Aircraft equivalent of the "Yugo"?

[Andrew D. the Jolly Rogers guy]

This just in...

Dateline, Ruston, Louisiana, Louisiana Tech University. An attempted college prank backfired when the 512th attempt to vandalize the university's statue of the "Lady of the Mist" (known locally as the B**** in the Bayou) by removing her head, this time using military hardware, resulted in the destruction of the male athlete's dormitory. Apparently, the attacking pilots sneezed at a critical moment, throwing off the projected weapons delivery by nearly a half mile.

Although the loss of life was greatly mourned, the loss of the football team was considered to have minimal impact on the college sports scene.

Also to be commended were the gallant Aviation majors of the university, who managed to ward off the followup attacks by the Raptor fighters with their cutting edge Cessna 152's and 172RG's.

"It just wasn't even fair," lamented one Raptor pilot, "the laws of physics simply don't apply to a Cessna being flown by an inexperienced pilot who can't even fly straight-and-level."

Edited February 24, 2007 by Andrew D. the Jolly Rogers guy

[pingu1]

How about the plane in Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome. I forget what it is called except that it was an Aussie agricultural aircraft, and I even remember even seeing in one of the books from the 80's artwork of it carrying ASuW and ASW weapons marketed as a coastal patrol aircraft - fugly

Help me out what was it called!

Matt

That would be the Transavia PL-12 Airtruk :

Cheers,

Chris.

[Karl Sander]

"It just wasn't even fair," lamented one Raptor pilot, "the laws of physics simply don't apply to a Cessna being flown by an inexperienced pilot who can't even fly straight-and-level."

Paraphrased from SOMEWHERE no doubt - I just can't remember where...

[skyliner]

My first thought when I saw this thread was the Temco TT Pinto:

http://www.airliners.net/open.file/0349358/L/

Maybe it has something to do with "Pinto" sounding like "Yugo."

How about the Piper PA-8 Skycycle? Its fuselage was made from a surplus WWII drop tank:

http://1000aircraftphotos.com/Contribution...umaker/4499.htm

Or how about the PZL M-15 Belphegor? A jet-powered crop duster with a cabin so you could carry a passenger or two while you were spraying, aside from the fact that it was dangerous to fly:

http://www.airliners.net/open.file/1134812/L/

These are the kind of planes I think of as "ones you wouldn't want to be seen driving." I know the F7U was kind of goofy-looking, even in those days of transitional aerodynamic engineering, but I've got at least one book that claims, "Despite a poor accident record...the Cutlass was popular, being unbreakable in alleged 16G maneuvers, exciting to fly, and an excellent aerobatic machine."

And in regards to Brewster, at least they built some Corsairs under license, right?

Edited February 24, 2007 by skyliner

[Karl Sander]

"...the Cutlass was popular, being unbreakable in alleged 16G maneuvers"

I'd hate to be the dude who found THAT out...

[rolfetechart]

LWS-6 Zubr. So bad the wings used to fall off (allegedly). Pic says it all. Must be a contender for one of the ugliest aircraft ever conceived as well

Edited February 24, 2007 by rolfetechart

[Andrew D. the Jolly Rogers guy]

Paraphrased from SOMEWHERE no doubt - I just can't remember where...

Yep. Raptors at Red Flag. Couldn't resist. ;)

[hatchet]

PZL M-15 Belphegor

Jeez, that's horrid

Belphegor - sounds kinda like Belzebub...

[smithery]

Although I love the Westland Wyvern, you could argue that it was a bit of a turkey - troubled development, short service life, not very well liked by pilots or groundcrew, poor resale value?

It still won't stop me having a soft spot for it though :)

Sadly, I'd have to agree. Only a handful ever made, only operational for three or four years, then every single one of them (except for one prototype) were melted down for the scrap metal.

[mycole]

well, i don't have a nomination for the ygo of the skies, but i must confess that my silly father was so proud on that fateful day that he drove home in his brand new navy blue yugo.

boy was i embarassed.

i took it out late one night on I-17 in phoenix and decided to see how fast it would go. i was shocked to see 97 mph on the speedo!! but oh, that poor little engine was just screaming this terrible high pitch squeal. so, i just cranked up the billy idol even louder to drown it out

damned little yugo. i hated that car. but my father sure loved it.

[A6BSTARM]

I don't think the Buffalo should be on that list. It preformed pretty well over Finland ,and Ragoon, Singapore, and the Dutch East Indies. One of the New Zealanders best pilots during world war 2 scored most of his kills in a Brewster Buffalo while flying above Singapore. The Finns flew the Buffalo well into 1944 and didn't completely retire it until 1947. From what I have read the Buffalo in Finnish service they pilots were able to hold thier own even with Me-109's, FW-190's and even some Yak-9's.

My vote for the Yugo of aircraft would be the North American AJ Savage.

It was a hybrid bird with rotary engines up front and some jet engines in the aft section. It was supposed to be able to deliever a nuclear weapon off a carrier, but was such a bear to fly it that according to one pilot I listen to describe that it was more of a fight just to keep it in level flight.

[Karl Sander]

It preformed pretty well over Finland ,and Rangoon, Singapore, and the Dutch East Indies.

"Summers in Rangoon, luge lessons. In the spring we'd make meat helmets. When I was insolent I was placed in a burlap bag and beaten with reeds- pretty standard really."

[Vesper]

Dateline, Ruston, Louisiana, Louisiana Tech University. An attempted college prank backfired when the 512th attempt to vandalize the university's statue of the "Lady of the Mist" (known locally as the B**** in the Bayou) by removing her head, this time using military hardware, resulted in the destruction of the male athlete's dormitory. Apparently, the attacking pilots sneezed at a critical moment, throwing off the projected weapons delivery by nearly a half mile.

