The invention of carefully designed aircraft for traveling through the Earth’s atmosphere is one of mankind’s greatest innovations. The fate of aviation is determined by engineers who challenge restrictions and come up with bold new ideas (for example, the “Caspian monster),” but these planes simply challenge all concepts of normality.
How did the Sea Needle appear?
The flying needle “Marine needle” was designed in 1948 by the US Navy as a supersonic aircraft interceptor. At that time, there was a lot of skepticism about the operation of supersonic aircraft. Therefore, to solve this problem, the U.S. Navy ordered a lot of subsonic interceptors. There was a certain basis for concern, since many supersonic structures of the time required the construction of huge runways, had a high ascent rate and were not very stable or easy to control — all factors that were especially unpleasant for the interceptor. Ernest Stout’s team at Convair’s hydrodynamic research laboratory has proposed to put the dagger of the designed aircraft’s delta on water skis. The Convair proposal received an order for two prototypes at the end of 1951. Twelve production aircraft were ordered before the first prototype was developed.
No weapons were ever fitted to any Sea Dart aircraft, but the plan was to equip the production aircraft with four 20 mm Colt Mk12 cannons and a battery of unguided convertibles. Four of these orders were renamed official test vehicles, and eight more production aircraft were soon ordered. The plane was supposed to be a delta-winged fighter with a waterproof hull and two retractable hydro-skis for takeoff and landing. The prototype was equipped with an experimental single ski, which proved to be more successful than the two-ski design of the second maintenance test aircraft. Tests with several other experimental ski configurations continued with the prototype until 1957, after which it was placed in storage.
The United States was not the only country that saw jet skis as an alternative to seaplanes. Saunders-Roe from the United Kingdom, which had already built an experimental jet fighter jet, has applied for the development of a “ski fighter,” but little has come of it. In the 1950s, the U.S. Navy considered designs for an underwater aircraft carrier that could carry three such aircraft. The pressures stored in the chambers, which would not leave the hull, would be lifted by a fixed elevator at the stern of the sail and had to take off independently on a smooth sea, but would catapult aft in a higher sea. The program only reached the stage of “writing on a napkin”, because two problems were not solved: the hole for the elevator would seriously weaken the body, and the load of the loaded elevator would also be difficult to transfer to the structure of the body.
Goodyear inflatoplane
When a tire company tries to enter the aircraft market, you can expect strange results. In 1956, Goodyear Tire responded to market demands for a comfortable aircraft. The Inflatoplane's open cab was made entirely of rubber, with the exception of engines and control cables. The aircraft fit into a long meter-sized box and could be completely inflated with a bicycle pump in just 15 minutes. The car was an aerodynamic success, as it easily flew into the air. However, Goodyear ran into some problems convincing the military to buy an airplane when they indicated that the aircraft could be shot down with a single bullet or even a targeted slingshot.
History
The original concept of an omnipotent inflatable aircraft was based on experiments on the creation of Taylor McDaniel's inflatable unusual aircraft in 1931. Designed and built in just 12 weeks, the Goodyear Inflatoplane was built in 1956 with the idea that it could be used by the military as a rescue plane. 44 cubic meter container feet (1.25 cubic meters) could also be transported by truck, jeep trailer or plane. The inflatable surface of this aircraft was actually a sandwich of two rubber materials connected by a mesh of nylon threads, forming an I-shaped beam. When nylon was exposed to air, it absorbed and repelled water as it froze, giving the aircraft its shape and stiffness. Structural integrity was maintained in flight with the help of air constantly circulating thanks to the aircraft engine.
Different versions
There were at least two versions of the aircraft: for example, the GA-468 was single. It took him about five minutes to swell to about 25 pounds per square inch (170 kPa). Then the pilot began a two-stroke cycle, starting the engine with a capacity of 40 liters. from. (30 kW) and taking off on an unusual aircraft with a maximum carrying capacity of 240 pounds (110 kg). At 20 US gallons (76 L) of fuel, the aircraft could fly 390 miles (630 km) with a shutter speed of 6.5 hours. The top speed was 72 miles per hour (116 km / h) with a cruise speed of 60 miles per hour. Later in the apparatus, an engine with 42 horsepower (31 kW) was used.
The GA-466 was a two-seat option, 51 mm shorter, but with a longer wingspan (the difference was 6 feet (1.8 m)) than the GA-468. A more powerful (45 kW) McCulloch 4318 engine can drive a 340 kg aircraft with a passenger, accelerating it to 70 mph (110 km / h), although the range of the aircraft was limited to 275 miles (443 km).
NASA AD1 Pivot-Wing
NASA's AD-1 has taken the design standards of strange aircraft to a whole new level. Designed in the early 1980s to test the concept of an oblique wing aircraft, it was an innovation for its time. The idea of this unorthodox and completely new device was to compensate for air flow disturbances and increase rationalization. A strange plane flew several missions and did it surprisingly well, but the results were not convincing enough to justify its mass production. However, modern unmanned aerial vehicles based on this aircraft design are still under development.
