Greatest aircraft designer of all time?

Interestingly, I'd call Burt the end-century Bleriot. Think about it, Bleriot was working in the days when there were no real rules governing what an aircraft looked like, so he had to make it up, and the Bleriot XI was the shining (for the period) result. Meanwhile Burt was in a similar world, oh aircraft were common, but no-one had any idea what a circumnavigation-capable aircraft or private space plane were supposed to look like, and so he had to guess and experiment and invent stuff too, and the Voyager and SpaceShipOne turned out to be similar successes to the Bleriot XI.
 
What do we think of Erich Schatzki?

His Fokker D.XXI, Fokker G.I and Koolhoven F.K.58 are examples of competitive aircraft made on a small economy. The F.K.58 is IMO a good looking bird for 1938, and the F.K.60 would have been quite competitive if completed.

http://www.letletlet-warplanes.com/2012/01/24/the-koolhoven-story/

We think highly enough of him to call him Doctor Schatzki. Born in Germany, Jewish blood, he had to move around. The FK.58 was what he wanted the D-XXI to look like. Like everyone, moved to the United States and conversed with Kartveli in German, Kartveli's technical language of choice, and helped with the P-47. Dabbled in jet pods. Died in California. Helluva engineer.
 
Herbert Smith's Sopwith Camel design has reach a fame nearly on-par with the Spitfire. After the war he joined Mitsubishi's design team in Japan.
 
I think you should start a separate thread for that. Worst aircraft designed by a great designer.

I nominate this.

th

Hey now :)

Decent airplane. Just the wrong one for the job the Germans wanted it to do.
 

It's

Banned
If you suggest the Wright brothers, I would go one step further and suggest Otto Lilienthal. True, he only made gliders, but he did it with a scientific approach and eventual his creations did fly. He made a bit of a step back when he designed his motor plane, which was a glider with flapping wingtips for propulsion. But as for legacy, the Wright brothers got their start by reading his book and then correcting the errors in the lift calculation tables in the back.

Then surly George Cayley is s candidate. His greatest "con" - being born too soon?
 
It was fine for the Spanish, the Italians, and the Canadians. The German pilots were just not up to the job.

Which changed after Johannes Steinhoff tweaked the West German pilot training. additionally, the G version of the Starfighter was an absolute abortion. Turning a pure interceptor into a fighter bomber was idiocy. That said, I take offence at the phrasing of your post.
 
Herbert Smith's Sopwith Camel design has reach a fame nearly on-par with the Spitfire. After the war he joined Mitsubishi's design team in Japan.

There will always be questions about who designed the Camel. When Herbert Smith came to Sopwith's, aircraft were being designed with chalk on the floor. Their first sale to the Admiralty had Wright Flyer wings and a Bleriot fuselage. Everybody's dead now, so what you can find is all there is. There's no dispute that he designed the Tripe and the Snipe, and others. There are interviews with differences. There's no question that he and several other ex-Sopwith employees established the Mitsubishi design office and whipped up three designs, two winners. He spent weeks with a man who was buiding a replica Triplane. The original Triplane took 6 weeks. The replica took longer, and Smith was gone.
 
Which changed after Johannes Steinhoff tweaked the West German pilot training. additionally, the G version of the Starfighter was an absolute abortion. Turning a pure interceptor into a fighter bomber was idiocy. That said, I take offence at the phrasing of your post.

Macky Steinhoff said German pilots were not up to the job of flying the F-104G without more intensive training. I take offence at your taking offence.
 
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