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Don't know if this entirely qualifies as a 'hack' but progressing along the lines of nominating aircraft designs as "great hacks," we ought not overlook the CF105 Avro Arrow built in Canada in the 1950s. Since the program was ultimately scrapped by the Canadian government at the time (citing budget concerns) before the aircraft ever went into full-scale production, it obviously didn't become as famous as it otherwise would certainly have done, but the fact remains that it was a fantastic achievement.

The best website concerning the Arrow is probably the Discovery Channel's Flight Deck which has a good piece on the technical aspects of the Arrow, and exn.ca has some decent stuff as well. There are several other sites which contain pix, specs & plans, noteworthy info and comparisons or narratives (mirrored), and like all obscure subjects online, it also has a Web Ring.

The Arrow was the first aircraft to pull a 2-G turn at 50,000' without loss of speed or altitude - unusual even today. It was also an extraordinary achievement in the amount and variety of weaponry that it carried in its weapons pack, which could include not only weaponry, but also reconansance equipment, fuel, and just about anything else, most of which could be reloaded or swapped in a matter of minutes - still impressive by today's standards. Consider that an Arrow in 1959 could have flown higher at a similar speed (slightly faster, actually) than an F-14D Tomcat did 31 years later... the Arrow is a 40-year-old accomplishment that would compare remarkably well with the aircraft of today - and comparisons with aircraft of its day are in most instances almost unfair, unless you look only at a single feature.

• The CIA's U2 spy-plane had a higher flight ceiling than the Arrow - 60,000' compared with 58,000 - and its only defence was altitude. In 1959, one of the very few things aloft that could have brought one down from its flight ceiling was an Arrow, which could bring down a target at a 70,000' altitude. The U2 was replaced by the SR-71 Blackbird (nominated elsewhere), which the Arrow predates just slightly (the Blackbird first hit the drawing board at Lougheed's SkunkWorks in September 1959, whereas the Arrow project was scrapped in February 1959; note the SR-71 has a strikingly similar cockpit configuration). For further comparison, the F14's flight ceiling is about 53,000', (the SR-71's is around 85,000' achieved in 1976).
  
• The F-117A Stealth Fighter has internal weapons carriage and fly-by-wire controls: the current wave of the future. The Arrow had both in 1957.
  
• The F/A-18 engines (20 years later) each produce 11,000/16,000 pounds thrust without/with afterburner; the Arrow's Iriquois engine produced 19,500/25,600 with a potential for 30,000 -- more similar to a MiG-31 or an F-14.
  
• Delta-wing aircraft were revolutionary at the time - the Arrow was a tail-less delta-wing design with a "blended" cockpit (think Stealth Bomber) rather than the (at that time) conventional "bubble" cockpit with a conventional wing design.
  
• Although the Arrow was intended for use as a fighter-interceptor, its armament bay was larger than a B29 Bomber's.
  

The Arrow contained serveral other aviation 'firsts' and 'near-firsts' and several 'bests' and 'near-bests' - but the truly amazing thing was the way that Avro brought it all together in a single package. The designers' plans for an 'Ultimate Arrow' suggest they were thinking bigger still, despite having made history already - there is really no telling what might have evolved from the project today if had been left intact. After the project was scrapped, many of the design team from Avro went on to work on other projects, so that certain Arrow features apparently began to appear in a variety of places, including (perhaps) the Concorde, the Stealth Bomber, and at NASA, where 32 Avro engineers ended up working on Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo - including Apollo 11 (nominated elsewhere) and I believe 13 (also nominated elsewhere) and the space shuttle.

Don't know if this entirely qualifies as a 'hack' but progressing along the lines of nominating aircraft designs as "great hacks," we ought not overlook the CF105 Avro Arrow built in Canada in the 1950s. Since the program was ultimately scrapped by the Canadian government at the time (citing budget concerns) before the aircraft ever went into full-scale production, it obviously didn't become as famous as it otherwise would certainly have done, but the fact remains that it was a fantastic achievement.

The best website concerning the Arrow is probably the Discovery Channel's Flight Deck which has a good piece on the technical aspects of the Arrow, and exn.ca has some decent stuff as well. There are several other sites which contain pix, specs & plans, noteworthy info and comparisons or narratives (mirrored), and like all obscure subjects online, it also has a Web Ring.

The Arrow was the first aircraft to pull a 2-G turn at 50,000' without loss of speed or altitude - unusual even today. It was also an extraordinary achievement in the amount and variety of weaponry that it carried in its weapons pack, which could include not only weaponry, but also reconansance equipment, fuel, and just about anything else, most of which could be reloaded or swapped in a matter of minutes - still impressive by today's standards. Consider that an Arrow in 1959 could have flown higher at a similar speed (slightly faster, actually) than an F-14D Tomcat did 31 years later... the Arrow is a 40-year-old accomplishment that would compare remarkably well with the aircraft of today - and comparisons with aircraft of its day are in most instances almost unfair, unless you look only at a single feature.

