Designed to be a personal helicopter, the U.S. Army developed the Aerocycle as an experimental program that would convey soldiers, like a cavalry of massive dragonflies, over the ocean to battles on land. The Aerocycle promised battlefield mobility far exceeding motorcycles or infantry vehicles. It could hit 65 mph and patrol a range of 150 miles. The military hoped that soldiers could be trained on the craft after 20 minutes of practice, but that turned out to be the demise of the machine.
The Aerocycle proved to be unsafe for inexperienced pilots. Two crashes were caused when the spinning rotors struck each other and spun the craft out of control. Windy conditions created another weakness, and the project was ultimately scrapped. If you want to see one, a HZ-1 Aerocycle is on display at the U.S. Army Transportation Museum at Fort Eustis.
The Dassault Balzac V
The Dassault Balzac V represents the French attempt to harness VTOL technology. Built by Dassault Aviation for the French Air Force in the early 1960s, there was only one example, a prototype aircraft, and it barely made it off the test flight runway. Dassault modified its existing Mirage III supersonic jet fighter to create the lightning-fast VTOL aircraft. The one-seater Balzac V prototype was built without weapons, but it had teeth. The aircraft holds the record for the fastest VTOL aircraft ever made, hitting Mach 2.
It was on October 13, 1962, when the Balzac V achieved its first hover flight. Unfortunately, it won zero awards for safety. By January of 1964, the Balzac V crash-landed during a test flight and killed the pilot. The aircraft was repaired and tested again, but it crashed and killed another pilot. The damage was beyond repair. Since it was the only model, the second crash effectively ended the program.
The de Havilland Comet G-ALYY
The de Havilland Comet was the first commercial jet airliner, and it proved that commercial flight could be possible. The British produced this post-WWII dream machine in 1949 when jet travel for the average person was just unimaginable. In 1952, the Comet made it come true and the public flocked to travel on the big beautiful aircraft that could cruise at the unprecedented height of 40,000 feet, providing a smooth ride above the turbulence of weather. And then the problems started to set in.
A couple of runway takeoff mishaps shook public confidence but watching two of them explode in the sky ended it. In order to fly at such altitudes, the makers had to pressurize the plane. Pressurization in commercial jets was a new technology. Some design flaws couldn’t handle pressurization in the cabin and the Comet ripped open at vulnerabilities, like the corners of square windows which were fatigued over time.
The Christmas Bullet
Dr. William W. Christmas, the man who backed the Christmas Bullet airplane, was such a practiced charlatan that he hoodwinked the U.S. military into investing in his aeronautical experiment. During the days of the Wright brothers and the race to fly heavier than airships, something heavier than a hot air balloon, Dr. Christmas was in the running.
Though he had no credentials, in that they did not exist then, he claimed to be an aerospace engineer. He claimed to have built and flown a plane in 1908, but he had no evidence. He said the plans and plane burned in a fire. This turned out to be false. Nevertheless, the con artist found two backers from an aircraft company in N.Y. and managed to procure an engine from the U.S. Army. Christmas built his plane to his design specs, in spite of warnings from the company’s engineer. He should have listened. The wings were ripped off the fuselage on its first test flight, killing the pilot. Undeterred, Christmas advertised in Flying magazine that his plane flew at a top speed of 197 mph, failing to mention the crash was caused by his design flaw. He was able to build another Christmas Bullet which faced the exact same fate. It’s known as the worst airplane ever made in U.S. military history.
The Me-163 “Komet”
The Me-163 Komet has the distinction of being the only rocket-powered fighter plane to serve in active duty. As you can imagine, the Komet was fast! It not only beat the world speed record, it doubled it. Flying up to 624 mph, nothing would beat it until Yeager flew the Bell X-1. But the aircraft, designed by Alexander Lippisch for Nazi Germany, had some drawbacks.
The speed monster devoured all of its rocket fuel in just seven minutes. Its weapons system was inaccurate and slow, so slow targets were impossible to hit. And the Me-163 was actually too fast to be a fighter, outflying its intended targets. On top of that, it had no landing gear and was out of fuel by the time it landed; needless to say, it was unsafe. Getting it back in combat was also a mission of sorts. The aircraft was a boon to the future of aeronautic aviation, but it was a failure against the Allied forces.