What is the worst aircraft you know of? no, I'm not talking about that tiny ERJ 45 you were crammed into last time you flew economy domestic. I'm talking about things like the Convair XFY Pogo, an experimental tail sitting fighter that was so difficult to land, it made the design completely unfeasible https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipe...r_XYF-1_Pogo.jpg/696px-Convair_XYF-1_Pogo.jpg or like the XF-85 Goblin, a 'parasite' fighter designed to live in the bomb bay of a strategic bomber, and launched to defend it from threats with the fury of 4 .50 cal machine guns. In actual combat conditions, it would not have been uncommon for one or two of these tiny things to face of against a dozen or so MIG-15s. It also took up a significant portion of the payload of the bomber, and almost killed the pilot on 4/7 of its test flights when he tried to hook back up with the bomber and failed, resulting in forced landings and damage to the aircraft. Obviously, this was such a good idea, the military cancelled the project and never explored manned parasite fighters again. Magnificent.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDon...ile:McDonnell_XF-85_Goblin_USAF_(Cropped).jpg
Dassault Mercure. Tried to take on the classic 737s and failed horribly at it. Wasn't as efficient as the 737 and didn't have too much range, also, nobody was interested in that thing
Reminds me of the Convair 880, basically a smaller and faster 707, but with a cripplingly short range. It had 5 abreast seating for some strange reason. no airlines really seriously considered it, and only 65 were built in a 3 year production run.
Christmas Bullet. Take some time to read up on this aerial dumpster fire: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas_Bullet ...in regards to the previous posts about the Mercure and Convair, Mustard has done fantastic videos on both: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1ZBQ-F-yktYD4m5AzM6pww
I mean, I'd make the argument in Christmas's case that really nobody knew what they were doing back then. Aircraft back then were in their infancy, and so it's only natural that there were a lot of designs that didn't work. Should Christmas braced the wings? Absolutely. We know that now due in part from his failure. Sure, the bullet was a dead end (quite literally) but as far as sheer pioneering stupidity, look no further than the Bonney Gull. So the plane was made in the 1920's when engineers had sorta got the hang of designing working aircraft, but Leonard Warden Bonney thought people were going about it all wrong. he believed that in order to fly well, planes needed to be more like birds, so he spent years studying seagulls, and built perhaps the coolest looking airplane of the decade. It did look like a giant seagull with a radial engine instead of a face. Unfortunately, Gulls (as well as most birds) are very unstable in the air. This means quicker turns, but also means birds are constantly making tiny adjustments to stay aloft. Bonney couldn't keep up with the instability of his airframe and lost control on the maiden flight. The aircraft crashed, killing him instantly. This man had 2 decades of aviation behind him. 20 years of proven designs. I'm all for trying new stuff that seems crazy, but I would have made a proof of concept that my life wouldn't have depended on to see if the idea held water. Bonney was a man chasing a dream, and I think he got caught up in that dream.
