Amazing planes that failed

[JonAsad]

For centuries man dreamed of flying and achieved very little, but once Wilbur and Orville Wright had cracked the fundamentals at Kitty Wake Sands the speed of progress was to be without precedent.

In 1903 their machine stayed aloft for 12 seconds, and less than 70 years later a man walked on the moon. In purely mathematical terms this represented a leap from 852 feet to nearly half a million miles in a single lifetime, and looked at any other way it is clearly, still, a quite staggering achievement.

But there have also been some big mistakes along the way. Some designers pursued ideas which now look utterly absurd. Others created perfectly good concepts that failed because they were delivered too late (or occasionally too early), or because they were overtaken by events or political expediency.

We examine 10 amazing planes that ultimately failed.

 

[JonAsad]

North American XB-70 Valkyrie

America's dangerously-beautiful, nuclear-armed, deep penetration bomber was designed in the late 1950s. Intended to fly too fast to be caught, at speeds in excess of mach 3+, it was also engineered to fly above any potential trouble from enemy interceptors with an operating ceiling of around 70,000 feet.

Two prototypes were completed at immense cost, but one crashed following a mid-air collision in 1966. The second continued to fly until 1969 but, rendered obsolete by new, high-altitude surface-to-air missiles, it was used for research purposes only and is now parked in a USAF museum in Ohio.

 

[JonAsad]

Hafner Rotabuggy

A military application of autogyro technology, these airborne jeeps were designed to be towed into action behind RAF Whitley bombers. A prototype was tow-tested at high-speed behind a supercharged 4.5 litre Bentley but - doubtless to the relief of those called upon to fly them - the idea was canned in 1943.

Although today the only survivor is a replica at the Museum of Army Flying in Hampshire, another, related scheme was also hatched for a so-called Rotatank. Intended to use the hull of a Valentine tank, presumably somewhat lightened, the device itself was never put to the test.

 

[JonAsad]

Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit

AKA the 'stealth bomber' and famously the most expensive aircraft ever built at up to $2.1 billion apiece ($2.8 billion at today's values). Capable of dropping 16 nuclear bombs in a single pass, plans to build 132 were scaled back to just 21, one of which crashed on takeoff in 2008.

The 20 survivors have seen action on numerous occasions, being used in the skies above the former Yugoslavia to drop bombs on Serbian forces as well as over Iraq and Afghanistan. Whilst secrets about its systems are naturally well-guarded, B-2s have appeared at air shows and to great acclaim.

 

[JonAsad]

BAC TSR-2

A victim of the Wilson government cutbacks, this advanced low-level attack and reconnaissance machine was substantially ahead of the field when the first prototype flew in 1964. Labour made clear its dislike of the project, however, and saw through its promise to can it after winning the election the same year.

Despite a change of government the project stood little if any chance of being revived and is today much mourned. Just two examples exist - one each at the Imperial War Museum, Duxford and the RAF Museum Cosford - with a cockpit section on display at the Brooklands Museum in Weybridge, Surrey.

 

[JonAsad]

Northrop YRB-49A

One of the earliest 'flying wing' concepts, this 1950 design was too advanced for its own good as it posed a number of control problems which were impossible to resolve at the time. The solution came in the form of 'fly-by-wire' technology, but not for another quarter of a century.

In 1979 the concept was revived in the shape of the aforementioned B-2 Spirit, the notion of radar invisibility through so-called stealth technology having brought new impetus to an idea which in one form or another had been around since the 1930s. Sadly no examples of the YRB-49A survive.

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De Havilland DH.108

Originally conceived to investigate the behaviour of swept wing designs at subsonic speeds, the Vampire-based DH.108 was nevertheless the first British aircraft to exceed the speed of sound (and one of the first turbojets to do so). Unfortunately all three prototypes were subsequently lost in fatal crashes.

The first loss was at mach 0.9 when a structural failure caused the wings to collapse killing Geoffrey de Havilland Jr. A second pilot died following a fault oxygen supply, while the third aircraft stalled prompting the pilot to bail at such a low altitude that his parachute failed to deploy.

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Bristol Brabazon

Thought too large and expensive to make a profit, the 1949 Brabazon was beautiful but stillborn. Similar in size to a Boeing 767 and requiring eight paired turboprops to cross the Atlantic in 12 hours, it could carry only 100 passengers. In 1953 the solitary completed prototype was broken for scrap.

