In today’s post, we present you the Top 10 Weirdest experimental aircraft of the Cold war era.
Number 1
Vought V-173 To get an aircraft with excellent short-range lift capabilities, Americans designed the entire aircraft like it’s one big wing. This aircraft is nicknamed as the flying pancake, It does what it suppose to be, but it was not inducted into American Navy.
Number 2
McDonnell XF-85 Goblin It was supposed to be a plane that could fit inside another plane (like a flying aircraft carrier) for bombing purposes, but the plan just never progressed. Getting the little plane back onto the mothership proved to be too dangerous to maneuver.
Number 3
Avro Canada VZ-9 Avrocar It was a $10 million (USD) project. This aircraft was a part of a secret U.S. military project carried out in the early years of the Cold War. They wanted to have their own flying saucer. But the problem with this 1950’s aircraft was that it couldn’t get more than 3 feet off the ground without encountering big problems.
Number 4
Tacit Blue It was a technology demonstrator aircraft meant to display American stealth aircraft technology. The aircraft made its first successful flight on February 5, 1982, in Area 51. It’s bubbly and boxy body allowed it to fly undetected by radar.
Number 5
Nasa’s AD-1 Oblique Wing This aircraft is based on the idea that being able to shift wing positions around, would be more fuel-efficient. NASA went to work building this one. The theories proved to be correct, but flying the plane presented sos.me major unpleasant difficulties.
Number 6
Bartini Beriev VVA-14 It was a wing-in-ground aircraft developed by the Soviet Union during the early 1970s. This aircraft has the ability to fly above the water for long distances. The goal was to make a craft that could launch vertically. Unfortunately, it was never finished.
Number 7
Grumman X-29 The wings of this aircraft look like they’re on backward, It was controlled by the fly-by-wire system. But the problem was that it couldn’t be controlled by a human pilot if its computer system malfunctioned, and we all know how fickle computers can be.
Number 8
Convair XFY-1 Pogo This was a turboprop vertical take-off aircraft. This was made to solve the problem with many planes that they can’t park them in a tight Spot. The Pogo came equipped with landing gear on its tail end.
Number 9
Antonov A-40 Tanks This aircraft is like a tank fitted with a plane. It was a Soviet attempt to allow a tank to glide into a battlefield after being towed by an airplane. ( According to Wikipedia )
Number 10
Goodyear Inflatoplane It was an inflatable experimental aircraft, It could fit in the trunk of a car, and was capable of soaring to 16 thousand feet. The finished aircraft proved to be capable of meeting its design objectives, But it was never taken seriously. Possibly because it could be downed with a single prick of a pin.
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