect on today's world is absolutely nil. However, the research that went into its development, and the kudos of its achievement - well that's a whole different thing!

[Wissam24]

There are influential aircraft for different aspects of aviation, I don't think you can pick 1 that covers the whole thing, at least I can't anyway!

Obviously the Wright Flyer makes everything else possible, the Spitfire, Hurricane and Lancaster for being war hero's, iconic and more, Concorde for supersonic civilian air travel, the XP-86 Sabre the first swept wing fighter, the Lightning for it's insane climb rate and achieving Mach 2, F-8 Crusader the first fly by wire aircraft, the Horten Ho 229 the first stealth aircraft, the YF-16 for it's fly by wire and purposely built to be unstable to aid it's incredible manouverability, the A320 for being the first fly by wire airliner, the super manouverable SU-27, the Harrier for obvious reasons, the DC3 for revolutionising air travel and surely one of the longest surviving aircraft with them still being used commercially today, the VC10 the fastest subsonic crossing of the Atlantic a record I believe it still holds, the 737 the biggest selling jet airliner of all time. I'm going to have to stop now. Sorry I failed to provide just 1 aircraft!

Going to have to draw you up on a few things here...

The first non-experimental aircraft with FBW was the Avro Arrow...followed by Concorde (which is therefore the first FBW airliner)! The Crusader was a specific experimental one to test digital FBW.

Both the Me163 and 262 featured swept wings and came before the Sabre.

Also, in my opinion the Lightning's main achievement is being the first aircraft to achieve supercruise.

[SPLAT]

The Wright flyer , Bell X1 ,breaking the sound barrier
Both showed us what could be achieved.

[ericbee123]

The Wright flyer , Bell X1 ,breaking the sound barrier
Both showed us what could be achieved.

Yes. It wasn't like others where also trying to do these things at the time and these just happened to be the first. Without them , the result would be exactly the same, someone else would have achieved powered flight and broke the sound barrier a few months ( or days ) later.

[Pringles]

Surely those who are saying Spitfire, the Supermarine S.6B must come before it as lead to the Spitfire?

[Red Dragon]

Well I propose the Gloster E.28/39, if it wasn't for the experimental aircraft body (no propeller or recognisable power plant) built around an experimental engine type (both types of unknown quantity) it thankfully turned into a major success for industry and history

[Thumper]

There are influential aircraft for different aspects of aviation, I don't think you can pick 1 that covers the whole thing, at least I can't anyway!

Obviously the Wright Flyer makes everything else possible, the Spitfire, Hurricane and Lancaster for being war hero's, iconic and more, Concorde for supersonic civilian air travel, the XP-86 Sabre the first swept wing fighter, the Lightning for it's insane climb rate and achieving Mach 2, F-8 Crusader the first fly by wire aircraft, the Horten Ho 229 the first stealth aircraft, the YF-16 for it's fly by wire and purposely built to be unstable to aid it's incredible manouverability, the A320 for being the first fly by wire airliner, the super manouverable SU-27, the Harrier for obvious reasons, the DC3 for revolutionising air travel and surely one of the longest surviving aircraft with them still being used commercially today, the VC10 the fastest subsonic crossing of the Atlantic a record I believe it still holds, the 737 the biggest selling jet airliner of all time. I'm going to have to stop now. Sorry I failed to provide just 1 aircraft!

Going to have to draw you up on a few things here...

The first non-experimental aircraft with FBW was the Avro Arrow...followed by Concorde (which is therefore the first FBW airliner)! The Crusader was a specific experimental one to test digital FBW.

Both the Me163 and 262 featured swept wings and came before the Sabre.

Also, in my opinion the Lightning's main achievement is being the first aircraft to achieve supercruise.

The F-8 was the first digital FBW without mechanical back up (same goes for the A320 over Concorde). What I wrote has come from books I have read and documentaries I have watched and before writing my post I did check facts using Google and Wikipedia, so it's that lot that need 'drawing up on a few things'