27 bizare Aircraft designs that actually fly

[Xyphos]

This post is actually an article posted on another website, I'm just re-posting it here because the way they deliver their content is absurd in itself. The source URL is linked at the bottom of this post, should you care to see.

Intro:

Many different kinds of planes have been designed and scrapped as we learn more and more about flying. These are some of the weirdest designs to ever actually make it to the prototype stage and take flight.

Alexander Lippisch's Aerodyne

An experimental craft from 1968. It looks like he just said to himself, "You know what? Let's just take the engines... and get rid of the plane! BAM!"

Blohm & Voss BV 141

A WWII German tactical recon aircraft, this plane was extremely unconventional for separating the engine and propellor from the cockpit. It looks all wrong!

Dornier Do 31

West Germany created this needle-nosed craft in 1967 as an experimental VTOL (Vertical TakeOff & Landing) plane.

X-29

Apparently wings don't HAVE to point backwards. This was a NASA technology demonstration craft used mostly in the late 1980's.

Avro Canada VZ-9 Avrocar

UFO! A secret craft back in 1959, this VTOL craft is the shape that most people think of when they think of a UFO, or a 'flying saucer'.

Hyper III

A NASA experiment from 1969, this craft is a lifting body craft. This means that the whole plane is designed to generate lift to fly rather than just a set of wings.

Northrop XB-35

An early flying wing bomber from after WWII, it looks like the designers of this craft just said: "We need more propellors!"

De Lackner HZ-1 Aerocycle Flying Platform

Designed in 1954 for taking one soldier on recon missions, this craft looks odd now when compared to modern drones.

Caproni Ca.60 Noviplano

"WE NEED MORE WINGS!" was the battle cry of engineers in the early 1900's as they tried to get things like boats to fly. Can you imagine, this prototype was intented to be for trans-atlantic flights?

This design actually only flew once before crashing, getting towed to shore, and then burning to the ground the same day. Perhaps that was for the best.

Douglas XB-42 Mixmaster

A bomber from 1944, this is probably one of the most normal looking craft of the bunch. It was designed to go FAST (for the time) and had the propellor at the very back, much like where modern jet craft have their exhaust.

Libellula

A British experimental aircraft from 1945 that was designed to give the pilot the best view possible for landing on aircraft carriers. It uses a tandem wing design that puts the larger wings in the back unlike most modern craft.

Vought V-173

Basically a giant flying pancake, and endearingly referred to as such, this thing was built by the US Navy in 1942 as an experimental fighter.

The Airbus A300-600ST

The ST stands for "Super Transporter". It is now referred to as "Beluga" since it is so gigantic and rotund like a whale. It really can carry just about anything.

HL-10

Another 'lifting body' aircraft designed by NASA in the late '60s. It has a needle fora nose and a weird body shape that almost looks like wings, but isn't quite.

North American XF-82

They took two Mustang planes and stuck them together by one wing. The result was this new fighter with increased range.

Beriev Be-200 Seaplane

A Russian plane made in 1988. Why not land on water?

Stipa Caproni

An experimental Italian craft from 1932. It's like a jet for a fuselage, except if you were to take out the jet and just put in one propellor. Still flies!

The Caspian Sea Monster

Developed at the design bureau of Rostislav Alexeyev in 1966, this crazy plane looks frightening with the numerous engines strapped to the front, the Y shaped tail wings, and the fact that it lands on water.

Bartini Beriev VVA-14

This plane just looks plain beefy, like you would want it on your side in a bar fight. It is a Soviet vertical take-off amphibious aircraft - yikes.

McDonnell XF-85 Goblin

A tiny, prototype jet fighter designed in 1948. This little guy was actually supposed to be launched from the bomb bay of much larger bombing aircraft.

Ames-Dryden (AD)-1 Oblique Wing

A research craft from around 1980 intended to figure out if you could have a pivoting wing. I guess you can!

B377PG

NASA's "super guppy", another huge aircraft that can carry pretty much anything - especially spaceship parts.

Snecma Flying Coleoptere (C-450)

This french experimental craft from 1958 takes off and lands vertically like a helicopter, but can also supposedly rotate to fly sideways like a regular plane.

