[Reacher] What's up YouTube?
From a flying car to a massive flying boat with nine wings,
we bring you 20 vintage flying machines.
Starting off this list at number 20,
we have a one man helicopter.
In the 1950s the US Army tried to create
a one man personal helicopter called the Aerocycle.
The Aerocycle was intended to be operated
by someone with just 20 minutes of instructions.
The objective was to use the personal helicopter
as a reconnaissance machine.
Steering was controlled by shifting your weight,
but the aircraft proved to be too difficult to control
And after two crashes the project was abandoned.
Number 19.
In 1936, Jess Dixon of Andalusia, Alabama
got tired of being tied up in traffic jams,
so he designed and built this novel flying vehicle.
This combination of automobile, helicopter,
autogyro and motorcycle, is powered by
an air-cooled 40 horsepower motor.
Dixon claimed his machine was capable of speeds
up to 100 miles an hour.
However, only one photograph is known to exist
and although it appears that the machine
is actually flying in the picture,
no records of the test flights still survive.
Number 18.
The Gerhardt Cycleplane.
Designed by Dr. W. Frederick Gerhardt,
this entry on the list has been called
the world's first successful human powered aircraft.
The aircraft made its first flight in July 1923.
During initial test flights, an automobile towed
the cycleplane into the air and released it.
Afterward Gerhardt was able to maintain stable
and level flights for short periods of time.
The only human powered take off of the cycleplane
was a short hop of about 20 feet with the craft
rising two feet off of the ground.
Number 17.
In 1931 Helene Alberti, an opera singer from Boston
turned from her thrush like warbling
to another phase of avian endeavor;
Soaring by arm power in a pair of strap-on wings.
Using the local hills as a testing ground,
she and a male pupil sprung into the air,
fluttering their canvas propellors.
And then promptly went into nose dives.
You won't be surprised, but disappointed to learn
that Helene and the young lad in the photos
did not as fate would have it, take flight.
- [Man] Guys!
- Number 16.
Leonardo da Vinci's hang glider.
An invention inspired by bat's wings.
Historians have recently attempted to build
Davinci's glider using materials he would have
had available and found that it could actually fly
with a couple of small modifications.
The device shows where a man could actually lie
into the machine with his waist
inside the ring just below the wings.
His hands would hold the two sticks
coming down from the wings for directional control.
And a flapping motion would be powered
by the man forcing his legs downward
with his feet inside the two spurs.
DaVinci's sketches and the principles he discovered
while developing his glider, set down some of
the most basic principles of flight.
Many engineers and Leonardo lovers tend to agree
that he is one of the founding fathers
of the branch of physics which is now known as Aerodynamics.
Number 15.
Otto Lilienthal was a German pioneer of aviation
who became known as the flying man.
He was the first person to make well documented,
repeated, successful flights with unpowered airplanes.
Newspapers and magazines published
photographs of Lilienthal gliding,
favorably influencing public and scientific opinion
about the possibility of flying machines becoming practical.
Sadly, on August 9th, 1896, his glider stalled
and he was unable to regain control.
Falling from about 50 feet in the air,
he broke his neck and died the next day.
Number 14.
The Ader Avion III.
In 1892, the French Ministry of war commissioned
Clement Ader, a French aeronautical pioneer,
to begin work on a new airplane.
Ader created a tractor monoplane
powered by twin 20 horsepower Ader steam engines,
which was completed in 1897.
Ader attempted to fly the Avion III on two occasions.
In one of these test flights the aircraft simply
ran around a circular track without leaving the ground.
In his report of the trials, General Mensea
the official government witness
stated that the Avion III had not flown,
but he suggested that the tests continue.
Having spent 65,000 francs on the project to date,
the ministry of war refused to fund additional trials.
Number 13.
The Ornithopter.
In 1928, George White hoped to make man's
first successful birdlike flight in history.
The idea was to imitate the flapping wing flight
of birds, bats and insects.
