I’ve said that before, I’ll say it again – the “western” TB series design looks suspiciously similar to a Romanian design that pre-dated it by about ten years.
Which one would that be??
IAR 823
What does this have to do with the TB series? It’s a little bit of everything, I would say, and looks like they had access to some cheap Mooney tails :-)
Windscreen – same. Doors very similar if more refined on the TB. Engine identical. Cowl shape on the early pre-prod TB identical. And everybody knows the Mooney tail is just better :-)
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Hmmm … I don’t see none of that :-) Looks all different to me. For example the 823 has a two piece windscreen. The engine is a different version (290 hp) and the gullwing doors … well, it has gull wing doors, but that’s about it
There seem to be some evidence that appreciating the golden ratio is “built-in” the human mind, so using it can possibly be said to be an objective criteria of good design. Apart from that the complexity of the human mind means that just about anything can look esthetically pleasing to someone.
But good design is much more than what somebody “thinks” looks good to him. And the more you know about something and it’s function, the more you will appreciate REALLY good industrial design. Show somebody who has never seen an airplane any of the above – and a Mooney. He will not see the difference. He will only understand and see the difference after he has learned about flying.
This is actually a topic that I always found interesting. What is “taste” and what is “good design”? When i was 20 i planned to study industrial design. The school didn’t accept me twice so i did something else, but i never lost interest in these things …
The IAR 823 is what the Romanians came up with when they took a Lycoming engine and other conventional components and built their own conventional aircraft. I do like that they have sticks and are aerobatic. They have never caught on much in the US though – unlike something like a Yak 52 (which are thick on the ground) they lack character in their appearance.
As for older designs being less attractive than new ones, I think that’s nuts 
Not all of them a beauty queens but something like a mid-60s Cesna 310 is just sexy and always will be. Its the same thing as comparing an E-type Jag with its generic modern replacement, which I can’t even see in my minds eye because its so boring. Subtle refinement and good taste in product design is largely gone worldwide – even the Italian stuff looks either intentionally ‘retro’ (with copying the past being an admission of failure) or designed by committee to me, in 2014.
They haven’t caught on because there were only about 80 or so made – most of which are flying in the US now. The Yak is still being built on the other hand.