Vought v-173
Vought V-173 was developed in 1942 as a prototype of a vertical take-off aircraft capable of intercepting enemy fighters from aircraft carriers. He was nicknamed the “flying pancake” for its bizarre design. The cockpit of the test pilots of this engineering miracle consisted of an almost perfectly round fuselage, which was also the wing of the car. Two large engines were supported by huge propellers that could rake the ground during take-off. Using exaggerated landing gear, the power system of this unusual aircraft was located on the wings, unlike any other aircraft ever created both in the past and in our time. Limited demand and a quick collapse did not prevent the project from making history, because it was he who launched the line, which eventually led to the famous Harridge Jets.
Bell P-39 Airacobra
Sometimes it is better for experts to stick to what they are capable of. During World War II, Bell Helicopters launched a powerful, highly maneuverable fighter with superior strike and air combat skills. Most airplanes have their own engines in front, but Bell, as a helicopter company, created a glider with an engine located behind the cockpit. A long shaft rotated the propeller in front, and the design of the device provided him with great speed, while the screws around the helicopter-style power supply provided an unusual center of gravity. It is said that more aircraft were shot down by this unusual aircraft in World War II than by any other aircraft. True or not, let the reader decide.
SR 71 Blackbird
Even before universal satellite technology reached the design specification, a first-class spy plane was developed with unprecedented speed, endurance and the ability to reach the edge of outer space - the SR 71 Blackbird. A terrible, almost alien ship, the SR 71 had devilish abilities. It was a kind of "flying saucer on Earth." As he took off to a height of more than six miles, he exceeded speeds of 3,000 miles per hour, causing the surface to glow bright red. The infernal scene from the outside was not convenient for the pilot, enclosed in an isolated cockpit of asbestos, who had to wait up to half an hour when landing, so as not to burn his limbs on the red-hot hull when leaving.
Convair Pogo
Grumman X23, or Pogo, represents a radical departure from the norm of aviation design, overcoming all forms of normality and complete absurdity. The Pogo hull looked like a regular airplane, with the exception of the rotor attached to the nose cone, which lifted it into the air by vertical take-off. It was a strange flying bath, the effectiveness of which immediately aroused doubts among representatives of the American General Staff. Unlike most “normal” aircraft, the Pogo flew upside down, like a rocket with wheels attached to the tail. The canopy retreated 90 degrees outward, forcing the pilot to lie at right angles to the ground as the machine rose. The Pogo was supposed to fly forward, slicing through the air and leveling its hull, taking the pose of an ordinary airplane. Several successful test flights were made, but, like many aerial failures, the project never went far from the ground.
"McDonnell Douglas X-15"
X-15 (aka “Douglas aircraft”) is not the oldest project, but it was such a significant and anomalous leap forward that it remains unsurpassed in the arena of aircraft. For the first time in 1959, the 51-foot X-15 rocket was introduced, with two tiny 9-foot wings on each side. It was a splash. A series of tests showed that the Douglas aircraft reached a height of 100,000 feet, with two missions qualifying as space flights. During the passage of the aircraft through the atmosphere, a small rocket reached a speed six times the speed of sound. The X-15 was plated with a special nickel alloy similar to that found in natural meteorites. The X-15 anticipated the extreme performance series with its high weight, high power and low lift. In a way, it was a monoplane.
Blohm und Voss BV 141
In the natural world, symmetry is a rule that applies to everything: from eyes to wings. In reverse engineering principles, nature inspires aircraft designers - this rule holds true for engines, fins and tails. But during World War II, in a clear departure from the norm, German aircraft manufacturers in Dornier conceived a reconnaissance aircraft and a light bomber with one wing and an engine on one side. Although this arrangement looked unbalanced, the placement of the engine on the right side of the propeller boom counteracted the turbulence and helped the plane fly straight. Thus, this bizarre aircraft not only impressed people of that time, but also inspired engineers to create a modern sports aircraft with a similar design.
Caproni Sa.60
Consider a houseboat crossed with an airplane. That was the idea that faced the engineer Kaproni. This 1920 car raised the standard for bizarre multi-vane aircraft to such a high level that even the Redtoken Red Fokker and Caspian Monster looked quite normal compared to her. Being 70 feet long and weighing 55 tons, the giant floating aircraft Kaproni was built as the first transatlantic airliner in aviation history. Based on the theory that a sufficient number of wings will make even the Titanic fly, a stack of three wings in front, three in the middle, and instead of a tail, a third set of three wings in the back was installed on the ship-like fuselage. This miracle machine could only be called a triple triplane, and nothing of the kind was built either before or after it. And even more so the Super Guppy aircraft, which was not included in this list due to its triviality, cannot compare with the amazing Caproni.
Conclusion
Throughout the history of aircraft engineering, desperate engineers have built many ambitious, bizarre and extraordinary devices. Many of them ended up in the dustbin of history due to their inability to real use. Some, despite their lack of demand, have become a kind of raw material for more successful projects. And only selected units from among these projects were eventually adopted, which makes us think.