Oddball, Experimental, or One-off

[red750]

2 hours ago, kasper said:

I think you mean the OV-10 Bronco not  Bravo. 

Oops, sorry. You are correct. Mind not on job.

[red750]

The de Havilland DH 108 "Swallow" was a British experimental aircraft designed by John Carver Meadows Frost in October 1945. The DH 108 featured a tailless, swept wing with a single vertical stabilizer, similar to the layout of the wartime German Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet. Initially designed to evaluate swept wing handling characteristics at low and high subsonic speeds for the proposed early tailless design of the Comet airliner, three examples of the DH 108 were built to Air Ministry specifications E.18/45. With the adoption of a conventional tail for the Comet, the aircraft were used instead to investigate swept wing handling up to supersonic speeds. All three prototypes were lost in fatal crashes.

 

[red750]

OMA Sud Skycar

 

Prototype of twin pusher. No details, specs, etc. available.

 

 

[rgmwa]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OMA_SUD_Skycar

[onetrack]

This blokes opinion of the SUD Skycar (link below) is rather scathing. They only built the one in 2010, and have never progressed beyond that one prototype.

It never ceases to amaze me, how some companies simply burn up huge money on stupendous-looking "projects" - and then simply bin them.

They must have huge amounts of surplus funds available, that they can burn up, for no return. It seems like so many of these "projects" have little by way of concrete aims.

 

https://philip.greenspun.com/flying/oma-sud-skycar

[facthunter]

A lot of it has been done before. Pushers operate in very disturbed air. It least you could use a tuft of wool In front ot the windscreen.  Nev

[onetrack]

OMA SUD also produced a prototype of a high-end ultralight, called the OMA SUD Redbird in 2012. Despite being a fabulous-looking aircraft, it appears only one of these was built, too.

 

OMA SUD appeared to have made vast sums of money as a subcontractor to Boeing and Airbus, and were experts in high-tech materials for aviation.

 

But I can find no mention of the company in recent times, for the last 10 years. So, either they merged with another company, and the name disappeared, or they changed the company name.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OMA_SUD_Redbird

 

Edited January 15, 2023 by onetrack

[onetrack]

A little more research indicates that OMA Sud shut up shop, perhaps about 2015. It appears that OMA Sud S.p.A. were located adjacent to Tecnam in Campania, N of Naples, when they were operational.

The OMA Sud.it website is defunct, and any business references to the OMA Sud company are obsolete, incorrect, or have dead links.

 

Google shows the business as "permanently closed", so it appears that OMA Sud was either liquidated or restructured.

 

It seems the company may have been restructured into OMA S.p.A., who now operate the exact same type of aviation sub-contracting business, dealing in high tech aviation materials and sub-contract aviation engineering and assembly. OMA S.p.A. now operate from Foligno, SE of Perugia, and a long way from where OMA Sud originally operated at Campania. 

 

https://www.omafoligno.it/

[red750]

The Vultee XP-54 Swoose Goose was a prototype fighter built by the Vultee Aircraft Company for the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF).

 

Vultee submitted a proposal in response to a U.S. Army Air Corps request for an unusual configuration. The Vultee design won the competition, beating the Curtiss XP-55 Ascender and the Northrop XP-56 Black Bullet. Vultee designated it Model 84, a descendant of their earlier Model 78. After completing preliminary engineering and wind tunnel tests, a contract for a prototype was awarded on 8 January 1941. A second prototype was ordered on 17 March 1942. Although it appeared to be a radical design, performance was lackluster, and the project was cancelled.

 

[red750]

The Burnelli CBY-3 Loadmaster is an unconventional transport aircraft that was designed by American engineer Vincent Burnelli and built in Canada in 1944 by Canadian Car and Foundry.

 

The CBY-3 "lifting fuselage" was an evolution of the earlier Burnelli UB-14. Burnelli worked as a designer at Canadian Car and Foundry (CanCar) in Montreal, and the CBY-3 was intended for bush operations in northern Canada. The sole prototype was extensively tested but failed to gain a production contract. The CBY-3 had a crew of 3 and a capacity of up to 38 passengers.

 

[red750]

The OMAC Laser 300, originally named the OMAC I was a business aircraft built in the United States in 1981 but which never reached production.

