Deferring to an Expert
I’ve done only a little piloting myself, so I’m going to defer to Eric Winkle Brown. His favourites were the Sabre and DH Sea Hornet. The Sabre is still extant here and there, in private hands. So for me it’s got to be the Hornet that’s brought back.
As a passenger (though I imagine a fair number of pilots would fancy it too) it’d have to be Concorde.
As an engineer, it’s a close run between SR71 and F117. There are reports that the latter is still occasionally in the skies, so the SR71 gets that vote. They’re my favourite engineering examples, because they’re both extreme illustrations of what happens when engineers are let off the leash and left to get on with it. The SR71 simply because it was so fast, and the F117 simply because it was barely an aeroplane but still flew, was also stealthy, and was also so incredibly cheap (I’m not talking sticker price). $30million for two flying prototypes, even in late 70’s money, was very cheap indeed.
Last edited by msbbarratt; 26th Oct 2020 at 07:20.