The eventful history of aviation is packed full of stories of perspicacious pioneers, ingenious engineers and flamboyant flyers.
Naturally, however, things haven’t all been plain sailing (or should we say, flying) – there have been plenty of ups and downs along the way.
In the history books for sometimes dubious reasons, these are 10 of the wackiest, most ill-conceived and ill-fated flying machines ever built. (The featured image, above, of the Vought V-173 (Flying Pancake) is courtesy of San Diego Air & Space Museum Archives)
Albatross II
- Maker: Jean-Marie Le Bris
- Country: France
- First flight (attempt): 1868
- Claim to fame: First flying machine ever photographed (1868)
- Airworthiness: Pulled along a beach by a horse, Albatross II helped Le Bris become the first person to fly higher than his/her departure point
Multiplane
- Maker: Horatio Frederick Phillips
- Country: United Kingdom
- First flight (attempt): 1907 (3rd generation)
- Claim to fame: With 200 lifting surfaces (aerofoils) arranged in a “Venetian blind” configuration, Phillips revolutionised aerofoil design
- Airworthiness: The first propeller-powered flight in England, but the design never caught on
Kalinin K-7
- Maker: Konstantin Kalinin
- Country: Soviet Union
- First flight (attempt): 1931
- Claim to fame: One of the biggest aircraft ever constructed before the time of jet engines (the wings were over seven foot thick)
- Airworthiness: Had seven test flights in all, the final of which crashed due to structural failure
The Vought V-173 “Flying Pancake”
- Maker: Charles H. Zimmerman
- Country: USA
- First flight (attempt): 1942
- Claim to fame: Several test flights over Connecticut prompted reports of “flying saucers” by surprised locals
- Airworthiness: 190 test flights, but never fulfilled its destiny as a U.S. Navy fighter
Avion III
- Maker: Clément Ader
- Country: France
- First flight (attempt): 1897
- Claim to fame: You could say, with his bat-winged, self-propelled contraption Ader was the world’s first Batman
- Airworthiness: Ader claimed he flew 300 metres (328 yards) just above the ground before crashing
H-4 Hercules “Spruce Goose”
- Maker: Hughes Aircraft company
- Country: USA
- First flight (attempt): 1947
- Claim to fame: Has the largest wingspan of any aircraft in history (320 ft 11 in (97.54 m))
- Airworthiness: Flew only once in real life, though its construction and flight featured in the Hollywood Howard Hughes biopic The Aviator in 2004
Bleriot III
- Maker: Louis Blériot
- Country: France
- First flight (attempt): 1906
- Claim to fame: Radical design comprised of two elliptical closed wing cells
- Airworthiness: The aircraft never took to the air, damaged beyond repair on its fourth test flight
The Ryan X13A-RY Vertijet
- Maker: Ryan Aeronautical Company
- Country: USA
- First flight (attempt): 1955
- Claim to fame: First plane engineered to takeoff vertically
- Airworthiness: Completed only a handful of tests over two years before project funding was cut by the U.S. Navy
Edgley Optica
- Maker: John Edgley
- Country: United Kingdom
- First flight (attempt): 1979
- Claim to fame: The cockpit is almost fully glazed in the style of a helicopter to enable observation
- Airworthiness: Seemingly cursed, the aircraft has been beset by a fatal crash (cause undetermined), litigation-induced bankruptcy and an arson attack on its factory
Lockheed-Martin P791
- Maker: Lockheed Martin’s ‘Skunk Works’ division
- Country: USA
- First flight (attempt): 2006
- Claim to fame: Designed to fly continuously for over 20 days
- Airworthiness: Originally developed as a ‘long endurance multi-intelligence vehicle’ but overlooked for another design, it is now being developed as a civil cargo aircraft capable of carrying 20 tons
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