- We’re surprised these planes ever flew, considering the weight of the balls you need to pilot them.
We all know what an airplane looks like. Sure, a propeller plane, a passenger jet, and a fighter jet have different appearances, but you can still look at each and go, “Yeah, that’s an airplane.”
Yet, some planes built over the years look absolutely baffling. The history of aviation is long enough for enterprising designers to have created some truly mind-boggling flying machines.
Here’s a sampler flight of seven of the weirdest airplanes ever designed. And with most of them, there’s a good reason why we haven’t seen more like them.
1. Leduc 022
The Leduc 022 was a post-WWII French exploration into building a ramjet-powered fighter plane. They sure got the “ramjet” part down — the entire plane is just one gigantic ramjet engine.
The engine takes up so much space that there’s not even a separate cockpit. The pilot sits inside a plexiglass section embedded into the protruding “ram” or nose of the ramjet, which forms a vital part of the engine’s air intake system.
As outlandish as the Leduc 022’s configuration is, it was a remarkable improvement over its two preceding prototypes. After all, the plane could take flight on its own without needing another plane to drag it into the air.
2. Blohm & Voss BV 141
We can all agree that an airplane should be symmetrical, right? Well, the Nazis didn’t.
Their utter contempt for humanity and the conventional rules of airplane design culminated in the Blohm & Voss BV 141. The misshapen thing had the crew sit in a gondola on the right side of the plane while the engine and tail were located separately on the left.
Although the BV 141 looks like it has no business flying, test pilots reported that it actually performed very well apart from being rather slow due to a weak engine.
3. Farman F.4X
How many engines does an airplane need? Always one more, if you ask the early 1920s French designers of the Farman F.4X.
This tri-engine monstrosity features a huge passenger gondola which was admittedly very comfortable for its time (and probably more comfortable than modern passenger planes). Pity the pilot, though — he would have to sit alone in a tiny open-air cockpit on top of the topmost engine.
Then again, the Farman F.4X probably needed all those engine. The thing looks about as aerodynamic as a brick, so how else was it supposed to get in the air?
4. Vought V-173
The Vought V-173 was an experimental American aircraft built during WWII. It truly deserves its famous nickname, the Flying Pancake.
Instead of having separate wings, the entire plane is the wing. Its outlandish flat and circular shape was so bizarre that multiple people who saw the plane’s test flights called the authorities reporting they’d seen a UFO.
Yet, later iterations of the plane were surprisingly agile and easy to handle. One of the test pilots saying so was Charles Lindbergh himself — so we can probably trust his word.
5. Aero Spacelines Super Guppy
The Aero Spacelines Super Guppy looks like someone took a regular cargo jet and overinflated it. It may look clumsy and awkward but it flies just fine.
After all, the plane is still in use. NASA uses the Super Guppy to transport enormous spacecraft components, which is why the plane looks so bloated — the big parts need a lot of space.
The Super Guppy is sometimes nicknamed the Pregnant Guppy, but you shouldn’t call it that. Not because it’s insulting or anything, but because the Pregnant Guppy was the Super Guppy’s predecessor model. Yes, it’s a different plane and it was called that.
6. SNECMA Coleoptere
There must be something in the water in France that makes people dream of airplanes that are nothing but engine. There’s no other way to explain how the Leduc 022 and SNECMA Coleoptere came from the same country.
The Coleoptere was a 1959 experimental plane intended to take off vertically, eliminating the need for a runway. It was also supposed to be able to hover in place by directing its jet engine down toward the ground.
Unlike most of the previous planes, though, the Coleoptere was exactly as awkward as it looked. It completed eight test flights, but crashed on the ninth — and no one ever wanted to build another one.
7. Sack AS-6
Oh, those Nazis and their wacky airplanes. The Sack AS-6 gives the Vought V-173 a run for its money in deserving the “Flying Pancake” moniker.
Seeing it directly from the side, you probably wouldn’t think there’s anything that weird about the AS-6. But seeing it from high up reveals that the plane’s wings are completely circular.
Now, you might think the AS-6 couldn’t possibly take flight… And for once, you’d be correct.
During three test flight attempts, the best the AS-6 could do was a little bounce off the ground. Then one of its landing gear legs snapped when it fell back down.
As we said in the beginning, there’s a reason most modern planes look so similar.