Top Five Most Significant UK Aircraft Types

1. Tiger Moth – it taught so many to fly during WWII and brought private flying to so many after the war.
2. Hurricane – as other posts above: it did more than any other aircraft to hold back the Germans in 1940 and marked the transition from biplane to monoplane.
3. Mosquito – one of the first and most successful multi-role combat aircraft setting the pattern for combat aircraft right up to the modern day.
4. Comet – ushered in the age of commercial jet travel.
5. Tornado – has been the backbone of the RAF’s combat capability for more than a quarter of a century.

1. Spitfire – so obvious…. battle proven.
2. Hurricane – same reason
3. Harrier – Still the only operational VTOL jet
4. Concorde – pushed technology
5. BAe Hawk – I am afraid it’s significance is that it is the last UK designed fast jet, but a very good one. ‘Dunno if EAP would count here…. and how much of it went into Eurofighter.

1. Sopwith Camel, a superlative fighter during WW1.
2. Hurricane, the workhorse that won the Battle Of Britain.
3. Lightning, the only all British Mach 2 fighter ever built and many aspects of its performance outperform many modern aircraft.
4. Harrier, a truly original and very capable aircraft design.
5. Tornado, a true balls out low level strike aircraft.

If the TSR2 had ever been in service then this aircraft would have replaced the Lightning in my top 5.

Seems to me the TSR2 excelled in an area which was not mentioned in the original post, vis. that the eyes of the nation were on it as the next generation of ground-hugging attack aircraft and the population was stunned almost speechless by the government’s action in cancelling it and spending our money instead on an American F111. This was of course part of the ‘special relationship’ we have with the American nation which included all sorts of unequal deals such as the exchange of ‘secret’ data in which we gave USA the M52 and got… did we get anything? .. at all? right up to Tony Blair leaping out of his seat to support a warmongering (and scarcely intelligible) US president in attacking…. oh, what’s the point?!
So the TSR2, although only one of our many types to have suffered death at the hands of our own government it probably was the landmark at which the great public disappointmnt (apathy) began to infect the nation.

For anybody wanting more on the TSR2 and an article entitled ‘Wings clipped and cancelled’ the RAF Yearbook for 1976 the place to look.

To other matters, I see Concorde has been mentioned… a technological one-and-only certainly but did it ever make money as an overall concern or is the taxpayer still paying interest?

One notable type not yet mentioned is the Harrier which did so well in the Falklands escapade. That would have my vote, I mean I can’t think of another type that the Americans bought from us!

So here’s my list:

1. Spitfire (Goering asked his boss for some)
2. Mosquito (outstanding use of natural materials in all areas of conflict)
3. Harrier (first true VTOL and American license-building)
4. Canberra (Excellence and consequent longevity)
5. Vampire / Venom (first jet fighters)

1. Sopwith F.1 Camel (won the air war in WW I)
2. Fairey Swordfish (won the sea war in the Mediterranean, and the Bismark also comes to mind) What balls those guys had.
3. Hurricane (the real workhorse of the Battle of Britain)
4. Lancaster (no explanation needed)
5. P-51 (this airplane was really invented when you Brits installed the Merlin!)

Ooh I see Canberra aperciation going on! Good to see her getting the appreciation the type spent over half the entire existence of the RAF earning! 😀

As such:

EE Canberra – 55 years of service and so many roles fulfilled has got to earn first place surely?
Gloster E28/39 – Somewhat changed the nature of frontline of military aviation
DH Comet – Somewhat changed the nature of Civilian aviation
Hawker Hurricane – Big step in design priniciples (ie monoplane)
Couldn’t decide on the last one so had to split it:
Gloster Gladiator – Last stand of the biplane in frontline service, seems worthy
Gloster Meteor – First production step towards military aviation as we know it today?

Interested to see some other views 😀

Oh and here are my top five:

Hawker Hurricane – for its historic impact during BoB.

de Havilland DH.89 Dragon Rapide – most commercially succesfull British airliner in terms of numbers build. Also played a significant part in the evolution of civilian air trafic.

Avro Anson – for training a significant part of the WWII multiengine crews.

English Electric Canberra – for most successful British military jet (production numbers and service life) and for allround awesomeness.

Westland-Hill Pterodactyl V – for the best use of the word Pterodactyl and generally discouraging the use of Lysergic acid diethylamide while designing aircraft.

1. Spitfire
2. Vickers Vimy
3. D.H Comet
4. Canberra
5. Viscount

It seems that people forget to write the reason for their choice.

In particular I would like to hear, why TSR-2 is so significant in any of the catagories mentioned in the OP.

All other aircraft mentioned, have had a successful operational life. TSR-2 certainly didn’t.

An amazing aircraft, but surely not among the top 5 British aircraft types of all time….

1 Venom
2 Sea Venom
3 Night Venom
4 Export Venom
5 Vampire

You know why!!;)

And now I’m off to brush up on my Cold War history, of which I have so little grasp after being an integral part of it for 30 odd years.:D

Happy New Year

(Look forward to reading some more meaningful and interesting replies).

Ha! I love you now. :D:D

1 Vickers Viscount
2 Vickers Valiant
3 DH Mosquito
4 TSR2
5 BAC/ Aerospatiale Concorde

I’m with you.

Great minds think alike…

Bri :diablo:

1 Venom
2 Sea Venom
3 Night Venom
4 Export Venom
5 Vampire

You know why!!;)

And now I’m off to brush up on my Cold War history, of which I have so little grasp after being an integral part of it for 30 odd years.:D

Happy New Year

(Look forward to reading some more meaningful and interesting replies).

😀 😀 Brilliant – even better than trying to find and ‘Prune’ Lightning negatives! :diablo:

We’ve got two ‘National Benchmark Venoms’ where I volunteer; although Bruce might know where they have more.

http://www.newarkairmuseum.org/aircraftlist.htm

1 Vickers Viscount
2 Vickers Valiant
3 DH Mosquito
4 TSR2
5 BAC/ Aerospatiale Concorde

PMSL 😀

1 Venom
2 Sea Venom
3 Night Venom
4 Export Venom
5 Vampire

You know why!!;)

And now I’m off to brush up on my Cold War history, of which I have so little grasp after being an integral part of it for 30 odd years.:D

Happy New Year

(Look forward to reading some more meaningful and interesting replies).