Weird Aircraft

[wacojoe]

If we do not already have a thread on strange aircraft, we ought to. My first contribution —

https://www.warhistoryonline.com/mil...iet-vva14.html

[Phillbo]

One and done. That is the strangest thing I've ever seen.

[Dave Grubb]

You win Joe

[UTAH]

It just does not look like it'll fly.

Hunter

[Truckman]

It just does not look like it'll fly.

Hunter

Neither did this Rooskie contraption, yet it did...Not very well, but it made 11 flights......Ben

Note: The article states this was the largest prop powered aircraft that ever left the ground...This is not true today, but was at the time it was built...

[wacojoe]

Lots of others —

Caponi Ca 60



https://www.reddit.com/r/WeirdWings/...oni_ca60_1921/

[Truckman]

At 92 meters in length, the Caspian Sea Monster is still the longest powered craft to ever maintain flight, even though technically it was a ground effects vehicle. and not classified as an aircraft...Ten jet engines producing 28,670 pounds of thrust each, propelled it at speeds up to 400 mph at altitudes of 13 to 45 feet above the surface of the sea......Ben

[Phillbo]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65_FeMUuCl0

[wacojoe]

Here’s one I think is quite beautiful in its own way and designed by a genius in his own way — Burt Rutan’s Proteus —



https://www.planeandpilotmag.com/art...sites-proteus/

[Truckman]

Burt Rutan is a legend, but the nose of the Proteus looks a lot like the Soviet VVA-14 in the first post......Ben

[wacojoe]

The first few times I look at that strange Soviet VVA-14, it looked like the nose bent down, then I took a more careful look, and I think it is just an optical illusion caused by the slant of the windows. With the Proteus, I can’t tell. Not enough shots and angels. I love the Proteus sticking its tongue out at the world though. Don’t tell me that is functional in some way...I don’t want to know. I prefer to think it a bit of whimsy on Rutan’s part. The world needs a chortle.

[Truckman]

With the Proteus, I can’t tell. Not enough shots and angels.

Here's a better one from this article......Ben

[Truckman]

Certainly no stranger to aviation fans, but this old warrior should qualify as a weird aircraft if for no other reason than its old/new combination of propulsion sources, and its hitherto unmatched size...The below video contains footage I had not seen before......Ben

[Truckman]

Neither were the inventive flight engineers and designers of Nazi Germany any slouches in devising really weird flying machines...With the first design shown in the video below, my imagination boggles at how an unpowered wooden glider would react to the recoil of two forward firing 30 MM auto-cannons even if it could reach the claimed 900 kph speed...Since the towing airplane, the Focke-Wulf Bf-109 could only reach a maximum speed of 590 kph, the imaginative "never exceed" speed listed would need an impossibly steep glide angle and commencement altitude...The prone-positioned pilot would have to really strap himself in tight on that ride......Ben

[Truckman]

But to return to the Rooskie theme begun by the OP, we present the below video...From the YouTube comment section:

I'll note that the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum has a tongue-in-cheek "First Rule of Unknown Aircraft Identification" that goes as follows:

"If it's ugly, it's British. If it's weird, it's French. If it's ugly and weird, it's Russian."

...Ben