by EdwardDiego
2 subcomments
- I was lucky enough as a young child to see one of these working a high country farm - it was operating off a sloped runway and I was convinced it was going to crash as it landed uphill, then convinced it was going to crash after it took off after reloading due to how slowly it climbed - I can't find a definitive number, but I vaguely recall it had a take off speed that lurked around 50kt...
On the subject of top-dressers... ...I was privileged to see a turboprop equipped Fletcher FU-24 in action a couple of weeks ago, those pilots are very darn good at flying very low in hill country. Very loud and notable engine sound.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fletcher_FU-24
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PZL_M-15_Belphegor
The M-15 is still uglier. Also intended as a cropduster, though unlike the AirTruk it was really bad at that job in every way.
by charles_f
2 subcomments
- > airtruk
You got to love that even its name is utilitarian.
This is such a cool story. Airplanes seem such a complex, standardized, full of red tape and elitist thing that such stories of hackers starting to pull random beams together and you get a thing that flies are pretty inspiring... And yet it also sound quite well thought. As usual, there is more than meets the eye
by stackghost
2 subcomments
- I actually think the Super Guppy[0] is the ugliest, hotly contested by the Optica[1]
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aero_Spacelines_Super_Guppy
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgley_Optica
by recursivecaveat
1 subcomments
- From all the examples in the comments, I'm learning that the most reliable way to make an extremely ugly aircraft is a stubby look where the body is tall and the rear half seems to just end early.
- Steve Death does sound like a Mad Max name.
- It looks kinda cute if you ask me
by WalterBright
0 subcomment
- > agricultural airplanes don’t make money when they are on the ground
Neither do any other airplane types. Airliners, for example, are designed to minimize the need for maintenance and the fastest turnaround, because an airliner loses money at a prodigious rate when it sits on the ground.
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transavia_PL-12_Airtruk
aussie plane makes me think of the aussie flyer in the road warrior. (not even the same, but spiritually)
- "He started with a large, steel, barrel-shaped tank and began adding."
I thought everybody used aluminum?
by userbinator
0 subcomment
- Did anyone else think the first photo was AI-generated at first, due to how unusual it looked?
by WalterBright
1 subcomments
- We doan need no steenkin' fuselage!
by atrealadam
0 subcomment
- good job!
by JumpCrisscross
0 subcomment
- …can I still get one?
by burnt-resistor
0 subcomment
- 9 fatalities in 88 incidents from 1967-2010 of 138 built 1966-1993.
It's possible some are still intact and maybe a couple are still flyable. The only recent evidence any maybe still intact is a 2017 photo of ZK-CVB on static museum display at MOTAT NZ.
https://aviation-safety.net/asndb/type/PL12
https://www.airhistory.net/photo/896371/ZK-CVB
by thumbsup-_-
0 subcomment
- I like it
- (2021)
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