Sign up for a 14-day free trial and enjoy all the amazing features MyHeritage has to offer - bit.ly/RexsHangar F.A.Q Section - Ask your questions here :) 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: How do you decide what aircraft gets covered next? A: Supporters over on Patreon now get to vote on upcoming topics such as overviews, special videos, and deep dives. 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.
Say, if you had the Stuka as an ugly for the German list, why didn't you have the Warthog on the American list? That one is known for not looking pretty.
@@WolfeSaber Agreed, the Warthog may not be pretty, but if I was a grunt, trapped in an ambush with no way out, & a Warthog or two turned up overhead then I would regard it as the most beautiful thing on wings that ever flew.
Sorry Rex, but they don't compare to the many forms of hideousness that the French perpetrated upon the skies between the wars.... except maybe that Dornier Delphin? I have heard one comment on the French ... things... that they flew because the earth repelled them for their hideousness. You showed one photograph of the early Ju87, with "trousers", rather than just "spats" as wheel fairings. IMHO the trousers lifted the basic design to a higher plane of ugliness, and moved the vertical centre of pressure forward. So they were not only ugly, but a bad aerodynamic choice. Of course that was not the only aircraft of the period to opt for such a bad solution to drag reduction. Next you need to do the top 10 ugly Russian ones... just wow!
And sure, the Gigant was a lumbering tortoise with a face only a mother could love, but it had to have planted the ideas behind some of the world's current heavy lifters like the C5 Galaxy and the Antonov 124 and 225.
I feel like the Stuka falls into the same sort of category as the A-10 (which is appropriate seeing as they filled similar tactical roles) in that it is such a pure example of form following function that it wraps all the way around from looking ugly to looking cool again.
Yup. Their beauty is functional rather than aesthetic. The A10 makes it very clear that it has a good end and a bad end and if the bad end is pointing at you, your day is going to proceed very badly...
Aircraft number 9 on the list - the "smushed pigeon" - looks like the Spirit of St Louis if it got pregnant. As for the Heinkel 162, you omitted to mention the sheer horror of attempting to bale out of it. And as for your question, I'm going with the Ju-287, because the only word in my head when I saw it was "what?" (plus a couple of sweawords for effect). Edit: how dare you diss the majestic BV-141 ?!
@@hadtopicausernameYou're right; I remember reading about that somewhere. The idea that barely-trained cadets would be able to operate an ejection seat, on top of all the other challenges that beast presented, is laughable.
He-162: “…had a tendency to disintegrate during flight.” Like many late war German weapons, the 162 was built by slave labor. These people discovered the interesting fact that the glue used to hold the wooden parts together tended to decompose if exposed to human urine. The inmates would relieve themselves on the planes when the guards weren’t looking. However, the glue the Germans had to use that late in the war was of such poor quality that even planes that hadn’t been peed on fell apart.
I was watching a tank restoration show, and they were restoring a German tank that had been abandoned due to drive failures during the war. When they took apart the hydraulics, the found cigarette filters in the hydraulic channels of the final drives. They posited much the same cause: unwilling or anti-war/anti-German workers finding ways to sabotage military production that would be hard to trace back to them.
Ok, that isn't even a contest for the top spot! It's obviously the dornier Delphin, because the ju 287 at least tries to adhere to the general shape an aircraft *should* have, while the delphin never even considered that to begin with.
I disagree. The Delfin has a distinct golden age of flight look with a bit of french beautiful ugliness. The 287 looks like someones first attempt at a plane in kerbal space program without knowing that there is an undo button.
I'm conflicted on agreement as there's a solid argument for both. I personally feel a little disingenuous putting a very early design under the scrutiny of "ugliness," since at the time their grasp on technology was "throw it at the wall 'til it sticks," but I won't hesitate to say it definitely isn't pretty. I can't say the same for the Ju 287. Better understanding, but good lord is it not a looker.
Couldn't agree more. One has the charm of a little kid playing with airplane themed Legos, and the other is like what would happen if you gave a lobotomized naval engineer only a week to somehow get your boat collection into the middle of a lake in a landlocked nation.
Worse yet, the Dolphin reaches back into the questionable past and pulls forth two rather silly features. French tumblehome-design of the late 19th century and the Habsburg' chin...
I love the HE-162! I think it looks ahead of its time. Given the fact that it was an emergency fighter designed at extremely short notice, I think it's remarkably good looking. It's also my favourite plane in IL-2 Sturmovik flight sim.
Well they did feature prominently in his British Edition. Perhaps if he did a series on the companies that produced the largest amount of ugly designs, Blackburn would be a top contender.
Great video, as always. One minor nitpick: it seems that the He 162 was called "Salamander"; "Volksjäger" was the name of the whole program of emergency fighters.
7:00 The design goal of the BV-141 was to create a dedicated reconnaissance aircraft with greatly increased visibility for the observers and greatly reduced vibration for clear photography. By all accounts, this amazing asymmetrical ug-fest accomplished those goals admirably. In my opinion, its failure hinged on three points: (1) It was a Blohm & Voss design. As an old-time ship-building firm, B&V was well-known and trusted by the German navy, by the Reichsluftfahrtministerium not so much. B&V had some innovative designers on staff and submitted many radical aircraft proposals, the craziest being the P163, but it was their seaplanes that enjoyed the greatest success. Evidently, the RLM reasoned that a ship-building company was best suited to build flying ships. (2) It looked scary. (3) The most important flaw, the real reason it failed, B&V designed this airplane in strict adherence to the specifications that called for all-around visibility for the crew, low engine vibration for the cameras, and ONE ENGINE. Given the restrictions, Blohm & Voss created the perfect solution. However, Focke-Wulf won the competition by ignoring the specifications. Instead of a single-engine recce plane, FW delivered a twin-boom multi-engine design that looked much less scary. Walther also won the semi-auto infantry rifle competition against Mauser by ignoring the specifications.
there's also the problem that it was designed to use the same engine as a fighter (i think the FW190 but might be wrong) and the brass couldnt justify diverting production of those engines away from fighter production when the other candidates used a different engine. also, where does he get off criticizing the designer of the wing? Richard Vogt was a PhD engineer: does youtube boy have that sheepskin?