• The CIA's U2 spy-plane had a higher flight ceiling than the Arrow - 60,000' compared with 58,000 - and its only defence was altitude. In 1959, one of the very few things aloft that could have brought one down from its flight ceiling was an Arrow, which could bring down a target at a 70,000' altitude. The U2 was replaced by the SR-71 Blackbird (nominated elsewhere), which the Arrow predates just slightly (the Blackbird first hit the drawing board at Lougheed's SkunkWorks in September 1959, whereas the Arrow project was scrapped in February 1959; note the SR-71 has a strikingly similar cockpit configuration). For further comparison, the F14's flight ceiling is about 53,000', (the SR-71's is around 85,000' achieved in 1976).
  
• The F-117A Stealth Fighter has internal weapons carriage and fly-by-wire controls: the current wave of the future. The Arrow had both in 1957.
  
• The F/A-18 engines (20 years later) each produce 11,000/16,000 pounds thrust without/with afterburner; the Arrow's Iriquois engine produced 19,500/25,600 with a potential for 30,000 -- more similar to a MiG-31 or an F-14.
  
• Delta-wing aircraft were revolutionary at the time - the Arrow was a tail-less delta-wing design with a "blended" cockpit (think Stealth Bomber) rather than the (at that time) conventional "bubble" cockpit with a conventional wing design.
  
• Although the Arrow was intended for use as a fighter-interceptor, its armament bay was larger than a B29 Bomber's.
  

The Arrow contained serveral other aviation 'firsts' and 'near-firsts' and several 'bests' and 'near-bests' - but the truly amazing thing was the way that Avro brought it all together in a single package. The designers' plans for an 'Ultimate Arrow' suggest they were thinking bigger still, despite having made history already - there is really no telling what might have evolved from the project today if had been left intact. After the project was scrapped, many of the design team from Avro went on to work on other projects, so that certain Arrow features apparently began to appear in a variety of places, including (perhaps) the Concorde, the Stealth Bomber, and at NASA, where 32 Avro engineers ended up working on Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo - including Apollo 11 (nominated elsewhere) and I believe 13 (also nominated elsewhere) and the space shuttle.

Don't know if this entirely qualifies as a 'hack' but progressing along the lines of nominating aircraft designs as "great hacks," we ought not overlook the CF105 Avro Arrow built in Canada in the 1950s. Since the program was ultimately scrapped by the Canadian government at the time (citing budget concerns) before the aircraft ever went into full-scale production, it obviously didn't become as famous as it otherwise would certainly have done, but the fact remains that it was a fantastic achievement.

The best website concerning the Arrow is probably the Discovery Channel's Flight Deck which has a good piece on the technical aspects of the Arrow, and exn.ca has some decent stuff as well. There are several other sites which contain pix, specs & plans, noteworthy info and comparisons or narratives (mirrored), and like all obscure subjects online, it also has a Web Ring.

The Arrow was the first aircraft to pull a 2-G turn at 50,000' without loss of speed or altitude - unusual even today. It was also an extraordinary achievement in the amount and variety of weaponry that it carried in its weapons pack, which could include not only weaponry, but also reconansance equipment, fuel, and just about anything else, most of which could be reloaded or swapped in a matter of minutes - still impressive by today's standards. Consider that an Arrow in 1959 could have flown higher at a similar speed (slightly faster, actually) than an F-14D Tomcat did 31 years later... the Arrow is a 40-year-old accomplishment that would compare remarkably well with the aircraft of today - and comparisons with aircraft of its day are in most instances almost unfair, unless you look only at a single feature.

• The CIA's U2 spy-plane had a higher flight ceiling than the Arrow - 60,000' compared with 58,000 - and its only defence was altitude. In 1959, one of the very few things aloft that could have brought one down from its flight ceiling was an Arrow, which could bring down a target at a 70,000' altitude. The U2 was replaced by the SR-71 Blackbird (nominated elsewhere), which the Arrow predates just slightly (the Blackbird first hit the drawing board at Lougheed's SkunkWorks in September 1959, whereas the Arrow project was scrapped in February 1959; note the SR-71 has a strikingly similar cockpit configuration). For further comparison, the F14's flight ceiling is about 53,000', (the SR-71's is around 85,000' achieved in 1976).
  
• The F-117A Stealth Fighter has internal weapons carriage and fly-by-wire controls: the current wave of the future. The Arrow had both in 1957.
  
