Originally Posted by
Wander00
Of which aircraft did a test pilot allegedly write "It is difficult to get into this aeroplane. It should be made impossible"
I first heard it in the context of the Belvedere - in practice I'm sure it never was said, because any proper Test Pilot would give detailed reasons and classify the deficiency.
I'm glad to say that the two worst British aircraft I've ever encountered were neither military, nor went into service for long.
The Shadow E series - an obscure end-of-range trainer that should never have happened. The only aircraft I've genuinely seen aileron reversal on - and you could most definitely see the wing distortion as it did it, and it wasn't pretty.
The Edgley Optica - with insufficient payload to fill all three seats at any sensible fuel load, nowhere to put mission comms kit, an asymmetric turning circle on the ground and a wingspan so large it stopped you using most GA airfields, a 240hp fuel injected Lycoming that gave 90kts in level flight, nowhere to store mission equipment, a need to move ballast to stay in CG limits if your observer got out, and day-VMC only: as clearly crimes never get committed at night or on cloudy days. I see that this month's Aerospace International is enthusing about its rebirth - I can only conclude that Martin Robinson has obviously never actually flown one.
G
(Son of a man who used to build Scimitars, but then got laid off when Supermarine / Vickers-Armstrong closed the drawing office. He never worked on an aircraft again - maybe just as well, but please don't tell him I said that!).