Oddball, Experimental, or One-off

[BrendAn]

8 hours ago, spacesailor said:

And here's a modern twist!.

 

330 px Barlow Acapela 100  N455 CB

Originally a Bede BD-5 design.

spacesailor

Nice looking aircraft. A bit like a Sadler vampire

[facthunter]

I wouldn't like to do a wheels up landing.  Nev

[pmccarthy]

The life coaches say to plough your own furrow.🙂

[red750]

The de Havilland DH.14 Okapi, aka Airco DH14, was a British two-seat day bomber of the 1910s, designed by Airco but built by de Havilland. The aircraft was designed as an Airco DH.4 and DH.9 replacement, but it never entered production.

 

 

 

[facthunter]

Typical DH fin and rudder. Either they are tiny people or that's fair sized aeroplane. There's a DH "Giant Moth" at Longreach. Qantas were authorised De Havilland builders.  Nev

[rgmwa]

When were starter motors introduced?  That would be a hard prop to swing.

[facthunter]

No it's too high. Cartridgestarters were about and windup spring cranked ones

[BrendAn]

8 hours ago, red750 said:

The de Havilland DH.14 Okapi, aka Airco DH14, was a British two-seat day bomber of the 1910s, designed by Airco but built by de Havilland. The aircraft was designed as an Airco DH.4 and DH.9 replacement, but it never entered production.

 

 

 

what motor powered it, it looks like 12 exhaust outlets. did an inline 12 ever exist

Edited May 3, 2023 by BrendAn

[Old Koreelah]

2 hours ago, BrendAn said:

what motor powered it, it looks like 12 exhaust outlets. did an inline 12 ever exist

Dual exhaust ports?

[BrendAn]

22 minutes ago, Old Koreelah said:

Dual exhaust ports?

thanks. that makes sense.  just looked it up. 600hp rr condor v12

Edited May 3, 2023 by BrendAn

[red750]

General characteristics

Crew: Two

Length: 33 ft 11+1⁄2 in (10.351 m)

Wingspan: 50 ft 5 in (15.37 m)

Height: 14 ft 0 in (4.27 m)

Wing area: 617 sq ft (57.3 m2)

Empty weight: 4,484 lb (2,034 kg)

Max takeoff weight: 7,074 lb (3,209 kg)

Powerplant: 1 × Rolls-Royce Condor I water-cooled V12 engine, 525 hp (391 kW)

Propellers: wood fixed pitch propeller

[onetrack]

The RR Condor I engine utilised a Bristol gas starter. 

 

http://all-aero.com/index.php/component/content/article/64-engines-power/9249-rolls-royce-condor

[red750]

The Consolidated Vultee XP-81 (later redesignated ZXF-81) is a development of the Consolidated Vultee Aircraft Corporation to build a single seat, long range escort fighter that combined use of both turbojet and turboprop engines. Although promising, the lack of suitable engines combined with the end of World War II doomed the project.

 

Two prototype aircraft were ordered on 11 February 1944 that were designated XP-81. The engine selection was an attempt to couple the high-speed capability of the jet engine with the endurance offered by the propeller engine. The XP-81 was designed to use the General Electric TG-100 turboprop engine (later designated XT31 by the US military) in the nose driving a four-bladed propeller and a GE J33 turbojet in the rear fuselage. The turboprop would be used for normal flight and cruising and the turbojet added for high-speed flight.

 

[red750]

The Blackburn B-20 was an experimental aircraft, first flying in 1940, that attempted to drastically increase the performance of flying boat designs. Blackburn Aircraft undertook an independent design study based on a patent filed by their chief designer, John Douglas Rennie for a retractable pontoon float that formed the planing hull.

 

The B-20 was an attempt to combine the best features of both the flying boat and the floatplane. While on the water, the B-20 was essentially a floatplane, using a large float under the fuselage for buoyancy, and two smaller floats near the wingtips for stability. In flight, the main float retracted upwards towards the fuselage, fitting into a "notch" to become streamlined as a part of the fuselage. The wing floats folded outwards, somewhat like those on the American Consolidated PBY flying boat design, to become the wingtips. This configuration gave the correct wing incidence for takeoff and for flight and in the latter a much reduced drag compared to the deep hulls of flying boats. Number built: 1.

 

[red750]

The Convair Kingfish reconnaissance aircraft design was the ultimate result of a series of proposals designed at Convair as a replacement for the Lockheed U-2. Kingfish competed with the Lockheed A-12 (later developed into the SR.71) for the Project Oxcart mission, and lost to that design in 1959. Never made it past the design stage, no units built.

