Hush-Kit Top Ten: The ten best-looking German aeroplanes
Guten Tag. In the 19th Century Otto Lilienthal studied birds, built his own hill to jump off and fathered aerodynamics. Since then Germany has remained a big name in the development of aviation. Not all their aeroplanes have been beautiful- in fact, most have veered wildly between appearing utilitarian, evil or comically cute (with a large handful utterly insane). We managed to find ten pulchritudinous planes for you to enjoy. Tough decisions had to be made, but we’re certain we have a delicious selection.
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10. Friedrichshafen FF 33
9. EWR VJ 101
8. Focke-Wulf Fw 187
7. Hamburger Flugzeugbau HFB-320 Hansa Jet
6. Albatross D.V
5. Heinkel He 70
4. Heinkel He 119
3. Horten Ho 229
2. Messerschmitt Me 262 ‘Schwalbe’
1. Focke-Wulf Fw 200 Condor
The judges were Hush-Kit’s Joe Coles, Combat Aircraft‘s Thomas Newdick, the RAF Review‘s Paul Eden, The Aviation Historian‘s Nick Stroud and the artist Ed Ward.
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You may also enjoy top WVR and BVR fighters of today, an interview with a Super Hornet pilot and a Pacifist’s Guide to Warplanes. Want something more bizarre? The Top Ten fictional aircraft is a fascinating read, as is The Strange Story of The Planet Satellite. Fashion Versus Aircraft Camo is also a real cracker.
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There are some true stunners here. But with all that efficient rationalised German engineering, it looks like you were really struggling to reach 10 😉
The HFB-320 would be nice if they put the wings on the right way round.
The He-70 would be nice if someone hadn’t chopped it’s nose off.
The He-119 is like Marilyn Monroe wearing a pair of size 13 wellies.
The AlbatrosDV would be wayyyy too beautiful for a WW1 aircraft if it wasn’t for the heap of old farmyard junk on top of the nose.
The EWR VJ 101 looks awesome when the engines are angled for forward flight, but insulting metaphors fail me when they’re angled for VT.
As for the FF-33- jeezus – I used to build better looking aircraft from Lego when I was a kid 😮
If you cut the gun sponsons off a He-111, you could make it 5 stunners and 5 flawed beauties?
I love this site. I’m still laughing from reading Werner Herzog’s guide to pushers 😀