WWW II planes...

[Paolo Tagliaferri]

WWW II planes => Weirdest World War II planes

Ok ... how about weirdest WWII plane? Well, on the site you can see a lot of excellent and "beautiful" planes, but in reality there also a lot of strange projects that never entered mass production, or other strange planes that had a limited success.

So ... let's search these strange pics and post them here! We'll see what's the strangest WWII plane or project! And I begin!

http://home.cinci.rr.com/estople/weirdair/fi103riv.jpg
This would have been a V1 piloted "flying bomb". A Luftwaffe bomber would have carried this near its target, and then the pilot would have flown until the target, then bailed out before the explosion!

http://www.wpafb.af.mil/museum/research/p79s.jpg
Northrop XP-79: experimental rocket powered flying wing ... then XP-79B was the only built, with jet engines.

http://users.chariot.net.au/~theburfs/unrealimg/antonovkt.jpg
Antonov KT Flying Tank: developed in 1940, was designed to "glide" a T-60 tank over enemy lines to aid partisan forces... This unit was towed by a heavy bomber such as the Petlyakov Pe-8 or Tupolev TB-3.Whilst Western sources say the KT never left the ground, Soviet sources say a single successful flight was made in 1941 or 1942.

http://users.chariot.net.au/~theburfs/unrealimg/vak2.jpg
The Vakhmistrov Aviamatka, a TB-3 carrying two Polikarpov I-5s, two I-16s (known as SPBs) and a Grigorovich I-Z. A squadron of six TB-3/AM34s and twelve SPBs was formed in the last months before Russia went to war with Germany, and in summer 1941, a Zveno group took off from an airfield on the Black Sea to attack the Negru Voda bridge across the Danube, in Rumania. The SPBs separated near the target and attacked with their 250 lb. bombs, then escorted the parent aircraft home. This was the first and only offensive use of the parasite aircraft unit.

http://www.warbirdsresourcegroup.org/IJARG/images/shinden-2.jpg
Kyushu J7W1 Shinden: a short range interceptor with canard design that never entered action.

Do you know other strange birds? Just reply on this thread


Taglia

The Great Planes webmaster
http://www.tgplanes.com

[deankal]

I would like to suggest:

1)The BV 141 with the engine and fuselage on one side and the cabin in a nacelle on the other.

2)The Fisher P-75, an airplane made up of parts of other airplanes such as P-40 wings, F4U landing gear, and SBD tail.

3)The Miles M.39 Libellula, a research aircraft with a canard layout.

Dean

[kshanaberger]

One of the weirdest planes I've seen is the Vought V-173...also known as the "Flying Pancake" and "Zimmer's Skimmer". The U.S. Navy hoped to achieve short take-off and landing (STOL), higher speed through lower drag and potential hover capability. This "proof of concept" aircraft was further developed as the F5U but never went into production.

http://www.nasm.si.edu/nasm/aero/aircraft/images/vought-sikorsky_v-173.t.JPG

Ken <img src=icon_smile_big.gif border=0 align=middle>

[Paolo Tagliaferri]

quote:
I would like to suggest:
1)The BV 141 with the engine and fuselage on one side and the cabin in a nacelle on the other.

http://www.warbirdsresourcegroup.org/LRG/images/lrg0361.jpg
That's it, but despite its strange and ungainly appearance, I've read in several sources that this plane was very airworthy and, due to the almost all-around view given to the crew by its off-set cockpit, was very usefull in its roll as a recon aircraft.

quote:
2)The Fisher P-75, an airplane made up of parts of other airplanes such as P-40 wings, F4U landing gear, and SBD tail.

http://www.wpafb.af.mil/museum/research/p75s.jpg
Here is it!
quote:
3)The Miles M.39 Libellula, a research aircraft with a canard layout.

Still searching a shot...


Taglia

The Great Planes webmaster
http://www.tgplanes.com

[simon]

Not strictly speaking a World War Two plane, but I would have to suggest for consideration the B-29/P-51 combination where Mustangs were parasited to the outer wings of a Superfort in order to use the bomber's fuel on long flights.

Other possibles are any of the Mistel combinations, the "Twin Mustang", and He111Z "Zwillinge".

