Sunday 8 March 2009

Deceptively cute




It's a subjective judgement, but I think this just about wins the prize for the cutest aeroplane in the history of aviation. The rather snazzy paint scheme just makes it look even more like a child's toy fresh out of the box at Christmas. It's a P-26, built in the 1930's by the Boeing Company of Seattle, who are, of course, much more famous for their later jet airliners, including the pioneering 707, the ubiquitous 737 and the 747 jumbo.

You have to pinch yourself to remember that the P-26 was a fighter plane (the "P" stands for "pursuit" aircraft, which is what the US military called fighter planes), designed and built for war. More pictures of this unreasonably toy-like killing machine here and here, along with a video of a brightly-painted replica taxi-ing here. You wouldn't have to exaggerate the plane's appearance too much before it could star in a kid's TV series.

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