Richard
Final Approach
- Joined
- Feb 27, 2005
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- 9,076
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- West Coast Resistance
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Ack...city life
My wife bought me a book today. It's called, The World's Worst Aircraft, and looks at various a/c through the years with an eye towards what where those people thinking?
I'm just getting started reading through it but one system I think most improbable is the bellows powered ailerons driven by engine bleed air (Northrup XP-56). So what happens when the engine quits?
Or, the 1927 "Bonney Gull" (Leonard Warden Bonney, inventor) which actually looked quite like a seagull. The wings incorporated pilot-controlled varible incidence and variable dihedral. Bonney steadfastly believed the secret to manned flight was to emulate the birds as closely as possible. Despite protests from friends and even advice from the Wrights, Bonney went forth on his first test flight only to kill himself when he lost control on rotation.
Sorry, no URL anywhere in the book, but google search might yield something.
I'm just getting started reading through it but one system I think most improbable is the bellows powered ailerons driven by engine bleed air (Northrup XP-56). So what happens when the engine quits?
Or, the 1927 "Bonney Gull" (Leonard Warden Bonney, inventor) which actually looked quite like a seagull. The wings incorporated pilot-controlled varible incidence and variable dihedral. Bonney steadfastly believed the secret to manned flight was to emulate the birds as closely as possible. Despite protests from friends and even advice from the Wrights, Bonney went forth on his first test flight only to kill himself when he lost control on rotation.
Sorry, no URL anywhere in the book, but google search might yield something.
