Britain's Top 10 UGLIEST Aircraft

Today we take a look at the top 10 ugliest aircraft every to grace the skies of the United Kingdom. Some were failures, some were hugely successful, but all were lacking in the good looks department, lets check out these ugly planes!

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Producing these videos is a hobby of mine - and apparently its now a full-time job too! I have a passion for history, and personally own a large collection of books, journals and other texts, and endeavor to do as much research as possible. However if there are any mistakes, please don't hesitate to reach out and correct anything :)

[RexsHangar]

I had a lot of fun with this, I hope you enjoy it :)
F.A.Q Section

Q: Do you take aircraft requests?
A: I have a list of aircraft I plan to cover, but feel free to add to it with suggestions:)

Q: Why do you use imperial measurements for some videos, and metric for others?
A: I do this based on country of manufacture. Imperial measurements for Britain and the U.S, metric for the rest of the world, but I include text in my videos that convert it for both.

Q: Will you include video footage in your videos, or just photos?
A: Video footage is very expensive to licence, if I can find footage in the public domain I will try to use it, but a lot of it is hoarded by licencing studies (British Pathe, Periscope films etc). In the future I may be able to afford clips :)

Q: Why do you sometimes feature images/screenshots from flight simulators?
A: Sometimes there are not a lot of photos available for certain aircraft, so I substitute this with digital images that are as accurate as possible.

Feel free to leave you questions below - I may not be able to answer all of them, but I will keep my eyes open :)

[autofox]

"If I don't believe in drag coefficient it can't hurt me!"

I nearly died laughing.

[Dragons_Armory]

I actually really loved and have always loved the way Fairey Gannet looked,
they look very Steampunk- Dieselpunkish. the very fact that it has a Swiss Army Knife of Engines and modes also makes it almost too fanciful to believe to have existed (and done so well) in real life.

[nemo]

I love the idea of an air chase so slow that you have time for a cuppa between spotting the target and actually engaging it.

[well-blazeredman]

I'll offer support for the Nimrod. Whether in the original or final livery, it was always a looker - and very effective too.

[sergeipohkerova]

I think the Fairey Gannett is functionally cool looking, kind of how the Stuka was ugly but purposeful and cool looking.

[brettpeacock]

The HP Heyford dud have one outstanding first historically: In 1936 it was the First Aurcraft Ever to be detected and tracked by Radio Direction Finder ( RDF), later called Radar.... It flew a triangular course between 3 towns in Central England and the RDF crew were able to determine height and speed as well as course flown. Their findings were matched with the crew's records and were found to be largely accurate.

[philsharp]

Dear Rex, sounds like you had a real blast compiling this list. Has somebody from the UK annoyed you lately? At least you had the grace to acknowledge the Gannet, whilst being ugly, was highly effective at its job of protecting the carrier and the accompanying escort fleet.
All the best from the UK.

[CoastToKootenay]

Thank you for including Canada's legendary Avro CF-105 Arrow at 10:10!

[elgato]

Amazed that some of these designs made it past the drafting stage and were actually built. Some look so fragile that it would seem a light gale would bring them down.

[mikesuch]

I recently started watching your videos with my morning coffee. Excellent combination of information and some of the descriptions literally have me laughing out loud. Thank you for making my morning coffee more enjoyable. I've been a wingnut since the mid 1960s. And absolutely love when you show me aircraft I have not seen before. Good job. 👍

[rodfearnley]

Having served on the flight deck of several Royal Navy carriers, I can honestly say the Gannet, both marks as shown, could take off and land when everything else was grounded due to rough weather.

[Bucketroo]

I think the Fairey Gannett is ugly in an endearing sort of way. I can't bring myself to hate it. And it sounds like it was good at its job.
You gotta admit that turning off one engine to get great loitering time while sub-hunting is a neat trick.
I like the Fairey Gannett.

[elennapointer]

The Handley Page Heyford looks like the only plane in existence where a parachute was necessary for the pilot when the plane was on the ground.

[christianmaas]

Much like the Gannett, I love the A6 intruder for its chunky and functional look. Just by looking at both aircraft you think "This thing is on a mission"

[gmf]

I actually love the gannet. It's not ugly it's different. There is one at my local air museum in Baginton, Coventry because of the Armstrong mamba engines. It's a one off that was actually highly successful in its own role.

[Andrewausfa]

The Gannet is gorgeous! The wing fold mechanism is amazing engineering should you get a chance to see it close up. The Wyvern preceeded it as a turbo jet off carriers. HP115 was a bit unfair as its looks were not its fault being a design to look at low speed high AoA wings.

[sheepFP]

It's incredible that the Gannett and the DH Comet first flew within two months of each other.
The Gannett really is one of those aircraft that is so ugly the ground just pushes it away...

[adrian.debeauvais]

I remember as a young air cadet seeing fairy gannet aircraft operational with fleet air arm at RAF Lossiemouth along with RAF Shackleton aircraft. The gannet of course was an unusual aircraft looking because of the large Radome slung underneath however very good it was for anti submarine detection. A really peculiar sounding aeroplane due to the double mamba turbo prop.I think it had a 3man crew originally as some variants had a rear mounted turret so a pilot, radar operator then observer who assisted the radar operator. I didn't see this armed type in service but no matter this aeroplane should have been mothballed as we didn't have a reconnaissance aeroplane in the Falkland war that could have stooged around miles away from our fleet and alerted the ships well in advance of incoming air attacks by the Argentines.A functional robust reliable aeroplane that could have saved many lives and ships during the South Atlantic campaign. She may have been a little ungainly looking but she was a lovely very functional design.

[markfryer]

I came across a Fairey Gannet at the Moorabbin Air Museum in Melbourne, Australia and having never seen one before, my jaw just dropped! It was a real WTF moment! Here was a RAN version, all folded up and sitting outside with fading paint and crazed perspex, bumps and blisters, hump backed, contra-rotating propellers, and three separate cockpits. It's ugliness became part of the fascination of the aircraft. And to think that at one time it had flown from the flight deck of HMAS Melbourne, back in the days when Australia had a real Aircraft Carrier. Did I mention that the aircraft is huge, it just fills up this box of space and somehow three aircrew would jump in and get launched off the deck of HMAS Melbourne?
It has to be at least 20 years since I saw the aircraft in person and yes it definitely made an impression on me!
Mark from Melbourne Australia.