Lockheed XFV

Designed in 1953, this fighter craft could actually sit on it's tail and take of vertically.

X-36 Tailless Fighter

A prototype built for NASA in 1996, this jet plane was just a flat thing that could go fast.

Douglas X-3 Stiletto

Aptly named for it's shape, this craft was built in 1953 to try to study what an aircraft needed to be able to maintain supersonic speeds.

Martin XB-51

This "tri-jet" aircraft was made in 1949 as an experimental fighter. Two jets were up in front by the pilot, with the third at the center rear where most jets usually sit now.

Proteus

This piecemeal, tandem wing aircraft was built by Scaled Composites in 1998.

Source: http://www.odometer.com/lifestyle/9545/27-bizarre-aircraft-we-cant-believe-existhow-do-some-of-these-even-fly#slide/0/0

[Woksaus]

Haha, those are some pretty cool designs! The Northrop XB-35 reminds me of the plane in Captain America. The Bartini just looks plain (ha!) scary. Do all these designs fly well? Because I can imagine some of them have serious balancing issues.

[Kozak]

I really want to make the Douglas X-3 Stiletto, but my replica skills are quite.... sucky

[Xyphos]

I really want to make the Douglas X-3 Stiletto, but my replica skills are quite.... sucky

Javascript is disabled. View full album

I'm betting if I had a Nerva on-board, it would have made it to full orbit.

Edited August 20, 2015 by Xyphos

[Pixel of Life]

The Martin XB-51 almost looks like it could be the ancestor of the Lockheed L-1011 TriStar Just move the middle engine intake up a bit more, convert the T-tail into a fuselage mounted one, and mount the two other engines under the wings instead of on the fuselage. Ta-dah! Mini TriStar!

[Godot]

The Coleoptre looks like some of the designs (starting from the launchpad) which I use/d to fulfill contracts in order to take readings within Kerbins Atmosphere

(although my designs generally are landed with chutes and then recovered)

[Nibb31]

Some of those aren't really planes. The "Caspian Sea Monster" doesn't really "fly", it skims the water using ground effect, making more of a high-speed surface vessel. The HL10 (and X24 variants) was a glider dropped from a B52 to test lifting body reentry and landing shapes, so it didn't really fly by itself.

[AcidSludge]

[insert dozens of pictures of "Luftwaffe"-stuff here]

[Kerbart]

the XF designation really doesn't do the P-82 Twin Mustang justice. It was far from an experimental plane, and designed as a long-range fighter (with twin crew that could take turns flying). It was used in regular service and the first to shoot down enemy planes in the Korean war.

[Burdman]

Most of them are pretty normal. Especially X-29. It's just an F-5.

[Bill Phil]

What? No Geebee Model R?

Although I do like the Goblin...

[cantab]

The De Lackner HZ-1, on the contrary, looks a lot like a modern quadcopter drone that's been scaled up and has a guy standing on it.

The Caproni Ca.60 is one I've heard of and actually built a KSP plane inspired by. But taking MOAR WINGS up to eleven is Horatio Phillips 1907 Multiplane, which did fly albeit not very well.

And let's not forgot this one:

By today's standards the Wright Flyer was weird. The rudders are at the back without a fixed tailfin, while the elevators are at the front. The landing gear is skids, which were balanced on a line of 2x4s for takeoff; I'd have thought two guys who made bicycles for a living would have used wheels. And there aren't any ailerons, roll control is instead done by bending the wings.

[Nemrav]

Oh yes, there's also the Flettner aircraft, that one is litterally one of a kind

You can also see it in the november 1930 edition of pop science...

[FishInferno]

the elevators are at the front.

A few planes today still place the elevators at the front in the form of canards (cough Eurofighter Typhoon cough)

[windows_x_seven]

Was KSP available in the 1900's?

14-bis looks so... I don't know.

It's something you would come up with when you're bored and decide to play KSP.

- - - Updated - - -

I can see some struts in there...

Yep. My "Ancient Kerbals" theory has even more proof supporting it, now.

[Flymetothemun]

[...]

I can see some struts in there...

Yep. My "Ancient Kerbals" theory has even more proof supporting it, now.