The early Stukas were ugly. Trimming down the landing gear fairings helped a great deal, but it could still be considered ugly in the same way the A-10 Thunderbolt II "Warthog" is considered ugly. I do agree with you about the He-162, however. It's one of three planes I think are on this list undeservedly.
This examination did in fact do wonders to extend my vocabulary to describe the insane... flying spare parts collection, flying clog, plane that got bumped in the nose.. priceless😂😂!!
I have to agree that the collection of odd bits and spare parts lying around the shop (Ju287) ranks as number one. I also loved the printed disclaimer you so briefly showed about the Ju87, I went back and paused the video so I could read it. It was a nice bit of humor. Cheers from Texas.
Thank you! I am so glad to see someone on TH-cam finally giving the Gigant the respect she deserves! I'm sick of always seeing her on "Worst Planes Ever" lists. Everyone always brings up the disastrous Afrika Korps supply mission as to why the Gigant was "bad" but that was due more to inadequate fighter escort and strategic blunders than any fault of the aircraft. The modern equivalent of that mission- sending an unescorted formation of C5 Galaxies on a supply run over enemy territory crawling with interceptor bases and SAM sites- would end up being just as much of a massacre, but no-one considers the C5 a "bad" heavylift transport. So it was nice to see someone pointing out how useful the Gigant was when the Luftwaffe had air superiority. That said, much as I have a soft spot for the Gigant, you're entirely justified putting that giant, bloated tadpole with wings on the ugly list.
I think a strong contender for "Ugliest German Aircraft" is the Do-31, the VTOL cargo aircraft prototype, which somehow didn't make the list. From its lift nacelles, which look like someone had bolted an extra cabin on the end of each of its stubby wings, to the absurdly long nose spike, it looks more like a collection of random Lego parts than a functional aircraft.
I saw a tale in an aviation magazine years ago that when the Gigant was stationed in Sicily to take supplies to The Afrika Korps, one hot & boring sunny afternoon a few Gigant crews were lazing around on the airfield, relaxing and drinking wine, as their next mission wasn't for a few days Thus fuelled and motivated by the wine, they seriously considered taking up a Gigant to see if they could loop it Fortunately they decided against it, probably because further consumption rendered them incapable
The Ju 87 looks like a fighter escort for a Bristol Brabazon bomber squadron (apart from the country situation). The Dornier flying boat with the cabin looks like a flying art deco building from the front.
The 287 was a flying test bed to test different wing and engine options. It was built with whatever they had lying around to reduce development time/cost. It was never intended to be a production aircraft
Wrong. Junkers had two production models planned (Ju 287 A-1 and B-1). The main differences would have been a stronger wing, retractable landing gear, defensive armament (one turret with two MG 131 machine guns), and six engines fitted (one pair fitted under each wing). Because you know.... Hitler... and his obsession with jet bombers.
I made one for flightgear, it's an interesting plane with some rather nice water handling and flight manners. Definitely don't judge a plane just because it looks like a clog. It was well liked by it's crews unlike the Heinkel He115. 0:14
Both Blomm & Voss entries and the JU-87 Stuka don't seem ugly to me. While I would not call them beautiful, they have a certain charm to them. As for the Natter, it always reminds me of my first attempts at building aircraft with LEGO back in the days before they made swept wings and aircraft canopies. (Yes, I am old.)
Yes it was out of sync for me as well. I'm fairly new to this channel and this is the first video I'm watching that has a talking head. As it indeed looks like a bad lip sync, I was wondering if somebody else was hired to provide a 'face' as some TH-camrs prefer not to appear in videos. As YT is starting to demonetize these channels, accusing them from uploading stolen content, I figured this was an attempt to avoid this.
He could have given us a two-fer with the Zwilling, since it was designed as the tug aircraft for the Me-321. I had a model of it as a kid. I thought it was quite beautiful.
I actually quite like the look of the Stuka, those reverse gull wings got me acting unwise Though I do still prefer the cleaner look of the F4U without the landing gear awkwardly sticking out
I personally like the frame and wings of the Stuka, only, the landing gear is a bit of a punch in the eye and the canopy can be a bit meh. Personally, had it had a retractable landing gear it would have looked much better.
Dornier Delphin. Please note, that hangar in shot 2 still stands today, one kilometer from where I am now. As does the slipway and the mooring spot. That, sort of, makes this a Swiss aircraft and not a German aircraft. The hangar was later used to build the Do X (10). Today this place is called St Gallen Altenrhein Airport and is on the southern shores of Lake Constance (Bodensee). And yes, it is ugly as hell.
@@merobo5066 You are right. But in Friedrichshafen they missed one little thing: Access to the lake. The Dornier factory and the airport are simply too far away from the lake. that was why they opened their factory in Altenrhein on the south shores. Here, the airport is right on the lake front. That is why about two thirds of Swiss military aviation history can be found on the lake bed. :)
The Natter is a good reminder that the V in V-weapons didn't only stand for Vergeltung (Vengeance/Retribution), but also for Verzweiflung (Desperation).
@@aslamnurfikri7640 Have to love the armament on the Natter: a nosecone full of unguided rockets to be fired in a single salvo: "Just get close enough, one of them's *got* to connect..."
I missed the Arado Ar 198 in the list. Only 3 prototypes of this single-motor reconnaissance aircraft from 1938 were built. Some photographs can be found via google.
I have long thought that without its fixed undercarriage the Stuka did not look too bad. It's just that big clunky fixed undercarriage which spoils it. A difficult choice but I would have to go with the Ju-287. It definitely looks like a bad day at Ikea
Very early marks of the Ju-87 were horrendous to look at. They had a tiny twin tail and undercarriage spats that were basically huge square boxes. The plane we eventually got is pretty by comparison.
