Hush-Kit Top Ten: The Ten best-looking British aircraft


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This list should be considered the objective and definitive guide to the ten best-looking British aircraft. All aircraft have been assessed using the Aesthomater to determine its exact beauty rating. We have left one vacant slot for you, dear reader, to fill. If you would like to vote for a particular British aircraft for inclusion in this list, please cast your vote at the poll at the base of the page. Please do not submit international aircraft (like Concorde). 

After this you may want to read Dave Eagles telling you how to fly a Sea Fury.

10. Supermarine Southampton

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9. Hawker Hunter

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8. Hawker Sea Hawk

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7. de Havilland DH.106 Comet

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6. Westland Whirlwind

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5. de Havilland DH.88 Comet

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4. Vickers VC10

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3. Bristol Britannia

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2. Supermarine Spitfire

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1. de Havilland DH.103 Hornet READER’S CHOICE

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If you enjoyed this, have  a look at the top ten French, Swedish, Australian,  Soviet and German aeroplanes. Wanting Something a little more exotic? Try the top ten fictional aircraft.

50 comments

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  2. Francis

    Glouster meteor, but I’ll let you off because is looks like the Sea Hawk, Hunter and Whirlwind all mixed together 🙂

  3. Andy Evans

    Early -Spitfire, but loved the Mosquito and what about a Hawker Typhoon
    Later – Hunter…EE .Lightning, Supermarine Scimitar or the lovely Gloster Javelin
    Airliner – VC10, (I’ve flown in this), Comets still look great

  4. Nick S

    The chap showing Princess Margaret (“Oh God, where’s my next G&T?”) the workings of a Dan Dare-style rocket is W.E.W. “Teddy” Petter, genius British aircraft designer, responsible for the Whirlwind, Lysander, Canberra, Gnat, Lightning and quite a few others. Pearls before swine.

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  6. Graham Summers

    Do you know that Teddy Petters original desk is still at Warton. When Teddy left to got to Follands, Mr Beamont pinched it, so two generations of cool gentlemen have had their elbows on it!!

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  9. Martin Corrick

    I was delighted to see that the DH Hornet made first place in your British beauty competition, since my late father, Denis Corrick, worked on that aircraft as a young designer. In 1950 he left DH for the Bloodhound missile project at the Bristol Aeroplane Company, and my family made many new friends among the engineers working in guided weapons and on the lovely Britannia. Several were keen private pilots and, like my father, members of the Bristol and Wessex Aeroplane Club and/or the Bristol Gliding Club. As a boy, it seemed to me that everyone in England must be an aviation enthusiast.

      • Nick Hewett

        I would suggest the DH91 a beautiful plane that would have been very successful except for WWII

      • Martin Corrick

        Thanks for your response, and I’m glad you liked my comment! However, I don’t think I can write any more about it – it was too long ago and almost everyone has died… Regards, Martin

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  30. Ronald V Smith

    I’d specifically go for the Comet 3. also Tempest, DH91 Albatross, Victor. From an aeronautical engineering and technology viewpoint, I’d go for Concorde. For a bit of nostalgia – the Hawker High Speed Fury.

  31. Robert Willoughby

    I know the De Havilland DH110 Sea Vixen was dangerous, but wasn’t it also beauiful? I think so, anyway. I have a bit of a fatal obsession with twin-boom aeroplanes…..

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