Aeroplane Icons – your thoughts?

Stan – by my criterion although just before my time I should have included Miles because of my father’s history there as Phillips and Powis – Miles was a part of my life as a youngster and my first flight was nearly s Magister!

Spitfire, I wouldn’t need any persuading to tackle that subject! As ever, the main reason I’ve avoided it so far is the lack of decent material. Okay there is some, but not much. Sadly, even the Avro photos were sold off to a private individual 🙁

And it could be argued that the Piper Cub established the mould from which the Cessna grew.

Only in terms of being a low cost GA aircraft, not so much on the airframe side.
All postwar Cessnas were metal moncoque fuselages…and wings went all metal by 1949..not Piper-style tube & fabric.
The low cost all metal Piper wouldn’t come along until the advent of the Cherokee series in the early 60s.

Don’t forget that little firm at Reading and the company down the road at Newbury.
(Miles and Elliots)

Nimrod

And it could be argued that the Piper Cub established the mould from which the Cessna grew.

Despite the near demise of the above archive due to the waterworks incident 😡

There are pictures out there of aircraft, but nobody has ever succeeded in get a BIG archive together…. I suspect that everyone that has read this forum in the last ## odd years has a collection, but getting it together and managing it would be no mean feat in itself.

And how many veterans relatives have binned stuff they didn’t know what to do with? let alone the manufacturers that have done it…..

T

Surely where not enough material is available for an “Icon” bookzine then the place to publish is the Database section of Aeroplane. If you feel there is too much information to fit the monthly page limit then spread over two issues. If you (publishers) keep pushing the single type mag then there will be no material left for the Monthlies.

I’m a huge fan of general aviation types. There has been several good books, but more are always welcome.
Back in the 80s, Edward H. Phillips wrote nice type histories of Cessna, Beech and Piper. It had each models with the yearly improvements. Very good reference books if you’re at all interested in GA types.

I also agree with the need for information on pre-war types.
Personally, I’d like to see a book on the single engine airliners that (briefly) were popular.

Also, please don’t forget helicopters.
If the individual types aren’t enough to support a book, how about families?

Sikorsky (and Westland) a family of winners with the S-51…the world’s second commercial helicopter (Dragonfly), 55 (Whirwind), 56, 58 (Wessex), 61 (Sea King), 64 (Sky Crane), 65 (H-53), and 70 (Black Hawk) and their military offshoots.
and the Bell types…the 47, UH-1 and 206 JetRanger family…all were hugely important.

Cessna 150

And the 152

Totally agree, it brought flying to the masses and will never be seen again, Cessna looked at re-opening production, but sadly production costs would have priced it at the same as the 172 / 182 family, hence they were resurrected as opposed to the 152…. There is simply nothing to replace it.

..

Of course there was once a superb reference and picture archive located in West London, which comprised the ex JWR Taylor and Pilot Press collection. Which was combined with a rather stunning collection of airbrushed artworks….

Tim S

Here’s my list.

Piper Pawnee
Zlins 126 to 526
Cessna 150
Bucker Jungmann & Jungmeister
Pilatus P2
Yak II
Tipsy types. Trainer, Belfair and Nipper
Beagle Pup & SA Bulldog
BN Islander & Trislander
Percival Mew Gull
Stampe SV4
Pitts Specials
DH Heron

Fairly fox, and other Fairey biplanes, particularly the Phantome, but I like Rpsmith’s list as well.

Scotavia – totally agree. My single entry suggestion was not meant to be restrictive – in fact those which comprise a family of types can be extremely interesting. I share a similar specific interest in the Rapide as it was the first aircraft I flew in – joyriding from London Airport as was in 1947/8.

MikeJ and RPSmith I think you will know why there’s never much material on aircraft from that era! I seriously doubt if we’d ever find enough decent material to produce an “Icons” on some of the types mentioned. Begs the question though, would it be worth covering more than one subject if there wasn’t enough good material to produce a complete issue on just one subject? Obviously that would enable us to look at less-common topics but then you’d no longer have the same 20k of text (so it would be an even shorter potted history) and not as many photos. Is it better to cover the more obscure stuff to the best of our ability, or better to concentrate on the subjects we can make a full issue with?

The DH Dragon Rapide is appealing however I would extend the coverage to include the Dragon and Dragonfly. Lots of interesting stories around these types,my particular interests are Blackpool joyriders and Scottish pioneer air services.

Another type mentioned is the Auster family which seems overshadowed by the influx of American light aircraft,the last article I have is a 2 part history in Aviation News.

I can only suggest additional types as I haven’t read any of the (so far) published titles. Will gladly express views if there are any free samples going :highly_amused:

Like pop groups or Hollywood stars any list of icons is affected by it’s date of creation. So, as the likes of the Lancaster, P-51, Spitfire, me.262, Hunter, etc. have already been covered so many times, I would go further back. What were the iconic aircraft in the 30 years before WW2?

Vickers Vimy – due to it’s pioneering flights but also covering it’s operational career in the RAF and it’s various derivatives.
DH.60 Moth – again many pioneering flights but also role as a sporting light aeroplane.
Bleriot XI – it did a lot more than being the first aircraft to fly the English Channel.
Boeing 247
Avro 504 – operational career and it’s importance in helping make the UK population ‘air-minded’
DH.88 Comet
Hawker Hart and derivatives
Gloster Gladiator
Supermarine S.6b – perhaps also covering the other famous (iconic in their time) Schneider racers ie Macchi, Curtiss.
Fokker Eindekker
Boeing 707
Zeppelin (do airships count?)

I could go on…… (and on…)

Roger Smith.

Whoever said it did begin then??:confused: I expressed my opinion as to my interpretation of the term “icon”. That is entirely different from an aviation enthusiast’s view of the term which would of course encompass aircraft from the Wright Brothers onwards, as I implied. Iconic status, for me, is born out of personal experience and mine only goes back 70 odd years!!

Charlie’s list is the main reason why I don’t buy these things, the view that aviation history suddenly began in 1945 (or even 1939!)

I like the sound of that last sentence!!;) And so it’s bound to be a welcome surprise. And I realised some of my choices had already been done. And there is of course another list which covers those aircraft perceived as iconic by a majority of both enthusiasts and aviation lovers. Some of those will be at Duxford next month and I can’t wait for the annual fix. But I did not grow up with most of them, or at least only through the eyes and ears of a toddler during a war, so they are not personally iconic.