 

[red750]

Lockheed Have Blue (HB1001) was the code name for Lockheed's proof of concept demonstrator for a stealth bomber. Have Blue was designed by Lockheed's Skunk Works division, and tested at Groom Lake, Nevada. The Have Blue was the first fixed-wing aircraft whose external shape was defined by radar engineering rather than by aerospace engineering.

 

The aircraft's faceted shape was designed to deflect electromagnetic waves in directions other than that of the originating radar emitter, greatly reducing its radar cross-section.

 

The Lockheed Have Blue flight tests were proceeding smoothly until 4 May 1978, when HB1001 was making its 36th flight. The aircraft pitched up just as it made contact with the ground which forced the pilot, Bill Park, to abort the landing and make a second attempt.

The impact had however been so hard that the landing gear had become jammed in a semi-retracted position. Efforts to lower the gear were unsuccessful and Bill Park was forced to climb again, and eject when his fuel ran out. Both prototypes were eventually lost.

 

 

[facthunter]

No good being invisible if you can't land it safely.  Nev

[rgmwa]

How would you know if it was invisible?

 

[red750]

The very basic Thrust Measuring Rig or 'Flying Bedstead' was the first British VTOL aircraft and gathered useful data for the P.1127 (Harrier) project. The Bedstead's loaded weight was only about 272kg less than the combined thrust of the two engines, and some of that thrust was ducted away for the control ducts. Each control movement reduced the lifting thrust, requiring a bit more throttle and meaning that it could not be controlled at maximum thrust without a height loss. There was little margin for error - and none at all if one engine faltered. The only plus side was that the engine nozzles were arranged to give thrust (lift) on the centreline so that at least it would plunge vertically rather than flip over. Both Bedsteads did crash, one fatally, and the Harrier adopted a quite different lift system.

 

[red750]

The Hiller VZ-1 Pawnee (U.S. Army designation; earlier Army designation: HO-1) was a unique direct-lift rotor aircraft, using contra-rotating ducted fans for lift inside a platform upon which the single pilot shifted body weight for directional control. The platform was developed starting in 1953 under an Office of Naval Research (ONR) contract to Hiller Aircraft, and flew successfully beginning in 1955.

 

The original concept had been developed by Charles H. Zimmerman in the late 1940s.[2] Further development followed, both by Hiller Aircraft and the De Lackner Company. There were two main models, the ONR model 1031-A-1, and the somewhat larger VZ-1 Pawnee model produced in 1956 for the U.S. Army. Three of each model were built as prototypes. Neither of the variants was put into production.

 

Due to aerodynamic effects in the duct within which the propellers rotated, the platform was dynamically stable, even though the pilot and center of gravity of the platform were fairly high up. In testing, the prototypes flew well, but the U.S. Army judged them to be impractical as combat vehicles as they were small, limited in speed and only barely flew out of the ground cushion effect. Number built:    6.

 

 

[red750]

The Ball-Bartoe JW-1 Jetwing was a US research aircraft flown in the 1970s to investigate blown wing technology.

 

The Jetwing was a small, mid-wing design powered by a turbofan and fitted with tail-wheel undercarriage. The upper surface of the swept wings incorporated a slot along 70% span, through which air from the engine's fan stage could be discharged. Mounted above this slot was a small secondary airfoil called an "augmentor", intended to direct the discharged airflow over the wing. With this arrangement, it was found that the aircraft remained controllable at airspeeds as low as 34.76 kn (64.38 km/h; 40.00 mph).

 

Following the test program, the aircraft was donated to the University of Tennessee Space Institute in Tullahoma, which donated the Jetwing to the Wings Over the Rockies Air and Space Museum in Denver, Colorado in 2007. The aircraft was an experimental one-off with only one unit built.

 

[red750]

The English Electric Wren was a 1920s British ultralight monoplane built by the English Electric Company Limited at Lytham St Annes, Lancashire.

 

The Wren, designed by W. O. Manning, was a lightweight motor-glider. Manning was a designer of flying boats and decided to try a simpler project. The Wren was a single-engined high-wing monoplane with an empty weight of only 232 lb (105 kg). The first aircraft (Serial Number J6973) was built in 1921 for the Air Ministry. Number built:-  3.

 

[Area-51]

Still struggling with this page... can't work out which nation had the best drugs being freely distributed around...

[spenaroo]

Germany during ww2 (mmm panzer chocolate)
USA post war (anyone want some CIA experiments with LSD)

[spenaroo]

 

This turned up on my facebook page,

captioned as "RSF-1 Aerosub. In 1964, Donald Reid dove it 6.5 ft below the surface, then flew 33 ft high."

further googling makes me believe it should actually be called the RFS-1, but the rest is correct. used scuba gear when underwater. (imagine the limitations with pressure density at altitude)

 

who knew there was a submarine in the sky?

 

Edited June 6, 2023 by spenaroo