While dismissed as a white elephant, the project was not entirely lost. Half of the government money spent on it went on infrastructure. This provided the company with the wherewithall for a viable future building less-sexy but more practical products like the Britannia medium/long range airliner.

 

[JonAsad]

Saro Princess

With Howard Hughes' 700-seat Spruce Goose flying boat still the largest aeroplane ever built, Britain's futuristic rival was the mighty 10-engined Saro Princess. Already obsolete when it first flew in 1953, only its flightdecks and instruments were retained and resused in a number of cross-Channel SRN4 hovercraft.

Unlike the aforementioned Brabazon which took no orders whatever, the Princess for a while had looked viable with BOAC placing an order for three in 1946. When that company backed out in 1951 the RAF agreed to take them on but, with fewer than 100 flying hours logged, the project was later abandoned.

 

[JonAsad]

Vought XF5U

Nicknamed the Flying Flapjack, this disc-shaped concept was designed for high speed flight but in theory could also hover. It won a 1933 design competition organised by a forerunner of Nasa but, perhaps as was to be expected of a device likened to a flying saucer, it was later rejected as 'too advanced'.

Until that point development continued, however, and as early as 1942 a prototype (the Chance Vought V-173) briefly flew. By 1947, however, the idea looked likely to be rejected in favour of faster jet-powered aircraft, and one prototype was transferred to the Smithsonian Museum for display while the other was destroyed.

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Korabl-Maket

One of a breed of ground-effect or 'ekranoplan' aircraft pioneered by Rostislav Alexeyev. Designed to fly a few feet above the water and so well below enemy radar, in the 1960s rumours surfaced in the west of this 550 ton 'Caspian Sea Monster' before the Soviet authorities eventually lost faith in the technology.

Alexeyev's involvement with the project was officially terminated long before his death in 1980, but following the collapse of the USSR his reputation has recovered. Recently his work has been favourably compared to the likes of Andrei Tupolev and the Soviets' leading space pioneer Sergey Pavlovich Korolyov.

Source:
Vought XF5U - Amazing planes that failed

 

[gambit]

North American XB-70 Valkyrie

America's dangerously-beautiful, nuclear-armed, deep penetration bomber was designed in the late 1950s. Intended to fly too fast to be caught, at speeds in excess of mach 3+, it was also engineered to fly above any potential trouble from enemy interceptors with an operating ceiling of around 70,000 feet.

Two prototypes were completed at immense cost, but one crashed following a mid-air collision in 1966. The second continued to fly until 1969 but, rendered obsolete by new, high-altitude surface-to-air missiles, it was used for research purposes only and is now parked in a USAF museum in Ohio.

Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit

AKA the 'stealth bomber' and famously the most expensive aircraft ever built at up to $2.1 billion apiece ($2.8 billion at today's values). Capable of dropping 16 nuclear bombs in a single pass, plans to build 132 were scaled back to just 21, one of which crashed on takeoff in 2008.

The 20 survivors have seen action on numerous occasions, being used in the skies above the former Yugoslavia to drop bombs on Serbian forces as well as over Iraq and Afghanistan. Whilst secrets about its systems are naturally well-guarded, B-2s have appeared at air shows and to great acclaim.

How are these two -- 'failed'?

 

[gowthamraj]

All are great aircrafts but none from russia or soviets

 

[satishkumarcsc]

Where is the CV-50 Avro? or the Ho 228? or the Marut?

 

[razgriz19]

All are great aircrafts but none from russia or soviets

lol because none of their design failed....lol

 

[razgriz19]

Where is the CV-50 Avro? or the Ho 228? or the Marut?

idk about the other two aircrafts but avro was quite advanced than any other aircraft when it was made but because of political reasons it couldn't be produced!

 

[Iggy]

idk about the other two aircrafts but avro was quite advanced than any other aircraft when it was made but because of political reasons it couldn't be produced!

By this logic B-2 is also not failed my friend..

 

[razgriz19]

By this logic B-2 is also not failed my friend..

sure u can say that!
and in my opinion B-2 is not a failed aircraft, its just too damn expensive but its performing its role perfectly so it cant be considered
"failed"
btw only 1-2 prototypes of avro were made, b-2 has 21 production aircrafts....