5 of the Strangest Aircraft Ever ✈️ History in the Dark ✈️

Flight technology has come a long way in the last century. We went from small prop-planes that could barely pass 100mph to aircraft that can break the sound barrier many times over. But throughout that time, there have been some rather...interesting ideas for how aircraft should be approached. Sometimes it got downright nuts. Weird. Strange. Unspeakable madness is a good way to put it. Here's five of those aircraft that entered the realm of the bizarre.

00:00 - Intro
00:38 - The Aero Spacelines Pregnant Guppy
03:04 - The Blohm & Voss BV 141
05:31 - The Flying Pancakes
05:52 - Sack AS-6
08:17 - Vought V-173
09:58 - Vought XF5U
12:10 - The Kalinin K-7
15:37 - The Avro Canada VZ-9 Avrocar

"The Aero Spacelines Pregnant Guppy was a large, wide-bodied cargo aircraft built in the United States and used for ferrying outsized cargo items, most notably components of NASA's Apollo program. The Pregnant Guppy was the first of the Guppy line of aircraft produced by Aero Spacelines."

"The Blohm & Voss BV 141 was a World War II German tactical reconnaissance aircraft, notable for its uncommon structural asymmetry. Although the Blohm & Voss BV 141 performed well, it was never ordered into full-scale production, for reasons that included the unavailability of the preferred engine and competition from another tactical reconnaissance aircraft, the Focke-Wulf Fw 189."

"The Sack AS-6 was a German prototype circular-winged aircraft built privately during the Second World War."

"The Vought V-173 "Flying Pancake" was an American experimental test aircraft built as part of the Vought XF5U program during World War II. Both the V-173 and the XF5U featured an unorthodox "all-wing" design consisting of flat, somewhat disk-shaped bodies (hence the name) serving as the lifting surface. Two piston engines buried in the body drove propellers located on the leading edge at the wingtips."

"The Vought XF5U "Flying Flapjack" was an experimental U.S. Navy fighter aircraft designed by Charles H. Zimmerman for Vought during World War II. This unorthodox design consisted of a flat, somewhat disc-shaped body (hence its name) serving as the lifting surface. Two piston engines buried in the body drove propellers located on the leading edge at the wingtips."

"The Kalinin K-7 (Russian: Калинин К-7) was a heavy experimental aircraft designed and tested in the Soviet Union in the early 1930s. It was of unusual configuration, with twin booms and large underwing pods housing fixed landing gear and machine gun turrets. In the passenger version, seats were arranged inside the 2.3-meter thick (7 ft 7 in) wings. The airframe was welded from KhMA chrome-molybdenum steel."

"The Avro Canada VZ-9 Avrocar was a VTOL aircraft developed by Avro Canada as part of a secret U.S. military project carried out in the early years of the Cold War. The Avrocar intended to exploit the Coandă effect to provide lift and thrust from a single "turborotor" blowing exhaust out of the rim of the disk-shaped aircraft. In the air, it would have resembled a flying saucer."

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#aircraft #plane #top5

[AvroArrow]

Nice to hear the Avrocars got a more complete preservation rather than just a cockpit, an engine and a few wing panels.

[robertwilloughby]

There was the jet powered BIPLANE.... It was used as a cropduster, and it wasn't all that bad. (Apart from being insanely expensive to run!)

[misterdanielsiii]

I visited the museum in Texas that has the Flapjack. I had not known of it's existence prior to that. Truly an amazing aircraft.

[mortensen]

"The Guppy showed that you can expand the fuselage of an aircraft up, even if it looks wrong, it actually doesn't affect the flight of the aircraft, as long as it's done well". ..

Zantford D. Granville has entered the chat. .

[lightningwingdragon]

Heres one more for the versus series.

"How a train was almost derailed by....MOLASSES!?!?!"


Look up History Guy, Boston Molasses flood. There are two incidents, one with a rail company, and one with the actual train.

[saltbombcreations]

There was this one aircraft (I think built by Poland) that couldn’t fly because it was powered by a diesel engine

[Nlangkirby]

Speaking of the flying pancake design… there was a plane based on a heel pad of a shoe…. A man by the name of Cloyd Snyder discovered that heel pad can fly and promptly developed the Arup S-1 low aspect ratio wing plane and later the Arup S-2 based on it. Also another plane for this list is Waterman Whatsit… the first flying plane with a design similar to the Curtiss Ascender.

[stoopingfalcon]

As an avid Airfix model builder as a kid, the BV141 was one of my favourite weird looking planes.

[justinmcdaniel]

If the flap jacks proved so hard to destroy that they had to use a wrecking ball to destroy it why didn't they reboot the program but for a jet powered one instead of a prop powers flap jack
If they did so it could be a revolutionary design if it worked

[SamutheHamu]

Unidentified flying objects(ufo, s) Are also insanely weird

[mortensen]

The BV141... . If British Rail built a WWII fighter. .

[fadamasyifa]

For the next episode of this, please include the ATL 98 Carvair. They have an interesting history, just read it on wikipedia.

[tommallon]

Jack Conroy, the founder and designer for Aero Spacelines, was in negotiations with NASA for hauling for them. He stepped out for a smoke and overheard a NASA official say, "Ha! Damn thing looks like a pregnant guppy!" So in spite, Conroy named it that.

[danny_boi]

"It's an aircraft, not a tank"
A-10: "First time?"

[nelsondawson]

Nasa still uses the super guppy for their rockets parts

[jazzmeister]

I would like to point out that before Avro developed the VZ-9 they made the Arrow. Which I don't know if you know this but the Avro Arrow was the fastest jet created in the 1950s, we were forced to destroy it because the states crapped themselves when they saw it, in return they gave us missle defense and the VZ-9, but the cost of the VZ-9 and the scrapping of the Arrow KILLED Avro.

A great Canadian company that was shot in the head by yankees, and it wouldn't be the first time that happened

[marklittle]

That Blohm and Voss just hurts the eyes..it makes you question what drugs the designer was on ..

And a big Shout out to you showing the AVRO aerocar. Avro Canada was an amazing company. Too bad the Arrow Cancellation wiped them out. The Arrow was ahead of its time

[MrCateagle]

It was interesting to see the Tacit Blue aircraft in the background of that USAF Museum picture

[nysubwaydude]

17:00 images if the Avro Canadian VZ-9 Avrocar is also use as a spacecraft by the US army, USAF, NASA and American Allies too

[Dagreatestwaffle]

We should fly those flapjack aircraft. See if it actually flys