Beauty lies in the eye of the beholder;I think that the Ju-87 was one of the coolest,meanest bad-ass looking flying machines ever!Love your channel Sir!Grts.🙏✌
The Stuka wasn’t pretty, but it wasn’t that ugly either. I think that rating was unfair. It was better looking than planes lower on your list, in my opinion
Even if I'm a Stuka fan. I need to agree that it isn't the best looking dive bomber lol. That radiator makes a smile that haunts me every time I'm on War Thunders hangar lol
The pic at 10:08 is interesting because 1. the aircraft firing at the Me 323 wasn't a fighter but a RAF Marauder bomber and 2. both pilots (the german one having ditched after the picture) met in the 1980s.
The Pfeil? The one that Goering said a handful of Luftwaffe pilots "pee'd themselves with joy" on seeing it? It's a bit like saying the Sea Vixen was ugly just because it was quirky....😅
The JU 87 looks perfect, because it looks rough. It looks durable. It looks (and sounds) intimidating. It’s not meant to look sexy, it’s meant to look venerable.
In my mind, the parts collection immediately disqualifies itself by being so unbelievably quirky and odd. It looks like something I would build out of Lego as a child, and to be honest, I'm half tempted to build something like that here and now as an adult, too.
What the hell? I really like the design of the Heinkel 162... Well, it kept breaking into pieces mid-flight because of low-quality glue, but i like the looks of (almost) all the german ww2 jets (and the StuKa)... Und ich mag die Flugzeuge nicht nur, weil ich selbst Deutscher bin! Anyways: Rex's Hangar became one of my favourite aircraft-themed channels... But dude, you got a weird taste when it comes to german aircraft...
And regarding the Junkers 287: yeah, the germans were really desperate and experimented with every wing shape imaginable, to get any kind of advantage out of their aircraft... But is it ugly? I don't think so... Not at all...
The Pilot of the only fatal launch of the Natter, Lothar Sieber, hat a connection to #5 as well, as he had flown one of the few Arado 232 in high risk rescue missions on the eastern front, picking up downed pilots and cut off troops from behind soviet lines in 1944 before becoming a test pilot.
I have no idea how you could find the StuKa ugly. In my opinion it is an absolutely beautiful aircraft. I can't even understand your reasoning: Because it has a non-retractable carriage? Yes, that also applies to most older planes, like the japanese Val, but doesn't make those planes ugly. Because it has a somewhat blocky or edgy design? So what, I have seen other planes with some edginess to it, don't find it unappealing. In fact, most of the times too round looks way uglier. Heck, even the tankbuster version has a menacing look I want to have in my Divebombers.
Man oh man... BW 141 is one of the coolest airplanes ever built. It is actually too cool to call it ugly. Ju-87 was a true war machine. Its frightening looks served it's purpose. VFW-614 is a cute airplane with a clever design feature. Same goes for He-162 Salamander.
The first version of the Ju 87, the A model, was the ugliest of the line. The prototype was nightmarish. The final versions D and G were far more businesslike.
Top spot the Delphine, the BV 138 and 141 were interesting and good designs, the crew compartment on the BV 141 was very like the one on the Focke Wulf 189
It's one of my favorite transports of all time but I'm genuinely surprised to NOT find the Ju-52 on this list!! Especially when that decent (if unconventional) Fokker twin jet is on the list. Ya tellin' us that thing was uglier than Taunte Ju??
How about the Rohrbach RO.II, complete with masts & sails??? The tail feathers also score quite high n the all-time aircraft ugliness scale... Great Job, as usual, Rex!
Very good choice! The Rohrbach RO.II is also a very ugly sailing boat! The rohrbach aeroplanes are actually all very ugly. P.S.: I missed the Arado Ar 198 in the list or the Focke-wulf 159. Some photographs can be found via google.
As always a nice video but most of the planes I don´t find ugly, especially not the He 162 or the Ju 87. The reason why the Natter has crashed was that the testpilot rejected to use the stabilisation system. He wanted to fly manually. So maybe he had a black out because of high g-loads, this was said in a documentary, further it was said that the canopy broke during the flight. I knew s.o. who flew the Gigant, but passed away years ago. He said that both pilots had to pull back the elevator with pressing their feet against the instrument panel to get the nose up for take off. The reaction of the aileron was poor and the inertia high, when it begun to swing from one side to the other during the aerotow, he said, when you are for example on the left side of the towplane, you have to give aileron left, because it will react when it´s again on the right side....
The Stuka was my favorite plastic model plane when I was a kid. I thought it looked super cool! But yes, now that I have developed a more finely tuned sense of aesthetics, it's ugly as sin.
Erich Bachem, designer of the Natter (a true mad scientist if ever you saw one) made good use of his plywood working skills after the war and denazification. He started a firm producing small plywood caravans. Look up Eriba Caravans (Eri ch Ba chem), the firm he founded is still going strong...
Thanks, I love "What did wartime Axis companies do postwar" stories like this and I haven't heard this one before. I've always found it funny that Heinkel and Messerschmitt both built bubble cars in the 1950s and 60s!
Dear Rex , excellent video , I had to watch this three times over just to get my head around the choices , I’m a bit surprised that the junkers 352 wasn’t in the list!
Nooo...not the Salamander, my beloved...the He-162 is not that ugly. I agree with most of your other propositions. The Bv-138 would definetly look better without that third engine and the Stuka would look more aerodynamic with retractable gear. To settle the point of the ugliest: that Heinkel thing is the weirder one, the Dornier looks like they just strapped an aircraft engine to a paddle Steamer and called it a day.
Man do I disagree about the JU 87. For the age in which it was developed I think it is amazing and interesting to look at. it was one of my favorite models to build as a kid. I thought for sure you'd put the Dornier DO 335 on here. I thought that plane was cool, too
I am surprised, the Ju-52 didn't make it to the list. The central engine looks really wrong. The BV-132 looks good except for the gun turret at the nose.
The first variants had a full ‘normal’ horizontal stabiliser and they later went to the half version for a better view for the rear gunner. There is forage on TH-cam of the earlier prototypes
Including the Ju87 is so brave and yet so true! Sometimes all you need is to look back and forget what an awesome craft it is to remember how beautifully hideous it is. Ugly planes rise up!
Stuka looks precisely what it was - a muscly action plane. I have to say I loved it from a child. And, by the way, if you only have two candidates it's "uglier", not "ugliest".