 

The first prototype flew on 11 December 1981 and OMAC ("Old Man's Aircraft Company") initially hoped to obtain type certification by mid 1982. These efforts were delayed by an accident on the ground, and then a landing accident caused by the failure of a locking pin on the undercarriage. A second prototype took to the air on 19 February 1983, and certification was expected "no later than December 1984". Late in 1983, however, the certification process was still only in its preliminary stages.Crew: two pilots, Capacity: five passengers.

 

 

[red750]

The Douglas A2D Skyshark was an American turboprop-powered attack aircraft built by the Douglas Aircraft Company for the United States Navy. The program was substantially delayed by engine reliability problems, and was canceled because more promising jet attack aircraft had entered development and the smaller escort carriers the A2D was intended to utilize were being phased out. Number built    2 XA2D-1 prototypes + 10 A2D-1 pre-production aircraft (4 of which never flew)

 

[red750]

The Republic XF-84H "Thunderscreech" was an American experimental turboprop aircraft derived from the F-84F Thunderstreak. Powered by a turbine engine that was mated to a supersonic propeller, the XF-84H had the potential of setting the unofficial air speed record for propeller-driven aircraft, but was unable to overcome aerodynamic deficiencies and engine reliability problems, resulting in the program's cancellation.

 

[spenaroo]

leaving out the best part, from Wikipedia:

Noise

The XF-84H was almost certainly the loudest aircraft ever built, earning the nickname "Thunderscreech" as well as the "Mighty Ear Banger". On the ground "run ups", the prototypes could reportedly be heard 25 miles (40 km) away.^[17] Unlike standard propellers that turn at subsonic speeds, the outer 24–30 inches (61–76 cm) of the blades on the XF-84H's propeller traveled faster than the speed of sound even at idle thrust, producing a continuous visible sonic boom that radiated laterally from the propellers for hundreds of yards. The shock wave was actually powerful enough to knock a man down; an unfortunate crew chief who was inside a nearby C-47 was severely incapacitated during a 30-minute ground run. Coupled with the already considerable noise from the subsonic aspect of the propeller and the T40's dual turbine sections, the aircraft was notorious for inducing severe nausea and headaches among ground crews. In one report, a Republic engineer suffered a seizure after close range exposure to the shock waves emanating from a powered-up XF-84H.

[facthunter]

The Russians took their turboprops seriously having supersonic prop  speeds. I spoke to the F/E of a plane than brought I think a Ballet team here to Essendon in the 60's. He was so proud to inform me the engines were now doing 400 hours without overhaul. Those were the days.  Nev

[Old Koreelah]

One of the noisiest. Like the B-52, this Societ bomber looks like being in service for almost a century: 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tupolev_Tu-95

[red750]

15 minutes ago, Old Koreelah said:

Like the B-52,

With over 500 built, hardly an experimental or one-off, O.K.

[Old Koreelah]

Of course; was focussing on their noisy props, not the threat title.

[red750]

The SNCAC NC.860 (also known as the Aérocentre NC.860) was a French twin-engined development of the NC.853 light aircraft.

 

The NC.860 was developed from the earlier NC.853 single-engined high-wing monoplane, major changes included a four-seat cabin and the fitting of two 105 hp (78 kW) Walter Minor 4-III engines on a re-designed wing. With the engines mounted on the high-wing the wing span was increased and the NC.860 had a tricycle landing gear.

 

The NC.860, registered F-WFKJ, first flew 28 March 1949. This was the only one built.

 

 

[red750]

The Ryan XV-5 Vertifan was a jet-powered V/STOL experimental aircraft in the 1960s. The United States Army (US Army) commissioned the Ryan VZ-11-RY (re-designated XV-5A in 1962) in 1961, along with the Lockheed VZ-10 Hummingbird (re-designated XV-4 in 1962). It successfully proved the concept of ducted lift fans, but the project was cancelled after multiple fatal crashes unrelated to the lift system.

 

Two 12,500 lb (maximum gross weight) XV-5A were evaluated in late 1966 by fifteen test pilots (the "XV-5A Fan Club"). One was destroyed in a crash during a public flight demonstration on 27 April 1965, killing Ryan test pilot Lou Everett. The crash investigation believed that the pilot had inadvertently tripped the conventional-to-vertical conversion switch (improperly mounted on the collective), which auto-programmed the horizontal stabilizer to force the nose down almost 45 degrees.

 

More here.