A more conventional aircraft that I always thought looked wierd, or at least plain ugly, was the Vickers Wellesly

[Paolo Tagliaferri]

quote:Originally posted by simon

Other possibles are any of the Mistel combinations, the "Twin Mustang", and He111Z "Zwillinge".

http://users.cybercity.dk/~dko4098/He111z.jpg
Heheh ... This is the He111Z : From Bombers of World War II, "A experiment involing the He 111 resulted in the extraordinary five-engined He 111Z (Z denoting Zwilling, or twin), achievd by joining together two He 111 by means of a new wing center-section carrying a fifth engine. The resulting aircraft, with a span of 35.20m(115.6ft), was intended to tow the huge Messerschimt Me 321 Gigant glider or three Gotha Go 242 gliders at 225km/h(140mph) at 4000m(13,125ft). Trails proved fairly successful, and the He 111Z served with the Grossraumlastenseglerkommando 2(phew) based at Obertraubling in 1943 for supply missions on the Eastern Front. The He 111Z-2, which is not thought to be flown opperationally, was equipped to carry four Hensechel Hs 293A rocket bombs over long distances, and the projected He 111Z-3 was to have been a long range reconnaissance version. The He 111Z had a crew of seven, of which four members(including the pilot) were located in the port fuselage, and the others in the starboard fuselage."

[simon]

I've only ever seen one picture and unfortunately I don't have it myself, try the "Beach Strafer". This shows the degree of desperation the British reached in the preparations for the expected German invasion in 1940.

The "Beach Strafer" was a converted Westland Lysander fitted with an "H" shape tail and a four gun rear turret. The idea, supposedly was that it would fly low over the invasion beaches strafing the landing troops with gunfire from the rear turret.

Fortunately it never had to be used as they would have certainly been wiped out.

To look at, the Strafer appeared almost like the front half of a Lysander attached to tail of a Lancaster bomber.

[Paolo Tagliaferri]

Just found these "model photos" for the Beach Strafer...

http://www.tgplanes.com/misc/beach_1.jpg

http://www.tgplanes.com/misc/beach_2.jpg

http://www.tgplanes.com/misc/beach_3.jpg

Quite weird!! Fortunately for the crews it remained only a project!

[simon]

Another odd project, a Hurricane with a jetissonable bi-plane upper wing. The idea I think was that it was to be used as an extra fuel tank and to improve low-speed cruising characteristics, then could be jetissoned in combat when enemy aircraft appeared.

I guess the designers hadn't heard of drop-tanks...

(I'll try and find a picture, it does look a bit strange).

[Ricky]

The Hurricane with detachable upper wing was actually (I think I'm right here!) an attempt to achieve:
a) a shorter take-off run
b) greater fuel-economy when cruising

The concept had originally been considered on the long-distance flying-boats, for the above reasons, and the designer thought that it could be a bonus for fighter aircraft too.

[Notta Brit]

the piloted V-1 was fiesseler (dunno how to spell it;))

[GregP]

1) Arsenal-Delanne 10 C2.
2) Caproni CC.2 piston-jet.
3) Curtiss F14C of 1942.
4) Curtiss-Wright CW-24 (precurson to XP-55Ascender)
5) Dewoitine D.720 (ugly!)
6) Gorppingen Go. 9 (trial aircraft for Do-335 rear engine)
7) Hanriot H.220
8) MNiG-8 Experimental (1941)
9) Miles M.35 and M.39Payen Pa-22 (in Spades!)
10) Sack As-6
11) Seibel Si 200
12) Sud Se-100 (tailwheels located in bottom of rudders!)
13) Supermarine Dumbo
14) Tupelov ANT-22
15) Westland P-12 as already stated

[simon]

Actually the V-1 (All versions including piloted and pilotless) were built by Fiesler, the same company that manufactured the Storch (Not to be confused as one person I knew did with "Pfizer" whose products are decidedly different:D), I believe they had a slightly different designation and may well have had a separate name but they weren't called the "Fiesler" as such. ;)

[tenmmike]

http://www.warbirdsresourcegroup.org/LRG/images/fi103-1.jpgGerhard Fiesler Werke GmbH, with DFS for piloted program
Type: Manned air/surface missle or conversion trainer
First Flight: September 1944
Service Delivery: N/A
Number Produced: 175

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Engine:
Argus 109-014 pulsejet impulse duct
Thrust: 660 lb (300kg)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dimensions:
Span: 5.715m (18 ft. 9 in.)
Length: 8.00m (26 ft. 3 in.)
Body diameter: 838mm (33.0 in.)

Weights:
Loaded: 4,960lb (2250 kg) Performance:
Max Speed: 400mph (645km/h) up to 497mph (800km/h) on final target approach
Launch height: 8,200ft (2500m)
Range: 205 miles (330km)

Comments:
Following the Allied invasion, German officials became more receptive to the idea of a manned bomb. With war turning against them, the German high command grasped at just about any chance to turned the Allied tide. The manned Fi 103 was a concept that even a year before would have been unthinkable. While the pilot was intended to aim the craft at the target and then bail out, the odds of success were very slim indeed.
The Fi 103 was designed to be launched from a He 111 and while 175 were produced, none were fired in anger. 5/KG 200 was to be the unit responsible for thier use