German Aircraftmechanic here. Stuka landing gear is called as a - Hosenbeinfahrwerk - means translated word by word Trouser leg undercarriage. Yes .... looks ugly. I really love your videos. Informativ and very funny. A really joy to watch 😀 Please keep on like that I go for the short flying spareparts collection ... what a mess with wings :-D
Definitely the flying junk pile/spare parts collection is number #1 ugly. I know there's some overlap between Britain and America as we used both but can you please do a Ugliest Planes - Canadian Edition. That'd be hilarious and I'd love to see it
3:55 This aircraft is basically a furniture that you almost build with no issue only to find out that you installed the drawers upside down, but unlike that, this aircraft DID have a purpose
Hey Rex, for all my binge-watching on WWII aircraft episodes, I've found extremely little about the air-to-air combat between US B-29's and Japanese interceptors. History seems to suggest that the first B-29 over Japan dropped the atomic bomb, but that's obviously not the case. Maybe a good idea for an episode?
Sign up for a 14-day free trial and enjoy all the amazing features MyHeritage has to offer - bit.ly/RexsHangar
F.A.Q Section - Ask your questions here :)
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: How do you decide what aircraft gets covered next?
A: Supporters over on Patreon now get to vote on upcoming topics such as overviews, special videos, and deep dives.
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.
Are the Avro York, Koolhoven F.K.58 and the Bloch MB.162 on the list of aircraft you plan to cover?
Say, if you had the Stuka as an ugly for the German list, why didn't you have the Warthog on the American list? That one is known for not looking pretty.
Unrelated, but I love your hair!
@@WolfeSaber Agreed, the Warthog may not be pretty, but if I was a grunt, trapped in an ambush with no way out, & a Warthog or two turned up overhead then I would regard it as the most beautiful thing on wings that ever flew.
Sorry Rex, but they don't compare to the many forms of hideousness that the French perpetrated upon the skies between the wars.... except maybe that Dornier Delphin? I have heard one comment on the French ... things... that they flew because the earth repelled them for their hideousness.
You showed one photograph of the early Ju87, with "trousers", rather than just "spats" as wheel fairings. IMHO the trousers lifted the basic design to a higher plane of ugliness, and moved the vertical centre of pressure forward. So they were not only ugly, but a bad aerodynamic choice. Of course that was not the only aircraft of the period to opt for such a bad solution to drag reduction.
Next you need to do the top 10 ugly Russian ones... just wow!
"Simply bullied the laws of physics and aerdynamics into complying" is my quote of the week now, thanks! :D
Similar to the F4 Phantom epitaph 'proof that you can make anything supersonic if you give it enough power'
F-117 called
Hahah. Same!
Y’all think that’s impressive? The f15 can fly with a single wing
@@Louthedrone which begs the question why it has two in the first place? 😀
Are we going to ignore the guy at 10:31 that used the gigant as a slide?
I noticed that as well...😊
Might as well get some fun out of it before the RAF come calling.
Holy cow 😂😂
LoL! I saw that. What was his landing going to be like though? Bit of a long way down off that wing.
And sure, the Gigant was a lumbering tortoise with a face only a mother could love, but it had to have planted the ideas behind some of the world's current heavy lifters like the C5 Galaxy and the Antonov 124 and 225.
I feel like the Stuka falls into the same sort of category as the A-10 (which is appropriate seeing as they filled similar tactical roles) in that it is such a pure example of form following function that it wraps all the way around from looking ugly to looking cool again.
I have the same opinion of roadswitcher locomotives. Are they pretty? Not really. But they're so functional that they just become cool
Yup. Their beauty is functional rather than aesthetic. The A10 makes it very clear that it has a good end and a bad end and if the bad end is pointing at you, your day is going to proceed very badly...
Guess which german stuka ace was part of the concept development on the A-10.
@@Floki255 that one
@@artem1s_u5d Wich one?
Rex: _Calls the Stukas ugly_
*Jericho trumpet sounds intensify*
Aircraft number 9 on the list - the "smushed pigeon" - looks like the Spirit of St Louis if it got pregnant. As for the Heinkel 162, you omitted to mention the sheer horror of attempting to bale out of it. And as for your question, I'm going with the Ju-287, because the only word in my head when I saw it was "what?" (plus a couple of sweawords for effect).
Edit: how dare you diss the majestic BV-141 ?!
The He 162 actually had an early version of an ejection seat. But it was a demanding plane to fly, which was exactly the opposite of the design brief.
Exactly what I was thinking about the FW a-16
@@hadtopicausernameYou're right; I remember reading about that somewhere. The idea that barely-trained cadets would be able to operate an ejection seat, on top of all the other challenges that beast presented, is laughable.
The F-107 had the same inlet arrangement
Yeah, I got the Spirit of St Louis vibes too
He-162: “…had a tendency to disintegrate during flight.”
Like many late war German weapons, the 162 was built by slave labor. These people discovered the interesting fact that the glue used to hold the wooden parts together tended to decompose if exposed to human urine. The inmates would relieve themselves on the planes when the guards weren’t looking. However, the glue the Germans had to use that late in the war was of such poor quality that even planes that hadn’t been peed on fell apart.
The height of industrial sabotage!
When pissing in the wind is, in fact, highly effective.
I was watching a tank restoration show, and they were restoring a German tank that had been abandoned due to drive failures during the war.
When they took apart the hydraulics, the found cigarette filters in the hydraulic channels of the final drives.
They posited much the same cause: unwilling or anti-war/anti-German workers finding ways to sabotage military production that would be hard to trace back to them.
Famous last words, “Mein Gott, ich bin verloren!”
So economically f___ed that even the *glue* was substandard?
Good greif.
Ok, that isn't even a contest for the top spot! It's obviously the dornier Delphin, because the ju 287 at least tries to adhere to the general shape an aircraft *should* have, while the delphin never even considered that to begin with.
I disagree. The Delfin has a distinct golden age of flight look with a bit of french beautiful ugliness. The 287 looks like someones first attempt at a plane in kerbal space program without knowing that there is an undo button.