Those aren't struts. They're steel rods and wires. Struts are made out of rebar jacketed with a titanium-unobtainium alloy.

[Dispatcher]

The Stiletto reminds me of the Pan Am Space Clipper from 2001:

http://www.fantastic-plastic.com/PAN%20AM%20SPACE%20CLIPPER%20PAGE.htm

Edited August 21, 2015 by Dispatcher

[Nibb31]

Even weirder: Clement Ader's "Eole", which actually "flew" in 1890, 13 years before the Wright Brothers:

[KerikBalm]

Blohm & Voss BV 141

A WWII German tactical recon aircraft, this plane was extremely unconventional for separating the engine and propellor from the cockpit. It looks all wrong!

Yea... asymetric designs do look funky to me, it doesn't look "wrong" to me, but it doesn't like "right" either.

Dornier Do 31

-Seems fine to me, the vertical lift pods seem strange, but the aircraft itself looks fine

X-29

"Apparently wings don't HAVE to point backwards. This was a NASA technology demonstration craft used mostly in the late 1980's."

Of course they don't - looks fine to me

Avro Canada VZ-9 Avrocar

-Did not fly, at least not out of ground effect/an air cushion.

It doesn't fly any more than a puck does on an air hockey table.

Hyper III

"A NASA experiment from 1969, this craft is a lifting body craft. This means that the whole plane is designed to generate lift to fly rather than just a set of wings."

Meh, the weirdest thing are the small conventional wings, presumably deployed at slower speeds.

Didn't fly beyond a gliding test flight.

Northrop XB-35

"An early flying wing bomber from after WWII, it looks like the designers of this craft just said: "We need more propellors!""

Its just a flying wing with contra-rotating pusher props... looks fine to me... might as well make the same critique of the Tu-95

De Lackner HZ-1 Aerocycle Flying Platform

"Designed in 1954 for taking one soldier on recon missions, this craft looks odd now when compared to modern drones."

meh, an "upside down" personal helicopter

Caproni Ca.60 Noviplano

"This design actually only flew once before crashing,"

It "flew", but I wouldn't say it "actually flies". A cow in a tornado can fly too... a cow is not airworthy, and neither was that.

Douglas XB-42 Mixmaster

"had the propellor at the very back, much like where modern jet craft have their exhaust."

Apparently pusher props are bizarre to some people - not me.

Libellula

"A British experimental aircraft from 1945 that was designed to give the pilot the best view possible for landing on aircraft carriers. It uses a tandem wing design that puts the larger wings in the back unlike most modern craft."

The proportions look a little unusual, but it looks fine to me...

Vought V-173

"Basically a giant flying pancake, and endearingly referred to as such, this thing was built by the US Navy in 1942 as an experimental fighter."

Yea.... this one looks weird... such a low aspect ratio... I've seen it before, but... yea... I still can't quite figure out... "Why?!"

The Airbus A300-600ST

"The ST stands for "Super Transporter". It is now referred to as "Beluga" since it is so gigantic and rotund like a whale. It really can carry just about anything."

Meh

HL-10

"Another 'lifting body' aircraft designed by NASA in the late '60s. It has a needle fora nose and a weird body shape that almost looks like wings, but isn't quite."

That's not a needle for a nose, its an airspeed probe, you see that stuff on many prototypes.

North American XF-82

"They took two Mustang planes and stuck them together by one wing. The result was this new fighter with increased range."

Meh, seen it, not that bizarre, there's plenty of twin boom designs, which is essentially what this is. Most have a cockpit in the center, this one has two on the booms... whatever

Beriev Be-200 Seaplane

"A Russian plane made in 1988. Why not land on water?"

Yea... because seaplanes are bizarre... despite being nearly as old as planes themselves...? o.O

Stipa Caproni

"An experimental Italian craft from 1932. It's like a jet for a fuselage, except if you were to take out the jet and just put in one propellor. Still flies!"

I think Italians should stick to designing cars... there's no italian airplane that I'm a fan of.

The Caspian Sea Monster

-doesn't fly out of ground effect.

