Short Skyvan! Flies well, I suppose. I do remember being happy to see it arriving at a little bush strip (Boku) on Bougainville Island in the early seventies. It hauled a lot of cargo.

But it was a weird-looking bird. Made, I understand, by a company that previously or concurrently made ships. Water ships.

After reading the article and looking at the pictures, I had to smile. Once again, Patrick, you're right on target. Thanks again for a good read.

Hilarious column! If I didn't know any better, I'd think you had invited the notorious Fug Girls to ghost write for you this week.

On the relatively rare occasions I get to fly into a major international airport like JFK or O'Hare, I love seeing all the foreign airlines parked at the international terminal. It's the tail logos that draw my attention, rather than the fuselage, so I'll have to disagree mildly on EgyptAir--I think the stylized Horus on the tail is pretty cool and a great way to honor Egypt's long history. While AeroMexico has kept the Aztec warrior on the tail, the new color scheme makes it pop a lot less than it used to.

Patrick,

It may be generational. I grew up in an airline family in the 50's and 60's. I have been around long enough to have flown to Hawaii in a DC-6 and enjoyed air travel when it was at a peak of service. The introduction of the jets started to change all that but, that would be a whole different subject.

In short, I find that the early Connie's (749) were about as pretty an airliner as was ever built. The later models suffered from being over stretched and over modified. For example, the nose was extended to accomodate radar. It really messed up the classic lines.

Some airliners age better than others too. I found the 727 100 series to be very attractive in 1964 but find them somewhat squatty now.

High on my list of ugly would be the Shorts SD3-30.

... also built the SD3-30 and SD3-60 as derivatives of the Skyvan, which were, if anything, less lovable - except by management as they were incredibly cheap to operate, but a living hell for the pax. Short also built a transport for the RAF, the Belfast, affectionately known as the Belslow and until they riveted 20,000 vortex generators to the tail, could only carry a troop of Boy Scouts across the Irish Sea, or a matchbox to Akrotiri in Cyprus.... It's rumored the prototype had a full ship's bridge in lieu of a cockpit, and the Captain stood in front of an engine room telegraph, giving orders to the cox'n at the wheel...

What do you expect of modern aircraft design? They're built by engineers, who as we all know have no soul... These are the same people who tried to convince Flight Ops at Airbus that they didn't need a sidestick in the A380... a PC with a keyboard and mouse was just fine. Regrettably your correspondent is correct, with modern airport design, who gives a rat's tailpipe what an aeroplane looks like from outside?

The same is true of airports. I watched the new Washington National airport rise from the ashes of the old, and was singularly unimpressed by the monolith I watched being built in it's place. Then I went inside, (BTW, I Captained the actual first flight in there on opening day, but since it was a humble commuter DHC-8, it didn't count. Fortunately, The Washington Post was there to correct the record..). The inside is a whole different story, and it remains one of my favorites to this day.

You're totally wrong about the Connie... even on the ground she's an elegant beast. Mind you, anything with round motors is a REAL aeroplane...

Iconic! Curvey! I recall a time when a Constellation flew low over recess at Congress School in Grand Rapids, heading for the old Grand Rapids airport.

The Constellation is the evocation of its era, an echo of a more graceful (i.e. Pan Am flying boat) era. Before I die, I hope to fly in a Constellation. Any Constellations still flying?

It was more comfortable in steerage than the 727 and the glass cockpit was right out of 2001. The Shorts maybe ugly but high wingers are the only ones that give pasengers a good view out the windows. I've flown in Fokker 100s which are better than the one you show, but they all stank of jet fuel. I think you are wrong about the Connie, but tastes differ. I did like the Convair 770/880/990s. Damned fast planes too!

Shorts are the bulldog of the aviation world. They do their job, and they're functional. Lots of planes like that (the A-10 perhaps being the flagship of the lot).

The problem with the A380 is that it is so damned unimaginative. It's just another flying sausage. Those of us who were disappointed with the 777 find the A380 just another nail in the coffin of the romance of aviation.

And the Concorde gave us so much hope, once.

Nice clean lines, maybe a little boring, but classy and stately--the Honda Accord of the sky.

747. Hard to beleive it's 40-years old and still the most impressive commercial aircraft on the tarmac. But it's a little sad that aircraft design has stagnated for so long. Gazing at a 747 as kid at MSP in the 70s, I was sure we'd be driving flying cars and traveling to the moon on Millenium Falcons by Y2K, and no we're 8 years into the new millenium and still schlepping around on 40-year old technology. Oh, but there is free porn on the internet!

Short 360. First rolled off the production line in 1981, yet looks like it should be burning on a Polish airfield in 1939.

737. Sure it has a great track record, but good lord, it's hideous. Short, fat and stumpy. No suprise that it took no imagination to paint it as a SeaWorld orca. It's the aircraft version of Gary Coleman--the current Gary Coleman, not the Diff'rent Strokes Gary Coleman. And those stupid squashed engine cowlings on the newer models. Oy.

You're dead on about the NWA logo. What drives me nuts (guess this defines me as an engineer), is that if you draw a line from the compass point, the needle is not in the center of the compass. WTF?

Finally, it seems that nearly all paint schemes these days are primarily white (except Southwest), adding to the boring-ness. Patrick, is there a reason for this? (i.e. keeps the plane cooler at the gate?)