I've been hearing the word Flighter for quite some time, and I'd like to ask what it means. What's the different between a flighter and a non-flighter? I'm waiting for a Vector Flighter in the mail, and I've looked it up. It looks the same as an ordinary Vector... I think.

Flighters are stainless steel looking. Like this...

Show-off...

Oh I see. Funny, I got that picture for this wishlist gallery I made before! Wow, they are beautiful.

Oh I see. Funny, I got that picture for this wishlist gallery I made before! Wow, they are beautiful.

Richard Binder did a very good article on his site called Design Features ~ The Flighter

Personally, my opinion is that there is only ONE FLIGHTER... and that is the original Parker 51 Flighter.

Besides the materials use to make them, there is a functional difference. My always-inked daily driver is a "51" Flighter. It is a beautiful, medium weight pen that feels solid in the hand.

This week, I put my favorite "51" vac in cordovan brown into the rotation. Although identical in size, shape, and smoothness, it feels much lighter in the hand - a very pleasurable experience to use, indeed.

I love both pens, however, they are different but the same.

If you like Parkers, you need to own both.

i beg to differ... only because i wanna say that i own a P45 flighter!!!

The 51 flighters is by far the nicest looking 51 at least in my opinion. Although, i have been buying Japanese pens almost exclusively for the past 2 years, and selling some of the pens in my collection that i am not crazy about anymore, I will never get rid of the my 51 flighter set. It is gorgeous, robust, and super reliable.

Nikolaos

To my knowledge, the only real 'Flighter' was the Parker '51' Flighter made of stainless steel, however most other pens made after that one that came in a stainless-steel variant were also called 'Flighters' due to the similarity. I've a '51' Flighter in my collection and it really is a charmer. Despite the metal, it's a surprisingly light and wonderful-to-use fountain pen. And it's also nice and flashy!!

"Flighter" is a model name that Parker applied to the stainless steel barreled "51". The cap had a gold filled band near the mouth and a gold filled clip, while the hood was standard black. Other variation exist (no cap band, for instance). The name "Jet Flighter" was applied by Parker to the stainless steel barreled 61 (also with black hood).

I do not know if Parker used the name officially for other pens, but the term is used for all Parker pens in stainless steel barrel/cap combinations. Probably not completely correctly.

As to the difference, the only thing different about the pens between the Flighter model and the regular pen is the barrel material. The rest of the pen, other than some trim variations, is made up of standard parts. The Flighter tends to weight a bit more due to the metal barrel, so the balance is a bit different.

Peter

Also, Flighters look really awesome. Not that the regular pens don't.

Ha! Well it sure isn't mine. I should've given credit to Stylophiles for that one.

Wow what a picture!

What can one typically go for in a nice near mint/ used condition?

I would like to have one and was wondering what to pay. Are these listed like this on the bay or should I look at all '51' listings?

Thanks,

Todd

Anywhere from $200-300+ on eBay depending on actual condition, the seller, the market for that day, etc.
But in near mint condition, figure on the upper end of that...

I love Parker flighter pens. All my Parker pens are flighter models..

I admit the weight of the a Flighter make it a better balanced pen, but the sound it makes when the cap is being posted, or when the pen comes in contact with other hard material, always send a chilling sensation down my spine. Whenever I come across a Flighter accidentally (as in in a lot of pens I buy), I always sell it.

Love the Lustraloy, just too sensitive to scratching and marking.
They ae best for the display case and write with a pen with a rubbish body and a good nib.

I never post my P61 Jet Flighter for fear of scratching the surface.

The feel of it is extremely luxurious though. I tend to always have it in my hand when it's with me, the surface is just so tactile.

My eldest daughter has a P45 flighter which feels almost as good, but it's a much newer pen and it needs to wear a little to make the surface as nice as the P61's.

Regards

Richard.

I didn't really understand that...?

Well, it USED to be mine, before I sold it to Bill R. Read the entire article as it's a really nice ode to a Flighter.
And since I got another one it's always inked and either on my desk or in my pocket.
It's not jewelry, it's a precision instrument.
gary

I think the term has been so beat to death, by Parker and the public, that it now means any silvery metal finish with goldish trim.

It should have been the stainless Parker "51" Aerometric and ended with that.

Now, we might as well call a Hero 200A a "Flighter" even though if you take it on a flight it will most likely puke ink all over your pocket.

Actually, nearly all modern pens do just fine on airplanes so long as they are kept nib up -- it turns out that the hole in the breather tube that makes an Aerometric filler isn't really necessary -- nib up, all the ink will drain out of the collector back into the pen anyway, so only air will be forced up into the fins no matter what the breather looks like. On pens with no breather tube, the ink just drains back out of the feed, and there is enough space in the fins on the feed (or collector if equiped) to hold what little will be pushed out. May get a bit of ink on the nib, but that's not a real problem.

USING a pen while the aircraft is ascending to 7000 ft can be more exciting, as even a "51" can flood from ink being forced out of the sac.

And Parker did, after all, name the stainless steel barreled 61 the Jet Flighter!


Peter

I'm a fan of stainless pens, too, but i have to say that the 51 Flighter is not as robust as some other metal pens. The problem is that the steel will wear out the plastic threads on the filling unit. Other metal pens have this same drawback (e.g., the 75 after the first year or so of production), but then again, others do not.