History Main / CoolPlane

* One of the earliest, and almost certainly still to this day ''the'' greatest, has to be the [=MiG=]-31 "Firefox" from the [[{{Firefox}} novel and film of the same name]], which was capable of Mach 5, stealth (called "anti-radar" in the book, which predates the term "stealth technology") and carried thought-controllable weapons. For which the pilot had to think in Russian nevertheless.

* The F-19 Ghostrider from ''RedStormRising''.
* The DaleBrown novel ''Flight of the Old Dog'' and the series after it is about a junky old B-52 used as a testing platform for state-of-the-art military technology, a dichotomy reflected in its two names, "Megafortress" and "The Old Dog". When a Soviet laser system shoots down a US satellite and a squadron of sleek B-1 bombers, naturally it's the ramshackle B-52 and its rag-tag crew which comes to the rescue. Although it's valuable enough to be overhauled and eventually replaced in the continuity, the CoolShip naturally never becomes mass-production, because that would [[ConservationOfNinjitsu cripple its mojo]] (and would make little sense militarily, anyway). Eventually the Dreamland team switches to heavily-modified B-1 Lancers with, amongst other things, LADAR, "plasma"-warhead missiles and armed [=UAVs=]. Later still the Black Stallion spaceplanes show up. The Russians also have some entries of their own, like the Fisikous/Metyor-179 ''Tyenee''/Shadow stealth bomber in ''Warrior Class''. Of course, there are some IRL ones flying around.
* The science fiction novella ''Steam Bird'', about how the crew of the titular huge nuclear-powered bomber--die-hard steam enthusiasts to a man-- are so keen to have an excuse to finally fly the damned thing, during every diplomatic crisis they tool up and wait in the plane for TheCall. When it finally comes, they're rolling in seconds, much to the President's dismay five minutes later when he realizes that he's just ordered a ''large'' nuclear reactor into the air. Due to the way the thing's built, once it's moving, it's got to take off OrElse (and set a whole bunch of world records in the process.) Such aircraft were actually proposed by the US Air Force in TheFifties.
* {{Matthew Reilly}}'s book, the ''Seven Ancient Wonders'' (''Seven Deadly Wonders'' for US readers), features the ''Halicarnassus'', an extensively modified 747 used as a militarized transport aircraft. It's modifications include VTOL capability, minigun and missile pods, radar-absorbent black paint job, and an impressive military-spec sensor and communications package. Oh, and the best part? It was actually a custom order by Saddam FREAKING Hussein, and the protagonist ''single-handedly stole it'' from him during the first Gulf War.
** MatthewReilly's previous books feature the ''Silhouette'' (a fighter prototype with a cloaking device), and the ''Black Raven'' (a modified Sukhoi S-37 with more weapons than a Bond car). Both include radar-absorbent paint and VTOL. The S-37 was an earlier name for the Sukhoi Su-47, which counts as a [[RealLife.CoolPlane cool plane]] ''before'' the modifications.
* The ''Wingman'' series by Mack Maloney has the main character's F-16, with which he leads the forces of America's restoration. It's the last remaining F-16 in the world after the Soviets won World War III and destroyed most of America's modern equipment during the forced disarmament. It's modified to carry more and more missiles until, in the end, it can lug over ''twenty'', and its performance is somehow not hampered in the least. It later ends up traveling back in time to WorldWarII, then later into the far future -- [[RecycledInSpace IN SPACE]] -- where it's modified to become a starfighter. The series is even more silly than all of that sounds.

* TheBigOne universe series of novels refelcts a world in which bombers in general have much-enhanced prestige with their users and where high & fast is a valid means of penetrating enemy defenses. As a result, the novels ontaina plethora of really cool military and civilian aircraftall of which existed as either prototypes or advanced engineering concepts.

** The 2012 remake, ''[[{{VideoGame/X-COMEnemyUnknown2012}} X-COM: Enemy Unknown]]'', gives us the soldier's main transport ship "the Skyranger", which is able to get from one end of the earth to the other, and back again, in a single day on a single tank of fuel. Nice.

