Whilst we are discussing quaint idioms, many of us trust that old American adage, “If it looks good, it’ll fly good” attributed to both Neil Armstrong and Bill Lear and is something that all pilots understand. There is something about a fine looking aircraft that makes it appear trustworthy and gives one confidence that it will perform well. Sadly, I know of one company, however, who seem to have looked at their aircraft through bottle bottom glasses… or perhaps they never got the memo.

The Dunne D5

The Type 184

The Cardington Gasbag

The Shorts S38

The Singapore

The Shorts Empire flying boat

The Sunderland

The COW gun

The Sunderland’s internal bomb racks

The Sunderland’s rest facilities

The Bombay

The long legged Stirling

The unlikely looking Seamew

Hurel-Dubois Miles 106 Caravan

The Shorts SC 7 Skyvan

The Shorts SD360

The coolest Skyvan ever… Pink!

Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to Marinha do Brasil, Short Bros of Cardington, the RAF, Shorts, the Library of Congress, SADSM, George Jackman, the Royal Navy, Adrian Pingstone, Tomás Del Coro and those images orphaned or in the Public Domain.