8 WTF Aircraft Designs That Actually Caught Air
Ask any 6-year-old kid to draw an airplane, and he can do it -- it's a couple of wings and a couple of fins attached to a long thing in the middle. The engines are either on the wings, or stuck to the fuselage. Even the most space-age fighter aircraft don't stray far from that template.
But aircraft designers can think outside the box just like everybody else. And what's most surprising of all is that all of the insane designs below actually flew, with varying degrees of success.
#8. De Lackner HZ-1 Aerocycle
Oh, bullshit. That thing looks less plausible than 80 percent of Inspector Gadget's inventory. But yes, it was real, and yes, it flew.
In the 1950s, the American soldier needed to get across a battlefield, but also needed to avoid things like mines, which vehicles have a nasty habit of detonating. The aerocycle seemed perfect for the job, regardless of how stupid it looked. It was basically an open air, stand-up helicopter crossed with a Segway.
It looks like something Johnny Quest should be riding.
And we didn't just throw out that Segway comparison at random -- operators would steer this contraption by "shifting their weight." Oh, and it was amphibious, too. Amazingly, things looked great in development, with Army brass saying the aerocycle was the modern equivalent of cavalry horses. And while having a battalion of flying soldiers riding open, whirling blades into battle sounds awesome, it was sadly not meant to be.
On the plus side, the fate of this aerocycle's pilot lead to the invention of salsa.
They started testing untrained men on the aerocycle prototypes, figuring the intuitive controls would be like riding a bike. And it actually was like riding a bike, in that you have to crash a bunch before you finally figure it out (it didn't help that the craft would pitch wildly in windy conditions). Even testing for the device's parachute went badly. Out of the dozen built, only one survived until the end of the project in 1957. And you know what? We still kind of want one.
Modern Mechanix
This thing was made for beer and aquatic Frisbee golf.
#7. Hafner Rotabuggy
In 1943, the Brits needed two things: a way to get vehicles quickly out of firefights, and a way to deploy vehicles so they aren't an easy target. British engineers thought, You would need a Jeep-like helicopter to do that! Thus, the Hafner Rotabuggy was born.
No, we didn't just run an old G.I. Joe cartoon through a black and white filter.
Despite an outlandish design that was eccentric even by British standards, testing went fairly well with both the flying and driving aspects (despite problems like difficulty flying in high-wind speeds and, we imagine, the temptation to turn on the rotors while on the ground to try to plow through enemy infantry like a lawnmower). Hafner was just about to score a major contract in late 1944, but other more conventional aircraft soon proved to be much better for carrying armored vehicles than, say, a ridiculous flying Jeep. The contract was canceled, but the Rotabuggy lives on in museums, and in the dreams of every reader who is right now imagining chopping their way through a zombie apocalypse in one of them.
Membrana
When you get bored, you just fly away.
#6. Goodyear Inflatoplane
It's rare for the words "durable" and "inflatable" to wind up in the same product description with any kind of honesty. Yet, when the U.S. Army needed some inexpensive new ways to make rescue aircraft, they decided to give the inflatable inflatoplane a chance in 1955.
AviaStar
"Who wouldn't trust their life to a plane that could be crippled by a thumbtack?"
Made of a rubber and nylon mix, the plane took only about five minutes to inflate, and could fly as fast as 72 mph.
"We have too many pilots, and we can't afford to pay pensions for all of them."
But the Army kind of knew things were off when they saw it only took three months to design and build the thing (normal planes usually go through years of research and development alone). They soon figured out that refueling was a nightmare, as fabric does not usually make an ideal gas tank. Also, it could only take an additional load of 240 pounds, which meant bad news for the overweight soul hoping to be rescued. Testing was also a nightmare, especially when the aircraft banked slightly and the wings would fall off.
While the dozen or so built somehow did make a few successful rescues, the accidents and overall ridiculousness of the design outweighed any benefit. After the Army's official position comically stated in 1960 that there was no "valid military use for an aircraft that could be brought down by a well-aimed bow and arrow," the project would be canceled in 1962.
Word got out that the Russians were training anti-aircraft mosquitoes.
#5. Vought XF5U
What, you thought planes needed wings to fly? You owe the XF5U an apology, buddy.