I'm conflicted on agreement as there's a solid argument for both. I personally feel a little disingenuous putting a very early design under the scrutiny of "ugliness," since at the time their grasp on technology was "throw it at the wall 'til it sticks," but I won't hesitate to say it definitely isn't pretty. I can't say the same for the Ju 287. Better understanding, but good lord is it not a looker.
Couldn't agree more. One has the charm of a little kid playing with airplane themed Legos, and the other is like what would happen if you gave a lobotomized naval engineer only a week to somehow get your boat collection into the middle of a lake in a landlocked nation.
Also the 287 had advanced design with forward swept wings
Worse yet, the Dolphin reaches back into the questionable past and pulls forth two rather silly features. French tumblehome-design of the late 19th century and the Habsburg' chin...
Awww, I like the 162 Volksjäger. It might look like an oversized V-1, but the design just screams fast and dares you to fly it.
Yeah, I've always liked the 162 too. An unrestored example is on show in the Canada Aviation and Space Museum. Striking looking thing.
I personally find it kinda cute :3
@@xedea0 it's adorable
This aircraft also suffered from the "bad glue" problem. Under stress the wing would simply separate from the fuselage.
I love the HE-162! I think it looks ahead of its time. Given the fact that it was an emergency fighter designed at extremely short notice, I think it's remarkably good looking. It's also my favourite plane in IL-2 Sturmovik flight sim.
Set yourself a challenge Rex and give us the"Top 10 Ugliest Aircraft Blackburn Edition"
Do you want to give him an anyeurism?!
Well they did feature prominently in his British Edition. Perhaps if he did a series on the companies that produced the largest amount of ugly designs, Blackburn would be a top contender.
Oh boy, there's a lot of ugly aircraft from Blackburn.
@@Hardbass2021 There were more than a few vomit inducing designs from the British generally, not just Blackburn.
Gloster gave us the Javelin....🤮
Great video, as always. One minor nitpick: it seems that the He 162 was called "Salamander"; "Volksjäger" was the name of the whole program of emergency fighters.
Yes, but the 162 was the only design that worked, hence why it acquired the name.
@@anzaca1 And one of the prettiest aircraft of its era. Admittedly a bit crap functionally, but it really does not belong in this list.
@@paulabraham2550 Let's just not talk too much about the bail-out prospects of a pilot with an engine intake right behind his head...
@@MonkeyJedi99that's just an incentive to carry on fighting.......
@@ericpode6095 Pray to the glue gods the wings don't fall off.
7:00 The design goal of the BV-141 was to create a dedicated reconnaissance aircraft with greatly increased visibility for the observers and greatly reduced vibration for clear photography. By all accounts, this amazing asymmetrical ug-fest accomplished those goals admirably. In my opinion, its failure hinged on three points: (1) It was a Blohm & Voss design. As an old-time ship-building firm, B&V was well-known and trusted by the German navy, by the Reichsluftfahrtministerium not so much. B&V had some innovative designers on staff and submitted many radical aircraft proposals, the craziest being the P163, but it was their seaplanes that enjoyed the greatest success. Evidently, the RLM reasoned that a ship-building company was best suited to build flying ships. (2) It looked scary. (3) The most important flaw, the real reason it failed, B&V designed this airplane in strict adherence to the specifications that called for all-around visibility for the crew, low engine vibration for the cameras, and ONE ENGINE. Given the restrictions, Blohm & Voss created the perfect solution. However, Focke-Wulf won the competition by ignoring the specifications. Instead of a single-engine recce plane, FW delivered a twin-boom multi-engine design that looked much less scary. Walther also won the semi-auto infantry rifle competition against Mauser by ignoring the specifications.
there's also the problem that it was designed to use the same engine as a fighter (i think the FW190 but might be wrong) and the brass couldnt justify diverting production of those engines away from fighter production when the other candidates used a different engine.
also, where does he get off criticizing the designer of the wing? Richard Vogt was a PhD engineer: does youtube boy have that sheepskin?
He162 and Stuka in the ugly list? Just shameful.
True
he-162 has gotta be one of my favorite planes of all time. i dont get it either
The early Stukas were ugly. Trimming down the landing gear fairings helped a great deal, but it could still be considered ugly in the same way the A-10 Thunderbolt II "Warthog" is considered ugly. I do agree with you about the He-162, however. It's one of three planes I think are on this list undeservedly.
This examination did in fact do wonders to extend my vocabulary to describe the insane... flying spare parts collection, flying clog, plane that got bumped in the nose.. priceless😂😂!!
@@arno-luyendijk4798 "weaponised footwear"
I have to agree that the collection of odd bits and spare parts lying around the shop (Ju287) ranks as number one. I also loved the printed disclaimer you so briefly showed about the Ju87, I went back and paused the video so I could read it. It was a nice bit of humor. Cheers from Texas.
Thank you! I am so glad to see someone on TH-cam finally giving the Gigant the respect she deserves!
I'm sick of always seeing her on "Worst Planes Ever" lists. Everyone always brings up the disastrous Afrika Korps supply mission as to why the Gigant was "bad" but that was due more to inadequate fighter escort and strategic blunders than any fault of the aircraft. The modern equivalent of that mission- sending an unescorted formation of C5 Galaxies on a supply run over enemy territory crawling with interceptor bases and SAM sites- would end up being just as much of a massacre, but no-one considers the C5 a "bad" heavylift transport. So it was nice to see someone pointing out how useful the Gigant was when the Luftwaffe had air superiority.
That said, much as I have a soft spot for the Gigant, you're entirely justified putting that giant, bloated tadpole with wings on the ugly list.
I think a strong contender for "Ugliest German Aircraft" is the Do-31, the VTOL cargo aircraft prototype, which somehow didn't make the list. From its lift nacelles, which look like someone had bolted an extra cabin on the end of each of its stubby wings, to the absurdly long nose spike, it looks more like a collection of random Lego parts than a functional aircraft.
👍👍👍
I saw a tale in an aviation magazine years ago that when the Gigant was stationed in Sicily to take supplies to The Afrika Korps, one hot & boring sunny afternoon a few Gigant crews were lazing around on the airfield, relaxing and drinking wine, as their next mission wasn't for a few days
Thus fuelled and motivated by the wine, they seriously considered taking up a Gigant to see if they could loop it
Fortunately they decided against it, probably because further consumption rendered them incapable
Thankfully, lol!