• The F/A-18 engines (20 years later) each produce 11,000/16,000 pounds thrust without/with afterburner; the Arrow's Iriquois engine produced 19,500/25,600 with a potential for 30,000 -- more similar to a MiG-31 or an F-14.
  
• Delta-wing aircraft were revolutionary at the time - the Arrow was a tail-less delta-wing design with a "blended" cockpit (think Stealth Bomber) rather than the (at that time) conventional "bubble" cockpit with a conventional wing design.
  
• Although the Arrow was intended for use as a fighter-interceptor, its armament bay was larger than a B29 Bomber's.
  

The Arrow contained serveral other aviation 'firsts' and 'near-firsts' and several 'bests' and 'near-bests' - but the truly amazing thing was the way that Avro brought it all together in a single package. The designers' plans for an 'Ultimate Arrow' suggest they were thinking bigger still, despite having made history already - there is really no telling what might have evolved from the project today if had been left intact. After the project was scrapped, many of the design team from Avro went on to work on other projects, so that certain Arrow features apparently began to appear in a variety of places, including (perhaps) the Concorde, the Stealth Bomber, and at NASA, where 32 Avro engineers ended up working on Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo - including Apollo 11 (nominated elsewhere) and I believe 13 (also nominated elsewhere) and the space shuttle.

Don't know if this entirely qualifies as a 'hack' but progressing along the lines of nominating aircraft designs as "great hacks," we ought not overlook the CF105 Avro Arrow built in Canada in the 1950s. Since the program was ultimately scrapped by the Canadian government at the time (citing budget concerns) before the aircraft ever went into full-scale production, it obviously didn't become as famous as it otherwise would certainly have done, but the fact remains that it was a fantastic achievement.

The best website concerning the Arrow is probably the Discovery Channel's Flight Deck which has a good piece on the technical aspects of the Arrow, and exn.ca has some decent stuff as well. There are several other sites which contain pix, specs & plans, noteworthy info and comparisons or narratives (mirrored), and like all obscure subjects online, it also has a Web Ring.

The Arrow was the first aircraft to pull a 2-G turn at 50,000' without loss of speed or altitude - unusual even today. It was also an extraordinary achievement in the amount and variety of weaponry that it carried in its weapons pack, which could include not only weaponry, but also reconansance equipment, fuel, and just about anything else, most of which could be reloaded or swapped in a matter of minutes - still impressive by today's standards. Consider that an Arrow in 1959 could have flown higher at a similar speed (slightly faster, actually) than an F-14D Tomcat did 31 years later... the Arrow is a 40-year-old accomplishment that would compare remarkably well with the aircraft of today - and comparisons with aircraft of its day are in most instances almost unfair, unless you look only at a single feature.

• The CIA's U2 spy-plane had a higher flight ceiling than the Arrow - 60,000' compared with 58,000 - and its only defence was altitude. In 1959, one of the very few things aloft that could have brought one down from its flight ceiling was an Arrow, which could bring down a target at a 70,000' altitude. The U2 was replaced by the SR-71 Blackbird (nominated elsewhere), which the Arrow predates just slightly (the Blackbird first hit the drawing board at Lougheed's SkunkWorks in September 1959, whereas the Arrow project was scrapped in February 1959; note the SR-71 has a strikingly similar cockpit configuration). For further comparison, the F14's flight ceiling is about 53,000', (the SR-71's is around 85,000' achieved in 1976).
  
• The F-117A Stealth Fighter has internal weapons carriage and fly-by-wire controls: the current wave of the future. The Arrow had both in 1957.
  
• The F/A-18 engines (20 years later) each produce 11,000/16,000 pounds thrust without/with afterburner; the Arrow's Iriquois engine produced 19,500/25,600 with a potential for 30,000 -- more similar to a MiG-31 or an F-14.
  
• Delta-wing aircraft were revolutionary at the time - the Arrow was a tail-less delta-wing design with a "blended" cockpit (think Stealth Bomber) rather than the (at that time) conventional "bubble" cockpit with a conventional wing design.
  
• Although the Arrow was intended for use as a fighter-interceptor, its armament bay was larger than a B29 Bomber's.
  

The Arrow contained serveral other aviation 'firsts' and 'near-firsts' and several 'bests' and 'near-bests' - but the truly amazing thing was the way that Avro brought it all together in a single package. The designers' plans for an 'Ultimate Arrow' suggest they were thinking bigger still, despite having made history already - there is really no telling what might have evolved from the project today if had been left intact. After the project was scrapped, many of the design team from Avro went on to work on other projects, so that certain Arrow features apparently began to appear in a variety of places, including (perhaps) the Concorde, the Stealth Bomber, and at NASA, where 32 Avro engineers ended up working on Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo - including Apollo 11 (nominated elsewhere) and I believe 13 (also nominated elsewhere) and the space shuttle.