Comments

I agree that publishing a list like this is guaranteed to start a spirited discussion about the validity of it contents. It would have been helpful to establish some criteria that would have helped us understand the decision making that went into this list...as it stands I don't get it. Full disclosure, I am a retired military pilot and two of my rides appear on this list (B-52 & B-2). First of all, I agree that the list is Airplane and you have a helicopter, a Zeppelin, and a spacecraft on the list and they would be poor choices in their categories, i.e. the R-22 is more influential than the UH-1, Black Hawk, Hind, or Igor Sikorsky's first helicopter? An air vehicle famous for exploding in spectacular fashion? Maybe an "influential aircraft accident list" would be in order? Secondly, ALL the aircraft on this list are GOOD aircraft and worthy of recognition but "most influential" was specified...in what way was this arrived at? A poster above stated that the SR-71 was undeserving because it wasn't a thrill to fly and was only a camera platform for Generals?! My friends who flew it LOVED it and Presidents relied on it to influence foreign policy for 30 years...sounds pretty influential and all from an aircraft that was designed by guys with slide rules and is in many ways state-of-the-art 40 years later. The list is very heavy on general aviation aircraft and that is fine because they are were most pilots start there career and earn their wings. But the Cessna 172 & 182 both belong in the top 10? They are not very technically challenging aircraft and would normally be considered variants of each other. Again, very important if their influential nature in the training environment is acknowledged, but then where is the T-37 or T-38; they trained half a century's worth of USAF pilots (T-38 still in service, built in the early '60s)? (Not to mention the T-2, T-33, etc.) The T-34 is representing but it is a derivation of the Bonanza, also on this list. If influential is technical innovation and design influence, where is the Boeing 707? This design brought the World into the Jet Age, switched airliner design dominance from Douglas to Boeing, was the basis for several military designs, is still in service 50 years later in some places and if you look, all Boeing designs from 707 to 777 (including the B-52) have the "Boeing Nose" from the 707. Meanwhile, you have the Ercoupe on the list which is a novelty design, neat concept that was not influential in the design of other aircraft and was not built in what would be considered great numbers (I'm sure this comment won't induce any dissenting flames back my way, esp. from the Ercoupe owners). The B-2 was not so much designed as invented, teaching the industry how to design a whole aircraft with CAD, build large structures (0r whole aircraft) with composites, introduce continuous curvature Stealth design (no future combat aircraft will not have this design feature baked in), development of some 100+ materials for use in the airframe...and it is 38, 20+ places behind the G-650, an evolutionary product just entering service and one of several T-tail, twin engine business aircraft on this list? Where is the F-117 or Have Blue? The invention of Stealth didn't make the influential list?! Again, all these airplanes are worthy of praise, but I just don't understand what was considered influential when creating the list, given the omissions and inclusions.