During World War II, the U.S. Navy was fighting in the Pacific and needed planes that could save on fuel but also fly extremely fast, regardless of how fucking ridiculous they looked. That led to the XF5U -- a disc-shaped plane that looked like a UFO (and in fact got reported as such during test flights), nicknamed "the flying flapjack."
Two of them were built, and testing somehow went pretty well. Innovations in the propellers reduced drag, making the plane much more efficient. But the Navy then decided to switch to jet-powered planes just after the war, dooming the propeller-driven XF5U and its highly unconventional design. When it came time to destroy the prototype, the thing was so solidly built they had to use a wrecking ball ... and the first two strikes didn't even leave a dent in it.
Couldn't the government recoup its development costs by selling old experimental planes to super-villains?
did any1 else notice that the Vought XF5U looked like 1 of the planes from the capcom arcade game 1942? lol
Replyso did the twin mustang lol
number 3 seems legit
ReplyThe XF5U would have actually made an excellent fighter, but it really did come too late and by the time the US was involved in another aerial war, it would have been completely obsolete. That being said, I still say that the plane could have kicked some major ass if it was put in service in 1944.
ReplyGotta love the French.
ReplyAirbus has a similar plane to the Guppy called the Beluga which is in service right now and is even more insane looking. It's used to transport pieces of fuselage from one factory to another. It actually has a greater interior volume than the C-5 Galaxy or An-124 (the largest cargo planes in the world) but a lower weight capacity.
Reply#8 should have been way higher.
Reply#1 would be pretty awesome if it was much smaller. Hover scooters for all!
Reply“On the plus side, the fate of this aerocycle's pilot lead to the invention of salsa.”
ReplyOh man, I hated myself for laughing so hysterically at this, but that s**t was just gruesomely hilarious.
Caspian Sea Monster probably should be here.
ReplyNot an aeroplane.
#1 looks more like a rocket with horrible aerodynamics
ReplyAnd we thought ridiculous and expensive DoD programs only existed recently....
Replyi want an aerocycle.
ReplyHow did the titler miss the obvious 'get off the ground' pun?
ReplyCommando comic have been running a series of articles on planes that "didn't make the grade" for a while now. Though most of them are fairly conventional WW2 designs from either France (cancelled due to invasion) or Germany or Japan (cancelled due to being defeated). There has been some wierd stuff though, the Americans wanted a jet fighter so bad but hadn't perfected jet engines, so they built a propellor plane with a jet crammed in the back, the propellor being there to keep it in the air if the jet failed.
ReplyPossibly one of the most WTF designs not featured here (though it barely flew) is the Caproni CA60 from Italy. It's like a railway carriage (or maybe a big canal boat) with 9 wings on top in three sets. It crashed on it's first "flight" and sank.
It was already used in "The 5 Most Predictable Aviation Disasters of All-Time"
The second picture of the Guppy looks like it might shoot out a tongue with little jaws at the end of it.
ReplyMORE LIKE SMEGMA COLEOPTERE!
ReplyKABOOM!
In the guppy one, on the third pic down, that is clearly the front of the plane being opened, not the back.
Reply"The entire back of the plane." I guess they meant the entire plane was detachable from the head? Huh.
The double P-51 was frigging sweet. Can you imagine how terrifying it must have looked if you were conditioned to fear a regular P-51?
ReplyYes I can - I had to open the cockpit and toss out my moonshine then and there when one of them crossed paths with me!
There seems to be a theme to aircraft design. If it doesn't look cool, it won't work. I wonder how many people got chopped up in the rotors of the aerocycle when they fell off.
Reply Hide All See All 3 RepliesFunny enough, thats actually true. Most pilots would agree that if a plane looks good, it tends to fly good. There are exceptions, of course, but there seem to be some relations between visual appeal of an airplane and its aerodynamic capabilities.
There is a lot of overlap between a "cool looking plane" and a "plane that can fly". And I think it's due to our semi-unconscious understanding of aerodynamics. Basically planes look cool when they look like they can fly.
Like how flames and racing stripes make cars go faster.
And I though Britains flying bedstead was WTF
ReplyCan't beat Spitfire and Harrier Jumpjet!
Yeah but those look and fly like proper planes XD