Cosford's Top 5 Aircraft with Rob Bell 

The Mosquito, the Vulcan and the Electric Lighting are some of my favourites.

I have had the honour to have worked on the Wellington in this video. The geodesic frame was very time consuming to strip down, clean and repaint as part of its restoration. During this time we had to walk up and down the inside of the fuselage - it was solid as a rock even though it was made over 80yrs ago. Well done Barnes!

Dakota, a legend still flying.

During my 22 years service I had the privilege of working on the Vulcan, Hunter, Canberra, Phantom F4 & C130 Hercules. All fantastic aircraft in their own right. So there’s my top five ❤

There is no greater Spitfire fan-boi than me, but I genuinely feel the DC3/C47 deserves to be the top. Over 16,000 built in all forms with over 300 still flying today, and not just as Airshow demo's but still out there doing the biz as workhorses. Flown in every theater of war for a good 50 years, and still going strong in civilian skies nearly 80 years later. Nothing compares to that lifespan. How it was left out is stunning to me, I can only put it down to it just being a brilliant design for its purpose but without any particular engineering innovation? (PS. While on that, surely putting an elliptical wing on a fighter was a far greater innovation than the rivets?)

#1 The DC3. You missed the obvious Rob. It's still flying around the world and even being rebuilt .

I used to work at the training college at Cosford, and used to take the students there and show them elements on different aircraft that they were studying.

My Grandad was a tail gunner in a Wellie at the start of the war. After a couple of daytime sorties over Kiel, losses were high, so they went to night bombing. During training, he was discovered to be totally night blind, and thus, pulled from flight duties. Hence, I am here today!!!

No one better to present the video than Rob Bell. Perhaps a video could be made for the most under rated top five aircraft of which the Hurricane must be number one.

Excellent and inspirational! Sound choices superbly presented. Had a private sit in a Spitfire cockpit once and my first taste of aerobatics in a DH 82 Tiger Moth way back in 1978. Was a civilian flight instructor from 1986 to 1999. I have visited both Cosford and Hendon on numerous occasions and this made me really nostalgic!

My top five: 1. DC3. Still carrying passengers and cargo in rough country 90 years after first flight. 2. Ford Trimotor. First plane to turn a profit from passengers instead of government subsidies. 3. B52. Still in front line service 60 years after manufacture. 4. T33. First flight 1948, last nation to retire it from front line service 2017. C130 Hercules. Not merely serving since the 1950s, but still being manufactured now. I could be wrong, but I think it holds the record for being in continuous production. Must be mentioned: Antonov An-2, a magnificent workhorse.

Maybe a little off topic but my dad trained to fly in the Tiger Moth in Canada during the war . He did not tell us about his experiences apart from some light hearted moments . He related to me that one day he was flying in the Tiger Moth and the wind was so strong that the aircraft was not moving forward in the sky . I still smile when I remember him smiling as he told me the story .🙂

Great video, thanks. Looking forward to more of these!

Sweet. It's so nice to have adversaries who like to show their good will.

Ahhh you walked right past my favourite...TSR-2

So sad the Hurricane rarely gets a mention despite the amount of work carried out by its pilots during WW2.

Excellent!

My dad was at boscombe down in the raf ,and saw the English Electric P1 fly in1954. He was stationed there 1952 to 1954. Also.saw the first Folland Midge fly as well. He had two Hunter f2 wn888 and wn892, a meteor f4 and a nf12 that he personally was responsible for.

Bravo 😄 comprehensive and informative presentation 👍🏻

Great video. Saw harriers train at Crich, the Vulcan land somewhere near Newark and each weekend some bod used to fly his Spitfire at Hucknall aerodrome (where Rolls Royce tested their jet engines).… 1990 Concorde did a 180 degree fly over the same airfield.

Great choices! I'd be happy to pilot any of them, but my favourite would probably be the Moth (no chance of forgetting to lower the undercarriage).

Interesting film, great museum to visit.

My suggestion is that the Hawker Hunter deserves a place n the top ten aircraft designs.

There are so many aircraft that you’ve need a top 10 or even 20 . To me the phantom f4 / spitfire/ Catalina/ BF109 / dougy Dacotta all have a place in history throughout the ages .👍

In the temporary post-war love-in between the allies, a Russian delegation was invited to RR to tour the engine manufacturing site. They wore special soft rubber soled shoes in order to get sample from any swarf of the metals used in the engines. They neednt of bothered. They labour Govt authorised the sale of nene engines to them.

My personal favourites are the Wellington, the Mosquito and the Beaufighter, and I've always preferred the Hurricane and the Typhoon to the Spitfire. Coming to jet aviation I love the EE Lightning, the Phantom, ( my brother worked on those when he served on the Ark Royal) and the Vulcan, and its such a shame that the TSR-2 didn't go into production because because she looks amazing.

Excellent video, I do hope this is continued with other presenters

Love Cosford, if you like aircraft, are UK based then you've no excuse not to visit- enjoy!

Excellent presentation, brilliant museum have visited often.

I love the boxy soviet jets, my fave being the Mig-23 for its wings and landing gear

Fantastic.

Bob Johnson ( Australia ) flew many WW2 missions and he said the Canberra was his favourite to fly. He flew the Mossie too.