Although the loss of life was greatly mourned, the loss of the football team was considered to have minimal impact on the college sports scene.

Also to be commended were the gallant Aviation majors of the university, who managed to ward off the followup attacks by the Raptor fighters with their cutting edge Cessna 152's and 172RG's.

"It just wasn't even fair," lamented one Raptor pilot, "the laws of physics simply don't apply to a Cessna being flown by an inexperienced pilot who can't even fly straight-and-level."

Yeah, imagin 20 Craptor drivers screaming "Oh Sh**, I'm stalling!" while trying to stay on a 172's six.

Dam, I should convince Odom to get us some Tweets ;)

Ves ;)

[I love airbrushing]

Sorry, gotta disagree. The Yak 3 was a formiddable airframe. . .it was more maneuverable than a Spitfire and so effective as a dogfighter that the Luftwaffe warned its pilots to RUN AWAY from them if they encountered them below 10,000 feet! That's a pretty darned good reccomendation in my book!

Sure, the MiG 3 at low altitude or the hopelessly outdated (by the time WWII broke out) I-16 were seriously outclassed by the BF-109 and especially the FW 190. . .but the Soviet planes by and large were sturdy, easy to fly, and some of them, as I mentioned above, actually stacked up quite well against the competition.

Cheers

Old Blind Dog

Yeah, I guess I kinda formulated my original post in a wrong way. I shouldn't have said "any WW2 Russian aircraft", but those planes that were outclassed. Anyway, sorry if I've spurred any issues. ;)

I was kinda upset about school on the day I posted this - may this be a lesson: never build models or talk on forums when I'm angry ;) .

On the other hand, the words of a substitute teacher in my history class were still echoing through my head, and I quote: "Russian machines from the second world war (i.e. planes and tanks) were very cheap to build, yet they were very weak in quality and built in great numbers. There was one for everyone!!"

Doesn't it sound familiar? :)

[Sabre F-86]

What? No rebuttal to the ME-210?

Sabre

[David Walker]

What? No rebuttal to the ME-210?

No, I think you pretty much nailed that one. It was quite the dog.

[silver1]

Worst of both worlds.

This or the He 177. BTW, I owned a Renault "LeCar". A yugo couldn't have been much worse.

[David Walker]

Worst of both worlds.

It's frightening to imagine what Yugo would have come up with if they had gone in this direction. Probably a car that ran badly attached to a ratty hang-glider.

[silver1]

And then, speaking of WWII Russian aircraft, there's this beast.

[Andrew D. the Jolly Rogers guy]

Dude...I've heard of a Flying Tank, but that's ridiculous!!!

[pingu1]

Dude...I've heard of a Flying Tank, but that's ridiculous!!!

In order to get it light enough to have a chance of taking off successfully with the tow aircraft available at the time, they had to remove the turret - which kinda defeats the object of the exercise... On the one and only test flight, the tow aircraft's engines overheated soon after takeoff. They dropped the tow, the glider pilot/ tank driver made a successful and controlled landing in a field near the airbase, shed the glider bits, and drove back home - hopefully to be rewarded with a double ratrion of vodka!

Cheers,

Chris.

[Just call me Ray]

And that's a cheap, little aircraft which everybody was joking about?

The Konkordski may not have been cheap, and aerodynamically was a fine aircraft, but it was flawed with some bad compromises and design decisions. Instead of windows it featured an ugly, tacky interior even for the 1970s (or so I hear) and it was so loud passengers were issued headphones and had to communicate to each other by passing notes. Many people who have actually flown on Concorde complain about its surprisingly spartan accutriments (especially lack of seat pitch), but it was without a doubt the lap of luxury compared to what I've read about the Tu-144!

As for the Traumahawk, I've heard the same stories from reading books, websites, and "first-hand accounts" from my student pilot days. Supposedly, like the Yugo, most of the problems came from rushed and indifferent production in an attempt to beat out not only the Beach Skipper (an airplane so similiar that many believe there was industrial espionage by one on the other, except for the fact that the Skipper ACTUALLY FLEW RIGHT!) but the C152 which was introduced around the same time. I've also heard (and read) that even with all the ADs and whatnot applied, no two airframes will stall (or even fly) quite identically, disqualifying the type from spin training. Then again, I've also heard from some pretty experienced pilots whose opinions I'm willing to put a good deal of faith into (including our own Barney - speaking of which, where's he been lately?) that it's a perfectly good airplane to fly that's no more of a danger to fly than a Skyhawk.

As for the Gutless Cutlass, I'm more familiar with this type, which if you ask me and a few hundred more student pilots is also a perfect canidate for this thread!:

[Ranger74]

My candidate is another winner from Curtiss - the BF2C-1. Curtiss took a great export plane the Curtiss Hawk III and replaced the wooden-framed wings with metal framed-wings. The harmonics of the new metal wing matched that of the engine. When the BF2C-1 was put into a dive (it was to be used as a dive bomber) the vibration in the the wing caused it to part ways with rest of the airframe. It was issued to only one Navy sqauadron and remained in service less than a year! The Hawk III saw active and successful service, wooden wing and all, with China, Thailand, Argentina, Finland, and many others. That put the end to Curtiss as a provider of fighters to theNavy until the 50s.

[Aggressor Supporter]

And then, speaking of WWII Russian aircraft, there's this beast.

[yardbird78]

Northrop C-125 Raider. Lots of potential, supposedly, but never went anywhere with the USAF. It did a little flying in Central and South America, but even those folks didn't like it. USAF Air Rescue Service used it for a little while, but only PJs were crazy enough to fly in it.

Edited February 25, 2007 by yardbird78