Credo
"Sign on, young man, and sail with me. The stature of our homeland is no more than the measure of ourselves. Our job is to keep her free. Our will is to keep the torch of freedom burning for all. To this solemn purpose we call on the young, the brave, the strong, and the free. Heed my call, Come to the sea. Come Sail with me." -- John Paul Jones
"Pardon him, Theodotus; he is a barbarian, and thinks that the customs of his tribe and island are the laws of nature" --George Bernard Shaw, "Caesar and Cleopatra"
"And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music."--Friedrich Nietzsche
"A kind Providence has placed in our breasts a hatred of the unjust and cruel, in order that we may preserve ourselves from cruelty and injustice. They who bear cruelty, are accomplices in it. The pretended gentleness which excludes that charitable rancour, produces an indifference which is half an approbation. They never will love where they ought to love, who do not hate where they ought to hate."--Edmund Burke
“You say that it is your custom to burn widows. Very well. We also have a custom: when men burn a woman alive, we tie a rope around their necks and we hang them. Build your funeral pyre; beside it, my carpenters will build a gallows. You may follow your custom. And then we will follow ours.”--General Sir Charles Napier
"Μολὼν λαβέ" -- Leonidas
"Blogito Ergo Sum" -- Neptunus Lex
The Vought Flying Flapjack is one of my all time favorite weird planes and a Navy aircraft no less.
While there are so many “ugly” planes it’s hard to top the Italian’s in for their multi wing entry ( some is good more is better) CA60
http://www.flightglobal.com/blogs/aircraft-pictures/CaproniCa_60large.jpg
I think it was Nose (or B2?) that said “there ain’t no ugly planes same as there ain’t no ugly women” .
I’m thinkin’ he’s wrong on this one.
Hmmm, I dunno… Discovery covered the Flapjack once on a show about “Weird Weapons of WWII”. They made the claim that the actual performance of the plane looked promising, and would have beat out most WWII designs, but that it took so long to get it to work that jet engines came along and killed it.
You guys forgot the Pogo?
Lex,
Have you seen the book “The World’s Worst Aircraft?” I received it for Christmas from my parents along with the note that read “Please don’t fly these planes. Love, Mom and Dad”
How did they get guys to fly those things? Really. If you had a choice between flying something normal and something that looked funny, to be kind, and which might kill you to boot, there’s no real choice for me.
There’s also this site for you aviation history geeks like me:
http://rareaircraf1.greyfalcon.us/
respects,
Wasn’t it Howard Hughes that darned near killed himself flying some experiment with twin engines and twin counter-rotating props on each? All in the search for another few knots?
That’s the thing about starting with a clean slate, you’re only looking at criteria so the rest can be ignored. Introducing it to reality is when we discover there are also constraints to be considered.
The problem is, discovering those constraints tends to be the most dangerous part of the process.
– Max
MaxDamage,
To paraphrase: Good designs come from experience. Experience comes from bad designs.
Looking through that, I’m surprised that pretty much every country managed to invent the Rutan VariEze during WW II.
Could have made “who’s the enemy” rather interesting.
Max, the plane you are thinking of was the Hughes XF-11 photo recce plane. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hughes_XF-11
a rather cool looking plane, that looks like it would have had some potential.
I just got the book “Secret US Pusher Fighters of World War II”. I am in hog heaven with the book and with having a daughter savvy enough to buy that for her Dad!!
It covers the Vultee XP-54 Swoose Goose, the Curtiss XP-55 Ascender, and the Northrop XP-56 Black Bullet, all of which are pictured in the site linked above.
Okay – fun contest: how did the XP-55 “Ascender” get it’s name, and why is it supposedly funny?
With a rear engine, it looked to be flying backwards, Ass-Ender. I personally think it was a rather cool looking beast.
Designs like some of these make it clearer why certain airplane builders went out of business.
If you guys want to see some REALLY exotic aircraft, you should hit the the site at:
http://www.luft46.com/
It contains modern artistic renderings of plans on the drawing boards for all sorts of Nazi aircraft–bombers, fighters, etc., along with technical drawings/plans for many that were far enough along in the production process. It makes one wonder what would have happened if Germany had had more time. Most are all jet and many stealth with several variants on the B-2–except they would have had these on-line in late ’40s, early ’50s. There is one that is almost exact duplicate of the new Euro Typhoon just in production now–canard and all. Give the place a try–it’s run by a guy down in OZ, as I remember.
I think this is the latest design for the 787.
Should be flying any day now, yesireee.
Wilko – twernt me that said there are no ugly women. There are plenty of them, just like men. Thought I’d end up with one, seeing as how I am “aesthetically challenged” my own self.
Luckily, I got me a pretty one with bad eyesight.
Shucks, SCOTTtheBADGER got it right away… I think! Because the book doesn’t actually say, just makes a reference to the fact that Curtiss workers always had fun with the idea that they got a “double-entendre” past the bureaucrats.
Other interesting fact about this one was that it was NOT considered to be a canard, because the forward wing was not a “wing” at all, just an elevator. It did not carry a load like the canard of the Beech Starship or the Vari-EZE, according to the author.
My favorite was the Black Bullet – I love those counter-rotating props – but apparently Jack Northrop disdained it because it had a fuselage!
The Curtiss 24B looks like it could have been Burt Rutan’s inspiration for the Varieze…
Don’t forget the Christmas Bullet; arguably the worst airplane ever built. Got just high enough to crash and kill its pilot. There was some fraud, too.
The Christmas Bullet killed at least two hapless test pilots. And Dr. Christmas managed to get even more investors to put up money for his scheme.
As for the Black Bullet; seriously cool appearance.
And handling so vile at low speed that the test pilot started a new fashion of wearing a hardshell helmet while flying it.
“World’s Worst Aircraft” is one of my favorite books of all time. Cautionary tales, as it were.
Ah, Steve, I see that you, too, are a Bill Gunston fan. He is such a wonderful aero-nerd!
Have you read his books, “Bombers of the West” and “Early Supersonic Fighters of the West”? They are quite yummy.
I recall reading his account of how the chairman of Avro Canada, after the CF-105 was cancelled, stayed up very late and drank too much whisky, then called up the Prime Minister on the telephone and told him EXACTLY what he thought of him.
I’m not sure I’d like to fly in an aircraft officially named “Fireball”, especially when the single engine has it’s prop feathered. Could be sunglasses the pilot is wearing, but I’m thinking it’s just his eyes open REAL wide.
juvat
You forget the other engine: 1× General Electric J31-GE-3 turbojet, 1,600 lbf
Cheers
Very cool. Some of those planes look like flying testbeds for engines, and others look like attempts to add some flexibility to designs already getting cranked out.
Biggest problem I see with all the exotic designs for everyone is the lack of computer power to keep them semi-stable. I think thats one of the things that killed the YB-35/49.