Spent 5 years in a structures bay and have lost count on the number of countersunk rivets fitted to airframes, including avdel rivets. The rivet shown is one that doesn't need heat treating before fitting, unlike the ones used on the Jaguar airframes. I would nominate the Jaguar aircraft as it had to overcome the French metric system coupled with the British imperial system to build a formidable aircraft with the lowest downtime servicing of any aircraft in the RAF of its time.

im actually wondering what would have happened if you put barnes wallis and the engineers that designed the fritz X kit into a room. i mean: theres a massive chance that the group might end up developing a fritz X version for the tall boy and grand slam bombs.

If we're talking about aircraft at Cosford then my top 5 goes like this 5. Hawker Siddeley Nimrod 4. De Havilland Comet 3. Bristol Blenheim 2. Handley Page Hampden 1. Vickers Wellington

TSR2!

All the Spit really needed was a fuel injected engine.... the carburetor was its Achilles Heel, making negative 'G' manoevers hazardous...

My favourite aeroplane is...whatever i am in when flying.

I know you never showed one . But my favourite aircraft has always been the Avro Lancaster . Just about the greatest aircraft ever built for me .

Mosquito and the DC3 should be on the list in my opinion.

Wrong. It's the Chinook, and specifically Bravo November. End of.

Brilliant video but would have had a Mosquito in there... Everyone to their own... 😊... Huzzah!!

Dont they have a mosquito??? That should be no1 easily if they do, it was built to take advantage of an untapped workforce without interfering with other aircrafts production. It was a genius design, it was the fastest flying aircraft at the time, able to carry the same bomb load as a b17, and to drop its bombs with far more accuracy with only a couple of aircrew, and was far safer to use as nothing flying could keep up with it.

What? No Mossie? I am dumbfounded.

Mosquito over the MIG 15!

Difficult to leave out the ME 263, the Vulcan and of course the Mosquito…. No argument with the number 1 spot though, everybody loves the Spitfire!

do not think they have a lightning. there

The shitfire? Really? As long as you don't need to go very far.

The Wellington was hardly unique the Vickers Wellesley usec the geodetic airframe before the Wellington.

The Tiger Moth is a terrible aircraft, the only reason it was built in such numbers was its cost. It has two characteristics that make it an abysmal trainer, its lateral stability and its appalling adverse yaw aileron gearing. The aircraft parked next to it however, the DHC1 Chipmunk was an incredible aircraft and fabulous trainer.

As a Brit its hard to not be anglo centric on my favorite top 5. So i wont be ...... 1: Mosquito 'nuff said. 2: Lightening, straight up sex on supersonic stubby wings, forget about the short legs. 3: Harrier, its pretty unique. 4: Vulcan, the most awesome looking , sounding airshow aircraft ever. 5: damn, its either Victor or the Bucc. If Batman had a nuclear bomber, it would be the Victor But the Bucc is so unloved and unappreciated it gets my vote.

Rolls Royce came up with the flying bedstead for thrust vectoring which was the key to jet powered VTOL & like you said the Russians copied so why put them in the top 5 because they copied the Harrier and Concorde and the mig wasn’t the first swept wing aircraft in the world so just copied the Germans

5 Lancaster 4 spitfire 3 mosquito 2 tsr-2 1 concorde

See that they have dumped the TSR 3 in a warehouse ready to sell it for scrap? 😮

The mistercraft gr7 is probably as worse. All the same problems as the sea harrier plus you get two sets of wings , you have to guess which set are for the gr7.

Mosquito. Lightning. Buccaneer. In that order. Maybe Buck beats Lightning. But Mossie no1.

NO . . .

Mozzie is a huge ommission. Better than the spit.

I wish Rob would speak slower so that the hard-of-thinking might keep up!

They are NOT planes or airplanes, all you yanks out there! They are aeroplanes. A plane is an imaginary surface of no thickness. I do not agree with your number one choice, either! Spitfire - PAH! The Hurricane would have been a better choice. It may be coincidence and entirely my opinion, but I rated the Tucks higher than the prissy Baders and Johnsons of Fighter Command. I have said it before, the hurricane was available in three times the numbers, was easier to maintain and had better battle survivability. You crow on about a couple of thousand Tiger Moths and gloss over the 11,000 + Wellingtons made, which were not really that innovative as they were not the first aeroplane made in that fashion. The HS P1127, I do agree with. I think the Lightning, shown in its natural attitude, vertically, against the wall of the museum at Cosford (where I was born, by the way). A pure born interceptor. This from an ex-Phantom Phixer of the eighties. I'd have also included the Nimrod, which suffered so much bad press due to the AEW3 debacle but was an innovative submarine hunter back in the day. The whole world used turboprops for the job at the time except the RAF who tried, without success, to convince NATO of the supremacy of the propless hunter. Funny, I think, that NATO were not interested until America had one of their own. Oh! I spent time on the Nimrod fleet in the seventies, too.

The Mig-15?? Really? One should read Chuck Yeager's take on the Mig-15. He flew the first one capture from the North Koreans and thought it was highly unstable and a death trap. So I would rate the Me-262 above the Mig!

Gesture of good will to the Russians? Come on ! Nobody is that irresponsible.

ME262 had swept wings and was a production aircraft.

The FD2 was all about Concorde add TSR 2, the jet engine and the Comet and you have the story of Britain giving away it all 🫣

Maybe a little off topic but my dad trained to fly in the Tiger Moth in Canada during the war . He did not tell us about his experiences apart from some light hearted moments . He related to me that one day he was flying in the Tiger Moth and the wind was so strong that the aircraft was not moving forward in the sky . I still smile when I remember him smiling as he told me the story .🙂