51 Military Aircraft: Hawker Hurricane
Sidney Camm’s rugged, reliable gun platform
52 Engine: Rocketdyne J-2 (Saturn V)
33,000kN of sheer brute force
53 Moment: 1986 – Voyager first unrefuelled round-the-world flight
Nine days, 3m, 44s in the air
54 Moment: 1968 – Apollo 8 crew see first Earthrise
A blue jewel in an ocean of blackness
55 Moment: 1927 – Winning of the Orteig Prize (Spirit of St Louis)
Rarely can $25,000 have been better earned
56 Moment: 1939 – First jet-powered aircraft (Heinkel 178)
A dozen test-flights, then consigned to a museum
57 Military Aircraft: MiG-21
Nimble, ubiquitous, but short-ranged
58 Civil Aircraft: de Havilland Comet
So much promise, sadly largely unfulfilled
59 Person: Jack Northrop
The personification of determination, with a fascination for flying wings
60 Military Aircraft: Mirage 2000
Gallic elegance and dash
61 Engine: Wright Cyclone
Radial engine family with a 20-year production span
62 Military Aircraft: MiG-25
Took old technology to new heights of excellence. Brilliantly production-engineered.
63 Moment: 1911 – First deck take-off and landing (Eugene Ely)
Aiming a pusher biplane at a 40-metre wooden platform
64 Engine: GE J-79
Motive power for the F-4, F-104 and B-58 Hustler
65 Military Aircraft: Northrop B-2A
Radar-evading black bat
66 Person: Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin
Airship pioneer for civil and military roles
67 Engine: Rolls-Royce Allison 250
More than 30,000 built, 170-plus civil and military applications
68 Engine: Daimler-Benz DB601
Motive power for the Me109
69 Engine: Pratt & Whitney J-58 axial-flow
First engine designed to operate in afterburner for extended periods
70 Civil Aircraft: Cessna 172
Bringing flying training to the world
71 Civil Aircraft: McDonnell Douglas DC-10
The last ‘DC’, tainted by tragedy
72 Person: Captain Eric ‘Winkle’ Brown
World record-holder for number of types flown
73 Person: Joe Sutter
‘Father of the 747’
74 Military Aircraft: Lockheed U-2
Less than 10kts between stall and maximum speed
75 Engine: Rolls-Royce Spey
Military, civil, marine all-rounder
76 Engine: Lycoming 0-235
Venerable, venerated piston power
77 Moment: 1947 – Flight of the Hughes H-4 Hercules (‘Spruce Goose’)
Still the largest aircraft ever built; it flew for around one minute
78 Moment: 1982 – Operation Black Buck
At the time, the longest bombing raid in history
79 Moment: 1996 – Introduction of enhaned ground proximity warning system (EGPWS)
Curbing controlled flight into terrain (CFIT)
80 Civil Aircraft: Junkers Ju 52
The Luftwaffe’s rugged resupplier
81 Person: Hanna Reitsch
Crashed in a Komet; feted by the Führer
82 Civil Aircraft: Bell B206 Jet Ranger
The key entry-level single-turbine helicopter
83 Military Aircraft: Northrop F-5
Supersonic lightweight for the US’s friends
84 Engine: Rolls-Royce Nene
Most powerful turbine of its time
85 Person: Bernt Balchen
Pioneering polar aviator
86 Civil Aircraft: Learjet 23
The beginnings of a new industry sector
87 Civil Aircraft: de Havilland Tiger Moth
The archetypal inter-war trainer
Turboprop heavy metal on Transall, Belfast and Vanguard
89 Person: Brig-Gen Robin Olds
Legendary Vietnam F-4 pilot
90 Civil Aircraft: Ilyushin Il-18
Long-lived turboprop workhorse
91 Civil Aircraft: Ilyushin Il-76
Rugged jet freighter and military transport
92 Moment: 1929 – Filming of Hell’s Angels
Remarkable aerial sequences
93 Civil Aircraft: Boeing 247
A streamlined monoplane airliner when biplanes were still the norm
94 Moment: 1986 – Mir launched into orbit
Providing invaluable insights on long-term human exposure to spaceflight
95 Civil Aircraft: Ford Trimotor
Shrinking the time to travel across the US
96 Person: Jiro Hirokoshi
The designer behind Mitsubishi’s Zero masterpiece
97 Engine: Perm PS 90
Fourth-generation Russian turbofan
98 Military Aircraft: Mitsubishi A6M Zekev
Manoeuvrable but increasingly outclassed
99 Civil Aircraft: Sikorsky VS300
Rotary revolutionary
100 Civil Aircraft: Martin M-130
3,500nm at 150mph
100 Greatest
Top 10 | 11-20 | 21-50 | 51-100
Top 5s
Civil Aircraft | Military Aircraft | Person | Moment | Engine
Through the decades
Civil Aircraft | Military Aircraft | Person | Moment | Engine
Source: FlightGlobal.com
