Could The Umbrella Plane Have Changed Aircraft Hangars?

Aircraft bring with them a wide range of challenges when it comes to storage, so when airports, airfields and private airstrips began to be more broadly established, many sheds and garages were insufficient.

The modern solution is a scalable kit built aircraft hangar building, which can be set up around your needs, but before elaborate modular hangars were common, some ambitious and imaginative plane designers tried to make narrower planes.

By far the strangest was an aeroplane that did not have wings but a large circular parasol-like disk, developed as part of a dream to make a plane as easy to live with as a car.

The Glide Of The Nemeth Parasol

Designed by Steven Nemeth from Dayton Ohio, the Nemeth Parasol was a test plane made in the 1930s that managed to defy its baffling appearance by actually demonstrating potential as a viable aircraft.

Mr Nemeth had noticed both the desire and the resolute impracticality of making a “flying car” a reality. People wanted to own planes, but not only struggled with the complexity of powered flight, but also with the space requirements for a plane.

In later years, the flying car concept would use either folding wings or quadcopter rotors, but the Parasol aimed to get around this by making an aeroplane with the same surface area as a conventional design but located in such a way as to ensure that it could fit in a large, relatively tall garage.

Unlike a lot of unusual designs which were designed with rather loose regard for the laws of physics, Mr Nemeth worked with a team of students from Miami University and did wind tunnel tests at the University of Michigan.

There was a custom set of struts to hold the “roundwing” in place above the fuselage, making the plane look like a biplane with only one wing.

Untapped Potential

There were only a few tests undertaken with the Parasol, but it did appear that, despite its rather unwieldy and distinctly aerodynamic shape, it could have potentially been a rather effective aircraft.

It could take off in a mere 19 metres, which meant it was ideal for launching from a driveway, let alone a short runway or stretch of road. It was also the first airplane with a roundwing design to maintain consistent, controllable flight.

At the same time, it could land in just eight metres thanks to an innovative parachute-like stall gliding system that allowed it to safely slow down and stop.

Ultimately, it never caught on, and no manufacturers were interested in pursuing the design further.

Exactly why this was the case is not known, but it is likely the result of its rather dubious aesthetics. There were concerns about drag, but there is also an assumption that aircraft have 

to look conventionally aerodynamic in order to fly effectively.

Could It Have Worked?

The Nemeth Parasol might have had the potential to radically change aircraft hangars had it proven to be as effective and easy to fly as Mr Nemeth’s boasts would suggest.

Despite this, it was a very interesting and creative aircraft that had far more potential than most in a market where “interesting” and “creative” are terms to be sceptical about.