Unique Aviation Designs That Led To Modern Aircraft

It is difficult to understate how much of the modern world was built in aircraft hangar buildings, with aviation pioneers building the machines that took humanity to the skies in sheds and shelters of varying sizes.

The Wright Brothers built the first ever aeroplane capable of sustained flight in a wooden hangar in North Carolina, a far cry from the kit build steel buildings available today for aviators and airfields.

However, for every Wright Flyer, Concorde and Supermarine Spitfire, there are also just as many radically designed aeroplanes that could have been just as revolutionary had they not ultimately failed.

Here are some of the most unique and radical aviation failures and what has been learned from the struggles they had.

Should Aeroplanes Have Flapping Wings?

Humanity has longed to fly since the first time they gazed at birds soaring across the sky. This has led to an old saying, rather mockingly quoted in Diamonds Are Forever, that we would have been given wings if we were meant to fly.

Some early aviation pioneers believed that aeroplanes should or even needed to flap in order to fly, which infamously led to the creation of William Whitney Christmas’ Cantilever Aero Bullet, often known simply as the Christmas Bullet.

Intended to be used as a scouting plane during the First World War, the Christmas Bullet was built with unbraced wings designed to flex and flap during flight.

Did the flapping wings work? Not at all; during the maiden test flights of both prototypes, the wings immediately snapped off, sending the plane hurtling to the ground and killing two test pilots.

Will More Wings Help A Plane Fly Better?

The most critical part of any aeroplane’s design is its wings, with small aerodynamic details having a colossal impact on its ability to fly and be easily controlled whilst in the air.

However, this was not always the prevailing wisdom, with biplanes and even triplanes being used during the First World War and the early age of powered flight.

This thread of logic led to the illogical conclusion of bolting nine wings onto a flying boat in order to create what was meant to be the first transatlantic airline.

To its credit, Count Gianni Caproni’s Noviplano actually successfully took off, ensuring it avoided the ignoble feat of the Christmas Bullet.

However, following a very brief test flight on 2nd March (or 12th February, sources vary), the Noviplano took off from Lake Maggiore, flew a grand total of 60 feet before crashing into a heap in the water.

Count Caproni later stated that the road to progress was “strewn with suffering.”

What Happened To The World’s First Jetliner?

An aircraft so infamous that the film Cone of Silence was dedicated to its mysterious fatal flaws, the de Havilland Comet was one of the most influential aircraft ever made in spite of its poisoned reputation.

The Comet was the world’s first commercial jetliner, predating the Boeing 707 by nearly a decade and showed tremendous promise as a way to make flying more comfortable and to make the world smaller.

The problem was that the plane had several points of failure that would cause the Comet to break apart mid-flight, which happened no less than three times within a year of its commercial introduction.

Whilst de Havilland and the UK aeronautics industry never fully recovered from this, the lessons learned from the Comet led to a range of far more successful and safe jetliners in its wake.