** Dragonfly XH-1 - based on the AH-1 [=SuperCobra=], with a jet turbine in place of a conventional tail rotor

** Dragonfly XH-1 - based on the AH-1 SuperCobra, with a jet turbine in place of a conventional tail rotor

** Night Raven S3P - ''loosely'' based on the Lockheed A-12/M-21/SR-71 series with a detachable "recon jet" even more loosely based on the D-21 drone.

* ''GIJoe'' has plenty of Cool Planes in both the Joes' and Cobra's fleets.

* The [[{{Blackhawk}} Blackhawk Squadron]] flew a great many Cool Planes over the years, most notably the '40s-era [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XF5F_Skyrocket XF5F Skyrocket]] whose distinctive looks made it the definitive Blackhawk plane.

* ''{{Thunderbirds}}'':

* OlderThanFeudalism: ''Literature/{{Ramayana}}'', written long before airplanes existed, introduced vimanas, which were some sort of magical aerial vehicle. The book does not spare words in describing the "sun-equaling" splendor of Pushpaka's vimana, which is "as fast as thought", capable of going anywhere at the pilot's will, and also apparently sentient enough to understand spoken commands. (Or maybe it has a computer with voice-recogniztion software...)

* OlderThanFeudalism: Literature/Ramayana, written long before airplanes existed, introduced vimanas, which were some sort of magical aerial vehicle. The book does not spare words in describing the "sun-equaling" splendor of Pushpaka's vimana, which is "as fast as thought", capable of going anywhere at the pilot's will, and also apparently sentient enough to understand spoken commands. (Or maybe it has a computer with voice-recogniztion software...)

* Another Pixar film, ''WesternAnimation/{{Cars}}'', has several. The first film has Rotor Turbosky, Strip "The King" Weathers' helicopter, [[PunnyName Barney Stormin]], a red and white biplane seen sponsoring the final race, and a quartet of fighter jets at the same race composing of Marco, Stu Bop, and two unnamed jets, while the sequel has Siddeley, Finn McMissile's stealth fighter jet and his archenemies, the Lemons' BlackHelicopter, as well as Everett the passenger plane and an unnamed Samairai passenger plane. Even the spinoffs featured more aircraft: ''Rescue Squad Mater'' features a pair of rescue helicopters, ''Mater the Greater'' has Props [=McGee=], a blue and red stunt plane, ''UFM: Unidentified Flying Mater'' has Captain Munier the attack helicopter, and ''Air Mater'' has the Falcon Hawks.

->''"If Kim Basinger was a plane, this is what she'd be."''

** PorcoRosso's trademark red Savoia Marchetti seaplane and Curtis' Curtis racer are both actual historical aircraft that would have been considered "cool" planes in their time.
** ''FutureBoyConan'' has Monsley's Falco
** ''NausicaaOfTheValleyOfTheWind'' features the Valley of the Wind Gunship.
** ''Anime/TheCastleOfCagliosro'', one of the Lupin anime that Miyazaki directed, features the Count's ship-type.

* PorcoRosso's trademark red Savoia Marchetti seaplane and Curtis' Curtis racer are both actual historical aircraft that would have been considered "cool" planes in their time.
** Actually, most HayaoMiyazaki's works have them. [[FutureBoyConan Monsley's Falco]] and [[NausicaaOfTheValleyOfTheWind the Valley of the Wind Gunship]] come to mind.

* The Quinjet in Creator/ZenStudios' ''[[Pinball/TheAvengersZenStudios The Avengers]]'' DigitalPinballTable, which strafes the playfield and [[ItsRainingMen drops extra balls]] to start multiball.

* The Thunderwing jet fighters from ''ChourikiSentaiOhranger''. They have drop-deployment hatches for the [[CoolBike Jetter Machines]], and laser cannons in the nosecones to blow up Baranoia Takonpa fighters with in addition to a fighter jet's usual weapon loadout.

** DeffSkwadron brings us [[http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/dakkabommalite_1950.jpg da megabomma]].

Oh, also: Helicopters ''are'' included in this category. If you're looking for RealLife {{Cool Plane}}s, [[RealLife/CoolPlane they're right over here]]. For the CoolPlane [-[[RecycledInSpace IN SPACE!]]-], see SpaceFighter.

