Which aircraft will live in history forever?

You'll probably get interestingly different sets of answers, with some
overlap, from various angles, such as pilots;
generals/admirals/military historians; social historians; businessmen;
technology historians; and members of the public (with many people
integrating one or more of these perspectives, of course).

Here are a few thoughts of mine, with apologies for a US-centric
perspective and with no claim on being all-inclusive or even
necessarily right. Herewith some breakthrough technologies, some
pinnacles of known art, and some that were just perfect for their
time... as well as a few notable individual aircraft.

Here I omit subsystems, weapons, unmanned platforms (despite a great
temptation to take a guess at something from the UCAV arena) and
anything of primarily an orbital nature.


* WRIGHT FLYER, hopefully to be remembered as an *engineering*
achievement by a couple of people who genuinely knew what they were
doing, the popular image involving bicycle mechanics notwithstanding.


* FOKKER TRIPLANE. "Drat you, Red Baron." I'd bet that this is *the*
visual image of a WWI fighter that pops into most people's minds,
even if the words they think of are "Spad" or "Sopwith Camel."


* CURTISS "JENNY". Of no importance in the war, but of great
importance in the peace, at least in the US -- important in
establishing the nascent notion of airmail as a realistic proposition
(with concomitant strides in air navigation), and important as the
first glimpse of a plane, and maybe the first hop, for who knows how
many people, sometimes creating a dream that never died.


* SPIRIT OF ST. LOUIS. The Atlantic had been crossed before, but
single-engine and solo really captured the popular imagination
remarkably.


* FORD TRIMOTOR. The idea of 12 passengers and a stewardess who also
has to be qualified as a nurse may not be awfully reassuring to the
white-knuckled flyer accustomed to jets, but the "Tin Goose" is widely
credited with making air travel a commercial proposition.



* HINDENBURG. Not the first aviation tragedy, of course, but the
first big one and the first witnessed by the media. The "O the
humanity" radio announcement and the picture of it half-burned in
midair are doubtless recognized by many people who know little if
anything else about the long-ago heyday of the zeppelin.


* DC-3. Hit a real sweet spot in size, performance, and operating
cost for
the airlines of the day, then served memorably in the war... and kept
going.



* P-51. The arguments about which was the best fighter of the war
and/or the propeller era will never end, but there's no doubt that it
was an excellent one -- and that it could take its bit of the war all
the way and back again with a fight in between.



* F-86. In an era when technology was evolving so fast that a few
years made a huge difference, this was the right fighter at the right
time.



* B-52. For better or worse, the symbol as well as a pre-eminent tool
of US will to win the Cold War and to project power worldwide.



* C-130. Won't win any beauty contests, but seems likely to remain in
service and probably in production until termites evolve to consume
aluminum.


* SR-71. Looked like a study-hall fantasy that actually got built,
with performance to match. Not exactly the most versatile jet in the
inventory, but did its one thing pretty much unimpeachably for a long
time.


* LEAR JET. Not the first, biggest, etc. bizjet, but visually iconic
and with enough range to get from Carly Simon to Sheryl Crow nonstop.



* 707. The first practical passenger jet, with a similarly
revolutionary military cousin...


* F-111. Alas, its place in history is mostly that of a negative
example in specifying requirements and managing projects,
overshadowing how it evolved into a useful and long-serving aircraft.



* Huey. Not just important, but to a couple of generations, the very
image of what a helo *sounds* like.



* DC-9. Short-haul jet travel for the masses, and (in a much evolved
form) still in production.



* 747. An audacious business move as well as a technological
achievement.



* Concorde. It may have been the answer to a question no market was
asking, but what a glorious answer! The notion of England and various
European countries collaborating on an aerospace project has also of
course been revisited a number of times to great profit.



* Harrier. Long after the arguments about its combat utility and
survivability have ended, the "jump jet" image will linger.



* F-15. Nothing exceeds like excess. Thankfully untested in the big
war against first-rank opponents it was designed for.



* F-117A. A cloud no bigger than a man's hand on the horizon (and not
on the radar scope at all) for the titanium corner-reflector era of
combat aircraft.



Future bets (with the caveat that there will be so few types they'll
all be memorable): A380 win or lose; JSF; 7E7.


Thoughts?
--Joe