The frame weighed 118 pounds, was eight feet in length
and had a wing span of 29.5 feet.
It was made of chrome molydernum covered with
a non-inflammable transparent celluloid fabric,
having a tensile strength of 10,000 pounds
to the square inch.
Over six years George White made
a total of 21 secret flights.
On June 16th, 1928 White narrowly escaped death
during the flight experiments, but he reportedly
kept experimenting with his ornithopter into the 1930s.
Number 12.
The Cornu helicopter.
The word helicopter comes from the French word Helicoptere,
which is derived from Greek, literally meaning spiral wing.
References to vertical flights date back to 400 b.c,
but it was Leonardo da Vinci's design of an aerial screw
in the 1480s that was the first record
of advancement towards vertical flight.
However, it wasn't until November 13th, 1907
that French inventor Paul Cornu managed
to lift a one foot off the ground
for 20 seconds in his Cornu helicopter.
This was reported to be the first
truly free flight with a pilot.
Various other experimentations took place after
Cornu's vertical lift off, but it wasn't until the 1920's
that early development of helicopters really took off.
Number 11.
Raul Pateras Pescara built his first helicopter
in Barcelona in 1919.
He modified this version several times, and in 1922
Pescara moved to France and succeeded in rising
and hovering 4.9 feet in his 1,680 pound helicopter.
On April 18th, 1924 Pescara's perseverance was rewarded.
He flew at Issy-les-Moulineaux for
a little under half a mile.
The helicopter had four pairs of blades turning
around a totem pole rotar mast, and although
the takeoff involved a lot of wobbling
his flight still lasted 10 minutes.
Number 10.
The Lee-Richards Annular Monoplane.
During the pioneer years, before the first world war,
Cedric Lee and G. Tilghman Richards built and flew
a series of aircraft, having an oval
flat ring shape, or annular wing.
They built both biplane and monoplane types,
and in 1913 their first monoplane proved to be
an early example of the statically stable aircraft.
The circular plane form allowed the wing span
to be narrower than a conventional wing, making the aircraft
even more unusual for it's period
in being longer than it was wide.
Although all prototypes were reported to be easy to fly,
they all crashed during test flights.
Number nine.
The Cayley Glider.
One of the greatest inventors in the field of aviation
was Yorkshireman George Cayley.
He was the first man to move away from the idea
that a man-made flying machine must have wings
that flapped like a bird's.
In 1804 Cayley designed an built a model
monoplane glider with a modern appearance.
The model featured an adjustable cruciform tail,
a kite shaped wing mounted at a high angle of incidents
and a moveable weight to alter the center of gravity.
Cayley redesigned and tested his gliders
throughout the rest of his life, taking his latest known
flight in 1853 at his estate in England.
Many consider him to be the true first scientific
aerial investigator and the first person to understand
the underlying principals and forces of flight.
Number eight.
The Bleriot 11.
In July 1909 French aviation pioneer Louis Bleriot
completed the first successful crossing
of the English Chanel by air.
This historic feet took a little over 36 minutes
and earned him a prize of 1,000 pounds,
equivalent to $144,000 in today's money.
The monoplane he used for the crossing
was called the Bleriot 11.
The type 11 was initially powered by an REP engine
and was first flown with this engine on January 18th, 1909.
Amazingly, a few of these aircraft are still air worthy.
Granted, given the rarity and fragility of the type,
the chances of getting to fly it are next to nil,
but it would still be theoretically possible
to enjoy the Bleriot experience.
Number seven.
Alexander Lippisch's Aerodyne.
An innovative and unusual design
that lacked wings altogether.
Lippisch's Aerodyne consisted of an engine within
a ducted shroud that exhausted through a pair
of vectored cascades that provided both the propulsive lift
when in VTOL mode and then shifted via a series of vanes
to provide forward thrust while retaining enough
of a downward thrust component to stay
airborne without the use of wings.
A conventional tail unit provided
directional control while in forward flight.