 

 

[red750]

The Boeing XB-15 (Boeing 294) was a United States bomber aircraft designed in 1934 as a test for the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC) to see if it would be possible to build a heavy bomber with a 5,000 mi (8,000 km) range. For a year beginning in mid-1935 it was designated the XBLR-1. When it first flew in 1937, it was the most massive and voluminous airplane ever built in the US. It set a number of load-to-altitude records for land-based aircraft, including carrying a 31,205 lb (14,154 kg) payload to 8,200 ft (2,500 m) on 30 July 1939.

 

The aircraft's immense size allowed flight engineers to enter the wing through a crawlway and make minor repairs in flight. A 5,000 mi (8,000 km) flight took 33 hours at its 152 mph (245 km/h) cruising speed; the crew was made up of several shifts, and bunks allowed them to sleep when off duty.

 

The single prototype was assigned to the 2nd Bombardment Group at Langley Field, Virginia. Following the 24 January 1939 Chillán earthquake in Chile, the prototype flew a relief mission, carrying medical supplies. Commanded by Major Caleb V. Haynes, the aircraft carried 3,250 lb (1,470 kg) of American Red Cross emergency supplies to Santiago, making only two stops along the way, at France Field in the Panama Canal Zone, and at Lima, Peru. Haynes was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Order of the Merit of Chile, and the whole crew earned the MacKay Trophy.

 

[red750]

The Tatra T.101 is a two-seat monoplane general aviation aircraft that was built in 1937 by Tatra. Only one aircraft was built, but it set several records in the hands of Jan Ambruš. In 2008 a replica aircraft was constructed by brothers Ivo and Jiří Sklenář. It first flew in October 2009.

 

The Tatra T.101 gained a number of records. In 1937 a prize was offered for the longest flight by an aircraft of Czechoslovakian origin. In 1938 Jan Ambruš and Vojtěch Matěna flew from Ruzyně Airport, Prague to Khartoum Airport, Sudan, a distance of 2,340 nautical miles (4,330 km). The aircraft achieved a height record of 7,113 metres (23,337 ft) in the category for two-seat aircraft with an engine capacity of less than 4 litres (240 cu in). This was later raised to 7,470 metres (24,510 ft).

 

[onetrack]

What a fascinating aircraft, and story behind it! The original aircraft disappeared completely during WW2. Amazingly, all the plans for the aircraft survived the War completely intact.

The aircraft weighed 500kg, but had a MTOW of 1100kgs! - respectable, even with todays technology.

It carried 500 litres of fuel in 11 tanks! - 4 in each wing, and 3 in the fuselage. One was a 5L header tank.

 

I had trouble trying to find out what powerplant it used. Finally, I discovered it utilised a Tatra T-100 engine, a licence-built copy of the Hirth HM 504.

The engine produced 84HP on a continuous rating, and was an inverted, inline, air-cooled 4 cyl.

 

The replica builders followed the plans as much as possible, but Argon arc welding was used instead of straight gas flame welding - electrics, radio and transponder were installed, and some fibreglass and carbon composite components were utilised. 

The primary structure design had to be modified and strengthened to meet current aircraft design criteria and legislation.

Amazingly, the replica is powered by an original Tatra T-100 engine, fully rebuilt from the parts of three Tatra engines!

 

http://aviators.cz/en/Tatra-T-101.2-airplane

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hirth_HM_504

 

[facthunter]

Tatra is quite an amazing Company. Their modular air cooled diesel rolling stock motor could be built up in 2 3 4 and 6 cylinder versions from common parts. bolted together,  Easy to repair in the field and good for extreme temperatures (Hot and Cold).. Nev

[onetrack]

My only previous knowledge of Tatra was of their rear-engined Tatra cars of the mid-to-late 1930's. They were powered with an air-cooled V8, and had worse handling than a VW Beetle!

 

They got the nickname of the "Czech Secret Weapon" or the "Nazi Officer Killer" - because the Nazi officers loved them for their power and speed, and commandeered as many as they could get.

But the Tatra cars reportedly killed more Nazi officers, than the Nazi's lost in combat! They were lethal! The Nazi leadership eventually banned Nazi officers from driving them.

Jay Leno owns one, and admires them greatly, but is under no illusion about their poor handling.

 

https://www.warhistoryonline.com/war-articles/czech-car-killed-nazi-officers-than-active-combat.html?chrome=1

 

The Tatra 77 and 77A - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tatra_77

 

The Tatra 87 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tatra_87