"Hold my wine, and watch this!" seldom ends well...
Huh, didn’t know redneck-ism spread to Germany; thought that was purely an American thing. Shoot, then maybe it spread to America!
Hey, i always liked the BV 141, BV 138 and He 162 because they were so odd and different, and always thought they looked cool
The Ju 87 looks like a fighter escort for a Bristol Brabazon bomber squadron (apart from the country situation).
The Dornier flying boat with the cabin looks like a flying art deco building from the front.
The 287 was a flying test bed to test different wing and engine options. It was built with whatever they had lying around to reduce development time/cost. It was never intended to be a production aircraft
Yeah, I was wondering how they expected to produce a plane using some B24 parts.
Wrong. Junkers had two production models planned (Ju 287 A-1 and B-1). The main differences would have been a stronger wing, retractable landing gear, defensive armament (one turret with two MG 131 machine guns), and six engines fitted (one pair fitted under each wing). Because you know.... Hitler... and his obsession with jet bombers.
That was the V1 model. Later models looked much better, though obviously not built or also destroyed.
And it mounted Jumo engines, not Junkers.
The flying clog is honestly one of my favorite plane from Blomm and Voss and the central engine made it look so much better
LONG LIVE UNORTHODOXY
I agree💯%
I made one for flightgear, it's an interesting plane with some rather nice water handling and flight manners. Definitely don't judge a plane just because it looks like a clog. It was well liked by it's crews unlike the Heinkel He115. 0:14
Both Blomm & Voss entries and the JU-87 Stuka don't seem ugly to me. While I would not call them beautiful, they have a certain charm to them. As for the Natter, it always reminds me of my first attempts at building aircraft with LEGO back in the days before they made swept wings and aircraft canopies. (Yes, I am old.)
Korrekt ist Blohm&Voss
Oh, deinem Namen zufolge bist du verwandt,@@rudiblohm4050?
Is it just me or is the lip sync out of whack on the talking head parts? Not a biggy but thought I was having a stroke for a second there!
Sound is incredibly buggy.
Sound and lip sync are fine, but they tend to be buggy with very recent uploads. Usually clear up after about 15-20 minutes after upload.
It was out of sync for me
Yes it was out of sync for me as well. I'm fairly new to this channel and this is the first video I'm watching that has a talking head. As it indeed looks like a bad lip sync, I was wondering if somebody else was hired to provide a 'face' as some TH-camrs prefer not to appear in videos.
As YT is starting to demonetize these channels, accusing them from uploading stolen content, I figured this was an attempt to avoid this.
Sounded fine and appeared synchronised to me.
What about the Heinkel 111 Zwilling?
The Stuka is still the most iconic aircraft ever. I wouldn't call it ugly, it looks just right.
He could have given us a two-fer with the Zwilling, since it was designed as the tug aircraft for the Me-321. I had a model of it as a kid. I thought it was quite beautiful.
Yeah it's more weird than ugly actually.
I actually quite like the look of the Stuka, those reverse gull wings got me acting unwise
Though I do still prefer the cleaner look of the F4U without the landing gear awkwardly sticking out
I personally like the frame and wings of the Stuka, only, the landing gear is a bit of a punch in the eye and the canopy can be a bit meh. Personally, had it had a retractable landing gear it would have looked much better.
It's not very aerodynamic, but I love the looks of the wheel skirts of 1930s aircraft.
Dornier Delphin. Please note, that hangar in shot 2 still stands today, one kilometer from where I am now. As does the slipway and the mooring spot. That, sort of, makes this a Swiss aircraft and not a German aircraft. The hangar was later used to build the Do X (10). Today this place is called St Gallen Altenrhein Airport and is on the southern shores of Lake Constance (Bodensee). And yes, it is ugly as hell.
Considering that Dornier was based in Friedrichshafen it's not too surprising to see one of their planes just across the lake
@@merobo5066 You are right. But in Friedrichshafen they missed one little thing: Access to the lake. The Dornier factory and the airport are simply too far away from the lake. that was why they opened their factory in Altenrhein on the south shores. Here, the airport is right on the lake front. That is why about two thirds of Swiss military aviation history can be found on the lake bed. :)
The Natter is a good reminder that the V in V-weapons didn't only stand for Vergeltung (Vengeance/Retribution), but also for Verzweiflung (Desperation).
The natter feels more like a rocket with lack of ambitions rather then a plane..
Natter is human guided SAM
@@aslamnurfikri7640 Have to love the armament on the Natter: a nosecone full of unguided rockets to be fired in a single salvo: "Just get close enough, one of them's *got* to connect..."
Reminded me of the japanese designs for kamikaze rockets and such
Woot, the VFW Fokker 614 made it into the list!
And as regards the first place - the little flying boat is actually quite pretty 🙂
I wonder if Rex has seen the HA-420 HondaJet. It has a very similar engine setup to the VFW-Fokker 614.
@@All2MemeI'm willing to bet that Honda looked at the VFW- program, as anyone that does serious product research would😅
Please don't start putting music over everything.
Yeah not a fan either.
Das heißt nicht Blomm sondern Blohm & Voss bitte an den Kommentator dies richti zu schreiben. Blohm immer mit h.
I LOVE THE Bv-141! 🤭
I feel the same way about the Ju-87 Stuka. It is actually one of my favorite WWII German aircraft...👍
I missed the Arado Ar 198 in the list. Only 3 prototypes of this single-motor reconnaissance aircraft from 1938 were built. Some photographs can be found via google.
Rex casualy brightening my day again.
Love your work and Dornier Delphin
I’m so tired of dealing with Stukas in Warthunder that I genuinely laughed seeing the thumbnail.
I have long thought that without its fixed undercarriage the Stuka did not look too bad. It's just that big clunky fixed undercarriage which spoils it.
