
51 Military Aircraft: Hawker Hurricane
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Sidney Camm’s rugged, reliable gun platform
52 Engine: Rocketdyne J-2 (Saturn V)
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33,000kN of sheer brute force
53 Moment: 1986 – Voyager first unrefuelled round-the-world flight
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Nine days, 3m, 44s in the air
54 Moment: 1968 – Apollo 8 crew see first Earthrise
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A blue jewel in an ocean of blackness
55 Moment: 1927 – Winning of the Orteig Prize (Spirit of St Louis)
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Rarely can $25,000 have been better earned
56 Moment: 1939 – First jet-powered aircraft (Heinkel 178)
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A dozen test-flights, then consigned to a museum
57 Military Aircraft: MiG-21
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Nimble, ubiquitous, but short-ranged
58 Civil Aircraft: de Havilland Comet
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So much promise, sadly largely unfulfilled
59 Person: Jack Northrop
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The personification of determination, with a fascination for flying wings
60 Military Aircraft: Mirage 2000
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Gallic elegance and dash

61 Engine: Wright Cyclone
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Radial engine family with a 20-year production span
62 Military Aircraft: MiG-25
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Took old technology to new heights of excellence. Brilliantly production-engineered.
63 Moment: 1911 – First deck take-off and landing (Eugene Ely)
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Aiming a pusher biplane at a 40-metre wooden platform
64 Engine: GE J-79
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Motive power for the F-4, F-104 and B-58 Hustler
65 Military Aircraft: Northrop B-2A
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Radar-evading black bat
66 Person: Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin
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Airship pioneer for civil and military roles
67 Engine: Rolls-Royce Allison 250
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More than 30,000 built, 170-plus civil and military applications
68 Engine: Daimler-Benz DB601
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Motive power for the Me109
69 Engine: Pratt & Whitney J-58 axial-flow
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First engine designed to operate in afterburner for extended periods
70 Civil Aircraft: Cessna 172
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Bringing flying training to the world

71 Civil Aircraft: McDonnell Douglas DC-10
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The last ‘DC’, tainted by tragedy
72 Person: Captain Eric ‘Winkle’ Brown
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World record-holder for number of types flown
73 Person: Joe Sutter
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‘Father of the 747’
74 Military Aircraft: Lockheed U-2
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Less than 10kts between stall and maximum speed
75 Engine: Rolls-Royce Spey
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Military, civil, marine all-rounder
76 Engine: Lycoming 0-235
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Venerable, venerated piston power
77 Moment: 1947 – Flight of the Hughes H-4 Hercules (‘Spruce Goose’)
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Still the largest aircraft ever built; it flew for around one minute
78 Moment: 1982 – Operation Black Buck
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At the time, the longest bombing raid in history
79 Moment: 1996 – Introduction of enhaned ground proximity warning system (EGPWS)
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Curbing controlled flight into terrain (CFIT)
80 Civil Aircraft: Junkers Ju 52
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The Luftwaffe’s rugged resupplier

81 Person: Hanna Reitsch
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Crashed in a Komet; feted by the Führer
82 Civil Aircraft: Bell B206 Jet Ranger
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The key entry-level single-turbine helicopter
83 Military Aircraft: Northrop F-5
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Supersonic lightweight for the US’s friends
84 Engine: Rolls-Royce Nene
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Most powerful turbine of its time
85 Person: Bernt Balchen
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Pioneering polar aviator
86 Civil Aircraft: Learjet 23
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The beginnings of a new industry sector
87 Civil Aircraft: de Havilland Tiger Moth
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The archetypal inter-war trainer
88 Engine: Rolls-Royce Tyne
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Turboprop heavy metal on Transall, Belfast and Vanguard
89 Person: Brig-Gen Robin Olds
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Legendary Vietnam F-4 pilot
90 Civil Aircraft: Ilyushin Il-18
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Long-lived turboprop workhorse

91 Civil Aircraft: Ilyushin Il-76
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Rugged jet freighter and military transport
92 Moment: 1929 – Filming of Hell’s Angels
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Remarkable aerial sequences
93 Civil Aircraft: Boeing 247
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A streamlined monoplane airliner when biplanes were still the norm
94 Moment: 1986 – Mir launched into orbit
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Providing invaluable insights on long-term human exposure to spaceflight
95 Civil Aircraft: Ford Trimotor
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Shrinking the time to travel across the US
96 Person: Jiro Hirokoshi
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The designer behind Mitsubishi’s Zero masterpiece
97 Engine: Perm PS 90
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Fourth-generation Russian turbofan
98 Military Aircraft: Mitsubishi A6M Zekev
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Manoeuvrable but increasingly outclassed
99 Civil Aircraft: Sikorsky VS300
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Rotary revolutionary
100 Civil Aircraft: Martin M-130
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3,500nm at 150mph

100 Greatest
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Top 5s
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Through the decades
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