Bartini Beriev VVA-14

"This plane just looks plain beefy, like you would want it on your side in a bar fight. It is a Soviet vertical take-off amphibious aircraft - yikes."

Its not vertical takeoff

McDonnell XF-85 Goblin

"A tiny, prototype jet fighter designed in 1948. This little guy was actually supposed to be launched from the bomb bay of much larger bombing aircraft."

This one is cool, I've seen it in person.

Ames-Dryden (AD)-1 Oblique Wing

-yea, that is a strange variation on swing wings

B377PG

-just like the other one... meh

Snecma Flying Coleoptere (C-450)

"This french experimental craft from 1958 takes off and lands vertically like a helicopter, but can also supposedly rotate to fly sideways like a regular plane."

By sideways, they mean horizontaly, and no, it couldn't do that.

Lockheed XFV

"Designed in 1953, this fighter craft could actually sit on it's tail and take of vertically."

No it couldn't, they designed it hoping an engine of sufficient power would be successfully be developed - it wasn't. So they stuck ungainly undercarriage on it, and it only was ever able to take off and land horizontally.

Its competitor, the XFY pogo was able to do all that, and looks even weirder. The pogo should be here

X-36 Tailless Fighter

"A prototype built for NASA in 1996, this jet plane was just a flat thing that could go fast."

Meh, I fly a tailless aircraft(a hangglider) so yea... meh. Swept wings provide yaw stability, and you don't need a tail

Douglas X-3 Stiletto

"Aptly named for it's shape, this craft was built in 1953 to try to study what an aircraft needed to be able to maintain supersonic speeds."

-doesn't look bizarre, looks fast, and it was

Martin XB-51

"This "tri-jet" aircraft was made in 1949 as an experimental fighter. Two jets were up in front by the pilot, with the third at the center rear where most jets usually sit now."

Meh, the front two jets are the most unusual thing to me

Proteus

"This piecemeal, tandem wing aircraft was built by Scaled Composites in 1998."

I love Rutan's designs

[Nemrav]

Oh here's another bizarre aircraft,

The Cygnet II and III, made by the famous Alexander Graham Bell, the unpowered version (Cygnet I) did fly with a person at the controls, and the Cygnet 3 got ground effect lift...

[Nuke]

Yea... asymetric designs do look funky to me, it doesn't look "wrong" to me, but it doesn't like "right" either.

Vought V-173

"Basically a giant flying pancake, and endearingly referred to as such, this thing was built by the US Navy in 1942 as an experimental fighter."

Yea.... this one looks weird... such a low aspect ratio... I've seen it before, but... yea... I still can't quite figure out... "Why?!"

i think the reasoning was that putting the props on the wing tip would reduce wingtip vortices and reduce drag. the props actually created vortices in the other direction that countered the wingtip vortices and eliminated a major source of drag in the process. you effectively needed less wing to fly. the navy got involved because they probibly figured it would make a good carrier aircraft with its small wing area. one problem would be that if you lost an engine you wuld have drag asymetry and would produce an uncontrollable spin. the plane actually had a cross shaft between the gearboxes in such an event.

Proteus

"This piecemeal, tandem wing aircraft was built by Scaled Composites in 1998."

I love Rutan's designs

im a big fan of the boomerang, another asymetrical plane. its a one off and i think scaled uses it as a buisness plane and chase aircraft for test flights (they used it when flight testing space ship one). proteus is just plane awesome.

[Snikersnee]

This whole post is a lie! These are just KSP screenshots!

[Columbia]

It's not that it's surprising that it flew.. It's just.. that extra engine.. on the fuselage.. has an extreme annoyance potential.

[Xannari Ferrows]

It's not that it's surprising that it flew.. It's just.. that extra engine.. on the fuselage.. has an extreme annoyance potential.

http://phxspotters.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/pratt_article_photo1.jpg

Oh my god. This is the most irritating thing I have ever seen. Just...

Was this done just to make aerospace engineers peeved?

[Pixel of Life]

It's not that it's surprising that it flew.. It's just.. that extra engine.. on the fuselage.. has an extreme annoyance potential.

... is this? Don't 747's usually carry the extra engine under the wing, between the fuselage and the #2 engine?