A difficult choice but I would have to go with the Ju-287. It definitely looks like a bad day at Ikea
Very early marks of the Ju-87 were horrendous to look at. They had a tiny twin tail and undercarriage spats that were basically huge square boxes. The plane we eventually got is pretty by comparison.
@@elennapointer701 I'd forgotten about that. Thanks
picking the Ju-87 over the Hs-129 "ente"-"duck" is an outrage and a half , but i love them both
Rex you left out the Focke-Wulf competitor to the Messerschmitt Bf-109, that parasol wing monstrosity. Forgot it's name.❤
It is the Focke-Wulf Fw 159!
The aircraft failed the competition because it was simply ... too ugly!
Haven't watched in a while, I see you have a new office setup! Very nice, happy to see this channel grow.
By the logic of Engines on top = ugly,
was surprised not to see the Do18 or Do24 on this list
Though personally I dont find either ugly
Engines on top don’t have to be ugly, but it’s hard to do right.
Beauty lies in the eye of the beholder;I think that the Ju-87 was one of the coolest,meanest bad-ass looking flying machines ever!Love your channel Sir!Grts.🙏✌
The Stuka wasn’t pretty, but it wasn’t that ugly either. I think that rating was unfair. It was better looking than planes lower on your list, in my opinion
In my opinion, i like how the stuka looks, although i will admit that the fixed landing gear doesnt look good
Even if I'm a Stuka fan. I need to agree that it isn't the best looking dive bomber lol. That radiator makes a smile that haunts me every time I'm on War Thunders hangar lol
Like fr man i feel like stuka is staring at me everitime i play
The pic at 10:08 is interesting because 1. the aircraft firing at the Me 323 wasn't a fighter but a RAF Marauder bomber and 2. both pilots (the german one having ditched after the picture) met in the 1980s.
Surprised the do355 is not on here
The Pfeil? The one that Goering said a handful of Luftwaffe pilots "pee'd themselves with joy" on seeing it? It's a bit like saying the Sea Vixen was ugly just because it was quirky....😅
The JU 87 looks perfect, because it looks rough. It looks durable. It looks (and sounds) intimidating. It’s not meant to look sexy, it’s meant to look venerable.
The JU-87 has rugged good looks. So there!
The Ju 287 takes the biscuit for most absurd WWII aircraft design. Dornier ain't EEEEEEEEEEEEEven in it.
In my mind, the parts collection immediately disqualifies itself by being so unbelievably quirky and odd. It looks like something I would build out of Lego as a child, and to be honest, I'm half tempted to build something like that here and now as an adult, too.
I had the exact same thoughs while watching!
Tbh I kind of expected the me 163 to feature somewhere in there. 🙂 Great video, love the new format!
The Stuka looks much better from a distance. I think it just seems to have ALL the greebling up close. Kinda like a real life Y-wing.
The Dornier Delphin is a cute little propeller attached houseboat-shed, whereas the Junkers JU-287 gives some huge "Alien Insect" vibes...
What the hell? I really like the design of the Heinkel 162... Well, it kept breaking into pieces mid-flight because of low-quality glue, but i like the looks of (almost) all the german ww2 jets (and the StuKa)... Und ich mag die Flugzeuge nicht nur, weil ich selbst Deutscher bin!
Anyways: Rex's Hangar became one of my favourite aircraft-themed channels...
But dude, you got a weird taste when it comes to german aircraft...
And regarding the Junkers 287: yeah, the germans were really desperate and experimented with every wing shape imaginable, to get any kind of advantage out of their aircraft... But is it ugly? I don't think so... Not at all...
Putting the He-162 that close to the top is a crime.
German are known more for overengineering than overdesigning
The Pilot of the only fatal launch of the Natter, Lothar Sieber, hat a connection to #5 as well, as he had flown one of the few Arado 232 in high risk rescue missions on the eastern front, picking up downed pilots and cut off troops from behind soviet lines in 1944 before becoming a test pilot.
The he-162 is not an ugly plane. it is beautiful. same goes for the bv-138 and Ju-87 stuka.
I have no idea how you could find the StuKa ugly. In my opinion it is an absolutely beautiful aircraft. I can't even understand your reasoning: Because it has a non-retractable carriage? Yes, that also applies to most older planes, like the japanese Val, but doesn't make those planes ugly. Because it has a somewhat blocky or edgy design? So what, I have seen other planes with some edginess to it, don't find it unappealing. In fact, most of the times too round looks way uglier. Heck, even the tankbuster version has a menacing look I want to have in my Divebombers.
Man oh man... BW 141 is one of the coolest airplanes ever built. It is actually too cool to call it ugly. Ju-87 was a true war machine. Its frightening looks served it's purpose. VFW-614 is a cute airplane with a clever design feature. Same goes for He-162 Salamander.
I'm guessing the only controversial element of the Blohm & Voss entry at #8 is that it wasn't higher up on the ugly list.
The first version of the Ju 87, the A model, was the ugliest of the line. The prototype was nightmarish. The final versions D and G were far more businesslike.
Top spot the Delphine, the BV 138 and 141 were interesting and good designs, the crew compartment on the BV 141 was very like the one on the Focke Wulf 189
Is number 2 more of maned cruise missile than a plane ?
More a manned SAM, it was intended to defend specific places against bombers and had little range or flight time.
It's one of my favorite transports of all time but I'm genuinely surprised to NOT find the Ju-52 on this list!! Especially when that decent (if unconventional) Fokker twin jet is on the list. Ya tellin' us that thing was uglier than Taunte Ju??
The He.162 was no uglier that the F-107.
There’s a reason why the F-107 didn’t see service😉
@@martijn9568 yep, several in fact. Ugliness wasn't one of them.
@@neiloflongbeck5705That's what they want you to think😊
How about the Rohrbach RO.II, complete with masts & sails??? The tail feathers also score quite high n the all-time aircraft ugliness scale...
Great Job, as usual, Rex!
Very good choice! The Rohrbach RO.II is also a very ugly sailing boat! The rohrbach aeroplanes are actually all very ugly.
P.S.: I missed the Arado Ar 198 in the list or the Focke-wulf 159. Some photographs can be found via google.