* The God Phoenix from ''Anime/ScienceNinjaTeamGatchaman''. Imagine a large bright red and blue plane that can go into space, submerge in water, take off and land vertically, goes supersonic, carries about 30 missiles (before being kaboomed), then several large super missiles (after being rebuilt), and carries 4 secondary vehicles inside it. Most spectacularly of all when the plane's really in a jam, it can transform in to a giant flaming phoenix to escape, although this takes a lot out of the team.[[hottip:*:And the fuel.]]

** The good guys, however, get a [[hottip:*:(quoth Helen Parker)]] "really fast" private jet. Although it's not up to [[IncrediblyLamePun the incredible]] standards set by the rest of the other aircraft, it can do some very extreme maneuvers and, if really necessary, jettison flares to confuse [[AntiAir SAMs]].

* The Quinjet in Creator/ZenStudios' ''Pinball/TheAvengers'' DigitalPinballTable, which strafes the playfield and [[ItsRainingMen drops extra balls]] to start multiball.

* The Quinjet in Creator/ZenStudios' ''Pinball/TheAvengers'' DigitalPinballTable, which strafes the playfield and [[ItsRainingMen drops extra balls]] to stat multiball.

** From the Same series is the gunship known as 'Nozo' A modified C-5 that takes the gunship UptoEleven, as it is armed with a full 21 GAU-8 Avengers.

* The Saviour Gundam piloted by Athrun Zala in ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamSEED''

* The [[{{Batman}} Batplane]], and sometimes [[BlackHelicopter Batcopter]].

* The Batwing from ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries''. Capable of flying through a tunnel and spearing a car, and ripping off its door with a claw. Of course, it's Batman, so RuleOfCool is in full effect.

* The VF-1 Valkryie from ''SuperDimensionFortressMacross'', and its successors such as the YF-19 and Jetfire from {{Transformers}} (No, really): {{Cool Plane}}s that [[TransformingMecha transform into robots]].

* By default, virtually every Transformer with a plane alt-mode is one of these: Starscream ([[TransformersGeneration1 F-15]], [[TransformersFilmSeries F-22]], [[TransformersAnimated something that looks suspiciously like the Su-47 Berkut]] and [[MacrossPlus a YF-19 "Alpha One"]]) and Blitzwing (some sort of tank-plane thing) only being two examples. (An obvious drawback to listing them all is the fact that [[MerchandiseDriven many of the flying Transformers are just]] [[PaletteSwap repainted Starscreams]].) [[TransformersAnimated Megatron]] also has an Osprey ([[WesternAnimation/BeastWars Not that kind!]] A double-bladed helicopter) altmode.

** ''TransformersCybertron'' gives us a fair few. Earth planes (and one helicopter): Jetfire turns into an Antonov An-225, Thundercracker (''Not'' a Starscream mold-mate, for once) turns into a Sukhoi Su-37, Evac turns into a Eurocopter Dauphin rescue chopper, and Wing Saber turns into a modified A-10. Cybertronian and other non-Earth: Megatron has a very menacing, evil-looking jet mode, Starscream's altmode is an homage to the pre-earth Tetrajet modes of the G1 Seekers, Sideways' looks distinctly alien, as does Soundwave's bomber mode (though his is similar in shape to some Earth stealth bombers). Mashup: Optimus Prime's [[SoCoolItsAwesome Flying Fire Truck]] mode. [[CrackIsCheaper Thanks for killing our wallets, Hasbro]].

* MassEffect's A-61 Mantis is usually used as a gunship, but the codex says that it can easily act as a fixed wing aircraft. It's design in the game reflects this, making it look like a fixed wing aircraft that's been turned and contorted in various ways with fold-up parts. Also according to the codex, in this role it can fulfill the role of ''any'' aircraft, whether it be a fighter, ground attack aircraft, or high-altitude bomber, all while being faster and more maneuverable than any equivalent aircraft we have today (i.e. Harriers). While the models you encounter in MassEffect2 are shitty stripped down ones used by mercenary bands, the "Stolen Memory" DLC and MassEffect3 let you see the normal, military-issue versions. All models of the Mantis pack dual unlimited ammo cannons and ten missiles, and the military models have very powerful DeflectorShields.