B-52 bomber (they flew these out of Griffiss AFB when I was there):

GKC wrote:
Not much argument from me.
My uncle was an 8th AF waist gunner in B-17Gs, 36 missions over Europe.
I had an older cousin on my mother's side who was a B-17 pilot, 9th AF out of Italy. He was shot down over Hannover and ended up in a
Luftstalag until the end of the war; I still remember he came over to see my Dad on the same day that my mother was cooking cabbage. He caught one whiff, turned about fourteen shades of green, did an about-face, and walked out of the house. My Dad walked out in the yard and asked if he was okay, and he said, "I can't take the smell of boiled cabbage." Dad kind of grinned and said, "Don't you like boiled cabbage, Don?", and he said, "Listen, if you spent 31 months in a German prison camp where all they fed you was boiled cabbage, you wouldn't like boiled cabbage either!"
GKC wrote:
The Peacemaker seemed more awesome to me than beautiful, and the Liberator more a flying boxcar.
Yes, the B-36 was titanically huge---very majestic in the air.
I remember working at the end of the runway one day (well off the airfield), and I had aural protectors on, so all sound was muted. This gigantic shadow engulfed me, and when I looked up, directly over my head there was a C-5A Galaxy taking off. It looked like a whale hovering over my head, and I just about had a coronary.
GKC wrote:
INo pic of my personal favorite, though: the Warthog. Hard to call it beautiful, I know. But I got a small model on the shelf. Another of my programs.
They flew those out of Hancock Field, NY, when I was stationed there (NYANG---our side of the base [active duty] was strictly scope dopes for the northeast NORAD sector), so I saw them every day. They also had a weird sound in flight:

GKC wrote:
Good choices.
GKC
Thank you.

But you realize those are only some of the aircraft I like....if I were to list them all, it would probably take forever.