Incredible Flying Machines: An Anthology of Eccentric Aircraft

160 Pages·1980·30.19 MB·English

by  Michael F. Jerram

**
BMBSBHBSB1
An
anthology
of eccentric aircraft
EJerram
MLab
_
INCREDIBLE
Here is a world of aviation you'll never see
fromanairport lounge: aworldofvisionsand
dreams, pioneer spirit and courage, sealing
waxandstring.IncredibleFlyingMachinestakes
alightheartedbutcarefullyresearchedlookat
Man's attempts to imitate the birds,— from
the legendary Icarus to the present day. *^^^W^^^""Wm^I^^^ ^*^^. m''"*^j"
This book pays homage to the brave and
brilliant schemers who flout aeronautical
conventions in pursuit of more imaginative
formsofflight,andchartstriumphanddisaster
with equal candor. It spotlights the amazing
number of 'first ever' flights as well as the
considerable number of 'never-flew-at-all'
contraptions. There are flying machines with
no wings and some with nine; flapping arm
fliers and 'flying flapjacks', alongside more
serious innovations such as balloons, airships
andautogiros. Fromthesmallesttothelargest,
from the oldest to the projects of tomorrow,
the extremes of aerial ingenuity are
629.133 x 76903 '
affectionatelyportrayedandillustratedbyover
Jerram, M.
100 fascinating photographs.
Incredible flying machines.
Manymagnificentideasandachievementshave
DATE DUE
been unjustly neglected by the aircraft
establishment, and this book aims to redress
the balance. Although perhaps not all the DEC 2 7 1994
visionary designers and aeronauts have been
superhuman, with Incredible FlyingMachines
you'll believe a man can fly!
UG I b 199?
m
MIX?
2HDIL
ARlV
M
200
#*»,
SEP 2 3 200*:z:
MM
DEC n
!
MAR - 8 ?005
APR 2 6 2005
nuv u 1 2006
PRINTEDINUSA
PUBLIC"B«*"L
SANR*fAft,
fjTO«21911
m
,
„
INCREDIBLE^
FlyinG
machines
„
INCREDIBLE^
FlyinG
machines
\
_
INCREDIBLE^
FlyinG
Machines
An
anthologyof eccentric aircraft
Michael E Jerram
V
*
-\
m
^M^S
Marshall Cavendish
London & Sydney
NEW YORK
f\. If"" '
Frontendpapers:The fascinatingConvairxfy-i
Togo' was designed in theearly 1950sas partofa
programme toprovidethe US Navy withavtol
fighter. The Togo' was intended to takeoffand land
vertically, transitioningtoand from forward flight
intheair.
Backendpapers: The Short-MayoCompositewas a
1930sattempttosecure long range for mailplanes
withtheaid ofa piggy-backarrangement. The
Composite tookoffonthepowerofall eight engines,
and whensufficientaltitude had beengained, the
'Maia' mother craft released the 'Mercury'floatplane
forahigh-speed dash.
Titlepage: The extra-ordinary GossamerAlbatross
tookthe world byconsiderable surprise whenit
achieved thefirst man-powered crossingofthe
EnglishChannel in 1979.
Thispage: Oneofthemore daringspirits in the 1930s
wasJimmie Goodwin,anAmericandaredevil who
'flew' with theaidofvanes.
Overleaf: Oneofthefascinatingdesigns
originating from thedrawingboardofthe
prolificdesigner Burt Rutan, the
Vari-Viggenisa compact canard
lightplaneofgood performance.
Editor: Chris Chant
Picture researcher: John Moore
Designer: Bob Burroughs
Published and distributed by:
Marshall Cavendish Books Limited Exeter Books
58 Old Compton Street Distributed by Bookthrift, Inc.
London WlV 5PA New York, New York
IN THE U.K., COMMONWEALTH AND REST IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
OF THE WORLD. EXCEPT NORTH AMERICA
ISBN 85685 835 8 ISBN 0-89673-072-7
First printing 1980
MARSHALL CAVENDISH LIMITED 1980
All rights reserved
Printed in Great Britain SAN Rafael public Lmn^v
*,' SAN RAFAEL, CAL.FORN^A
1
INTRODUCTION
That birds can fly and men cannot seems too obvious to be
worth stating, but it is a truism that many men havegallantly
ignored. The birds' view of their imitators may never be
known, but here is a book which puts the case for 'Those
Magnificent Men' fairly and squarely. Aeroplanes stand for
timetables, airport lounges and scheduled flights; flying
machines for ingenuity, dreams and a prayer. With an
aeroplane you take a ticket, with a flying machine you take
a chance.
Man's ambition to fly admits of no logical chronology,
and if Icarus was the first to try waxen wings he was doubt-
less not the last. Leonardo da Vinci took time off from his
frescoes to assert that 'your flying machine ought not to
imitate anything but the bat,' but was himselfwise enough
not to imitate his model with a night flight - and indeed
never flew at all. Those quintessentially American Ameri-
cans Orville and Wilbur Wright finally got aviation as we
know it off the ground, but both before and since their
historic ascent of 1903, man-powered flight has appealed to
the pioneer designer.
Ifsome oftheir schemes seem hare-brained now, this was
not always so, and many of the 'contraptions' in this book
were created in response to very real needs in the serious
business of civil and military aviation. Since the achieve-
ment of the Wright brothers, the basic concept of heavier-
than-air craft has been fixed within certain limits, but the
visionaries have put forward some wonderful alternatives:
tail-first aircraft with bizarre handling characteristics; air-
craft that can be taken onto the road, and road cars which
can be flown aircraft which pack in a suitcase aircraft for
; ;
home construction, even flying saucers that actually fly.
Incredible Flying Machines is a tribute not only to the
weird and wonderful aircraft, but also to the human beings-
breaking legs far more often than records - who created
them. It commemorates such maverick personalities as
W. G. Tarrant whose one and only product was as high as a
four-storey house and nose-dived into the ground prior to
its only attempted flight and Doug 'Wrong-Way' Corrigan,
who left New York bound for California and landed in
Dublin blissfully unaware that he had crossed the Atlantic.
Some flying machines have proved so superior to the con-
ventions offlight that it is strange how little the aeronautical
establishment has been influenced; and indeed all flying
machines deserve far greater credit and attention than they
have hitherto received. The range is immense — from the
world's smallest aircraft, the Stits Sky Baby, to Howard
Hughes' gigantic Spruce Goose, with a multitude ofvisions
and concepts in between. Since Icarus, the 'Magnificent
Men' have come a long way, and will certainly go further
still. But that is the beauty of flying machines - the sky is
the limit.