As always a nice video but most of the planes I don´t find ugly, especially not the He 162 or the Ju 87. The reason why the Natter has crashed was that the testpilot rejected to use the stabilisation system. He wanted to fly manually. So maybe he had a black out because of high g-loads, this was said in a documentary, further it was said that the canopy broke during the flight.
I knew s.o. who flew the Gigant, but passed away years ago. He said that both pilots had to pull back the elevator with pressing their feet against the instrument panel to get the nose up for take off. The reaction of the aileron was poor and the inertia high, when it begun to swing from one side to the other during the aerotow, he said, when you are for example on the left side of the towplane, you have to give aileron left, because it will react when it´s again on the right side....
The Stuka was my favorite plastic model plane when I was a kid. I thought it looked super cool!
But yes, now that I have developed a more finely tuned sense of aesthetics, it's ugly as sin.
Erich Bachem, designer of the Natter (a true mad scientist if ever you saw one) made good use of his plywood working skills after the war and denazification. He started a firm producing small plywood caravans. Look up Eriba Caravans (Eri ch Ba chem), the firm he founded is still going strong...
Thanks, I love "What did wartime Axis companies do postwar" stories like this and I haven't heard this one before. I've always found it funny that Heinkel and Messerschmitt both built bubble cars in the 1950s and 60s!
I'm surprised you managed to narrow it down to just 10
He actually failed to narrow it down to just 10
Compared to the rest of the world [Brits, French, Russian & Yank] I thought he was clutching at straws to find designs that were actually 'ugly'
Dear Rex , excellent video , I had to watch this three times over just to get my head around the choices , I’m a bit surprised that the junkers 352 wasn’t in the list!
How dare you calling stuka ugly
It is the most beautiful ugly thing if that makes you feel happy
Your sentence structure or lack thereof is ugly😊😊
@@SuperMadman41 You know why?
Im german
Stuka IS ugly!! Just like a Pug, or Sharpei, or Carmalla wife of Charles ((shudder)).
Now, did Stuka WORK?! Uhm... DUH
The Ju-287 makes the top spot because of the weird clump feet hanging from its wings and fuselage. It's like a bee which collected pollen on its legs.
Nooo...not the Salamander, my beloved...the He-162 is not that ugly. I agree with most of your other propositions. The Bv-138 would definetly look better without that third engine and the Stuka would look more aerodynamic with retractable gear.
To settle the point of the ugliest: that Heinkel thing is the weirder one, the Dornier looks like they just strapped an aircraft engine to a paddle Steamer and called it a day.
Man do I disagree about the JU 87. For the age in which it was developed I think it is amazing and interesting to look at. it was one of my favorite models to build as a kid. I thought for sure you'd put the Dornier DO 335 on here. I thought that plane was cool, too
exactly. i’ve never once thought it’s ugly. it’s definitely not elegant but it has an industrial look that i just love
I am surprised, the Ju-52 didn't make it to the list. The central engine looks really wrong. The BV-132 looks good except for the gun turret at the nose.
I am very unhappy about the ju-87, however I respect the opinions of other people and atleast you agree that it is meant fungsionality than looks.
The Stuka G is in my opinion one of the coolest and badass looking airplanes of WW2.
I have always been so distracted by the asymmetrical cockpit, that I never noticed the horizontal stabilizer before.
The first variants had a full ‘normal’ horizontal stabiliser and they later went to the half version for a better view for the rear gunner.
There is forage on TH-cam of the earlier prototypes
16:11 "It wasn't very pretty, was it?" - "Yes. Yes it was. Especially the prototypes with the more aerodynamic landing gear looked awesome!"
Including the Ju87 is so brave and yet so true!
Sometimes all you need is to look back and forget what an awesome craft it is to remember how beautifully hideous it is.
Ugly planes rise up!
Stuka looks precisely what it was - a muscly action plane. I have to say I loved it from a child. And, by the way, if you only have two candidates it's "uglier", not "ugliest".
German Aircraftmechanic here. Stuka landing gear is called as a - Hosenbeinfahrwerk - means translated word by word Trouser leg undercarriage.
Yes .... looks ugly.
I really love your videos. Informativ and very funny. A really joy to watch 😀
Please keep on like that
I go for the short flying spareparts collection ... what a mess with wings
:-D
The Frankenstein with forward facing wings should be the top 1. That flying boat still somehow normal looking when compared to it lol
Wait, what ? Of course the Heinkel He 162 shouldn't have made your list, it's a bloody sexy airplane.
The Delphin looks really art deco. The image at 20:38 is quite cool. It's like something out of a noir detective movie.
seen in three quarter from the front, slightly from below the Stuka looked great imo! and the later variants were sleeker looking
I consider the Dornier 17 and 217 the best looking WWII German aircraft that was successful.
Loving your channel Rex. Any chance you may cover the Vought SB2U Vindicator sometime? Or have you and I overlooked it?
Definitely the flying junk pile/spare parts collection is number #1 ugly.
I know there's some overlap between Britain and America as we used both but can you please do a Ugliest Planes - Canadian Edition. That'd be hilarious and I'd love to see it
How has Dornier Do 335 not made the list?
3:55
This aircraft is basically a furniture that you almost build with no issue only to find out that you installed the drawers upside down, but unlike that, this aircraft DID have a purpose
Tis a puzzlement for 1st , but very good choices overall.
Well Done You ! Cheers From California 😊
Haven’t watched the full vid yet
But I just *know* you’ve started a goddamn fight by putting the Stuka in the thumbnail, well done Rex 😂
Thanks!
As I always say, Beauty is just a light switch away. Thanks for the video, fun stuff!
"Designed to have a powerful BMW engines, but"
This video is basically 20 minute essay of BMW disappointing it's customers.
Great video Rex. Thanks!
Hey Rex, for all my binge-watching on WWII aircraft episodes, I've found extremely little about the air-to-air combat between US B-29's and Japanese interceptors. History seems to suggest that the first B-29 over Japan dropped the atomic bomb, but that's obviously not the case. Maybe a good idea for an episode?
It's DEFINATELY that weired spare parts collection. I'm from Germany and this plane is from Germany too, so I'm allowed.