While no documentation exists that the Aerodyne took flight
it was tested at the NASA Ames Research Center's
large 40 foot by 80 foot wind tunnel.
Unfortunately In 1964 Lippisch contracted cancer
ending work on the Aerodyne.
Number six.
The Nemeth Umbrella Plane.
Built by students at the Miami university in 1934
it demonstrate that even a circular wing
could be used to fly a plane reliably.
This aircraft had a parasol wing of circular form
above a conventional fuselage and tail,
and it was powered by propeller in a tractor configuration.
The original prototype was a taildragger
that used a round wing design.
It used a lengthened fuselage from a 1920s
Alliance Argo biplane and was powered
by a 90 horse power Lambert engine.
At the rear, two ailerons were added to help
the plane land safely at slow speeds.
It was quite a success in it's test flights
and held some promise.
It provided evidence that circular wing designs
shouldn't be written off and paved the way
for other successful experimental military aircraft.
Number five.
The Northrop XP-79 flying wing aircraft.
Built in 1945 By Jack Northrop for the US army,
It was designed as flying wing fighter aircraft
powered by two rocket fueled jet engines.
The XP-79 had the pilot laying prone in the cockpit
to take on the expected 500 mile per hour speeds.
A pressured cabin would ensure survival
in the estimated 40,000 foot ceilings
that the plane would fly in.
The body of the aircraft was constructed
with heavy gauge magnesium.
The Northrop XP-79 project was canceled after
the single prototype was lost to an accident.
Number four.
The NASA M2-F1.
This entry was a lightweight, unpowered prototype aircraft
developed to flight test the wingless lifting-body concept.
In 1962 NASA management approved a program
to build a lightweight, unpowered lifting-body prototype.
Test speeds on tow instepped a 110 miles per hour
which allowed the plane to climb to about 20 feet,
then glide for about 20 seconds after releasing the line.
That was the fastest speed that could be expected
during an auto-tow, but initial tests produced
enough flight data about the M2-F1
to proceed with flights behind the US Navy C-47
tow-plane at greater altitudes.
The M2-F1 program demonstrated the feasibility
of the lifting-body concept for horizontal landings
of atmospheric entry vehicles.
Number three.
The Caproni CA.60 Transaereo.
Often referred to as the Noviplano or Capronissimo,
this prototype was a large nine-wing flying boat
intended to become a 100-passenger transatlantic airliner.
It featured eight engines and three sets of triple wings.
designed by Italian aviation pioneer Gianni Caproni,
only one example of this aircraft
was built by the Caproni company.
It was tested on Lake Maggiore in 1921,
but shortly after takeoff, the aircraft crashed
on the water surface and broke apart on impact.
Soon after the project was abandoned
because of it's excessive cost.
Number two.
The Moon Pod.
This lunar landing research vehicle was built
by Bell Aerosystems in 1964, as part of the training
for the Apollo project to land on the moon.
It was designed for a vertical landing and takeoff
and was able to briefly hover
and fly horizontally before landing.
Known as The Flying Bedstead it used a gimbal-mounted
vertical jet engine to counter 5/6s of its weight
to simulate the Moon's gravity, in addition to its own
hydrogen peroxide thrusters to simulate
the landing module's descent engine and attitude control.
This aircraft proved fairly dangerous to fly,
as three of the five were destroyed in crashes.
It was equipped with a rocket-powered ejection seat,
so in each case the pilot was able to survive.
And topping off this list in the number one spot
is the Avro VZ-9 Avrocar.
This aircraft was developed by Avro Aircraft Limited,
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 Coanda effect
to provide lift and thrust from a single turborotor
blowing exhaust out the rim of the disk-shaped aircraft
to provide anticipated VTOL performance.
Two prototypes were built as proof of concept test vehicles,
but in flight testing the Avrocar proved to have
unresolved thrusts and stability problems, that limited it
to a degraded low-performance flight envelope.
subsequently, the project was canceled in September 1961.
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