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Oxo hand tools.

Hermin Miller Aerons.

My Olympus skyhawk. Literally the only piece of hardware that's going to outlive me.

The FN P90 and the 57 pistol.

The flight deck on the Sukhoi SU-34 and the Boeing 787.

Basically, anything where the design department went out and asked the customer what their biggest complaints were, then sat down to eliminate them in the design phase.

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I've got a great book about the Boeing 747, it talks about how the design department went out and found out what the physics said, took that back to what was practical and designed "the best" compromise available at the time - but fundamentally based on physics. And thanks to them, 50 years later airport runway lengths and air traffic control approach speeds and 37,000 foot cruise altitudes and a whole bunch of other standards and infrastructure - is the way it is due to the speed of sound (and the lack of early/mid '60s aerodynamics ability to know how to exceed it), the temperature/airdensity efficiency curves of jet engines, and the 60's vintage structural limitations of wingspans.

do you mind sharing the name of the book?

I suspected someone was gonna ask that... I know exaclty where the book is at home, I can almost picture the cover - but not in enought detail to lever the title out of my brain. Sorry. (If I remember, I'll come back here after I get home tonight and let you know...)

Perhaps 747: Creating the World's First Jumbo Jet and Other Adventures from a Life in Aviation

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/0060882425

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