My favorite airplane is the Sikorsky S-38, “The Explorer’s Air Yacht.”
Twin engine amphibian, very lightweight, designed, built, and used for exploring the far reaches of the globe in the golden age of flight. Take off and land nearly anywhere. Fair amount of carrying capacity. Wicker seats. This is what Howard Hughes flew Katherine Hepburn in, in The Aviator.
Second place: Grumman Albatross. Also twin-engine amphibian, but a lot bigger than the S-38. I’ve ridden in one and landed on Lake Mead while sitting in the nosecone. Beautiful workhorse of a plane.
I went to the annual Boulder City Albatross fly-in and got to ride over Lake Mead as a group of planes weaved in and out of the canyon in formation and landed on the lake. I had just bought a new camera, and the pilot let me ride in the nosecone on the way out. I didn’t even buy a ticket, but I did donate to fuel costs. Lying on my belly in the very front of the plane as we flew in a 4-plane formation, down through a slot canyon only a few hundred feet up, then out over the lake — it was truly like being able to fly.
Third in line: the OV-10 Bronco. I’ve seen them in the desert in California near Fort Irwin, doing aileron rolls above the hills. Enormous dome for observation, short field capability, and a twin-boom configuration that just looks right. And the A-10 “Warthog” — if I’m going to fantasize, I might as well throw that one in too.
For realistic use, I’d be satisfied with a C-172 or a Cessna Skymaster 337 — the inline twin, one engine pulling, one pushing. The military version was the O-2. It has more stable handling characteristics than standard twin-engine planes, and I just like the twin-boom tail configuration.
If I had serious FU money — a million or more to throw away on restoration, maintenance, and fuel — I’d get the Albatross. The closest I’ve gotten is the nosecone above Hoover Dam.
It’s enough to keep you reading the aircraft classifieds.