i was on a walk and this thing flew over my head. west germany, nrw, somewhat close to bonn
i lowkey thought it was a shahed at first, judging by the overall shape, size, flight height and propeller sound
sorry for the fucked quality
To speed up the development and avoid wasting resources, the RLM officials asked for a smaller scale flying model to be built first.
How it turned out the FG 227’s overall performance was disappointing and it didn’t play any major role in the Bv 238 development.
Footage of an A-12 launching an MD-21 at high mach. I could go into the history but lots of folks have before. I've never seen footage of one flying before though!
By chance just caught an engine run of the Dornier Do-24 at the Dornier Museum in Friedrichshafen
By the time of the Battle of Britain, the Junkers Ju 87 Stuka had proved very vulnerable to enemy fighters and needed a replacement; after the rejection of the Ju 87F proposal, a new dive bomber was designed under the designation Ju 187.
The projected aircraft kept some of the features of the earlier Ju 87, such as the inverted gull wing and two-man crew. It would have added retractable landing gear, the nose of the aircraft would have been elongated for a better view for the pilot, as well as improved armour and armament. Most notably, the Ju 187 incorporated a rotating vertical tail. When rotated down, the tail would give the air gunner, armed with a rear turret, an unobstructed field of fire. It is not known how the aircraft would have handled with the tail rotated.
The VZ-3 was an experimental aircraft using blown flaps to achieve a short or near vertical take-off. It was a high-wing monoplane powered by an Avro Lycoming T-53 turboshaft engine located inside the fuselage driving two large-diameter propellers mounted, one on each wing. It had a T-tail and originally a fixed tailwheel. It was later converted to nose wheel configuration.
It had wide-span double retractable trailing-edge flaps, these were extended into the propeller slipstream for takeoff. To enable control while in the hover it had a universally-jointed jet-deflection nozzle at the rear of the aircraft.
It crashed after a lengthy test programme but was rebuilt and has been retired to a US Army Museum.
The Soviet Bratukhin (OKB-3) was an aircraft design bureau created in 1940 to develop helicopters. Headed by Ivan Pavlovich Bratukhin, the bureau built several experimental helicopters over the next decade. Each model had the same basic design of two rotors with separate engines carried on the ends of outriggers to each side of the fuselage. The bureau was dissolved in 1951.
Fascinating look at the optimistic development of an aircraft that looked like it came out of a 1950’s Sci-Fi movie.
The Wibault 72 C.1 was a "parasol" wing monoplane of metal construction, designed by the Michel Wibault aircraft company.
It served as a single-seat fighter aircraft in the French Air Force, for whom 69 aircraft were built In 1932, the Wibault 72 C.1 equipped 4 squadrons of the 7th Wing based in Dijon.
In mid-1943, German forces captured a Supermarine Spitfire Mk. V (serial number EN 830). Originally equipped with a Rolls-Royce Merlin 45 engine, the aircraft underwent evaluation at the Rechlin flight test center before being transferred to Daimler-Benz's flight test department in Echterdingen in November 1943. Designated with the Stammkennzeichen CJ+ZY, the airframe was allocated to serve as a flying testbed for Daimler-Benz engines.
The conversion required significant engineering modifications to integrate a German inverted V-12 powerplant. The original Merlin engine, armament, and radio equipment were removed. A Daimler-Benz DB 605 A-1 engine (Werk Nr. 00701990)—the variant utilized in the Messerschmitt Bf 110 G—was installed using a custom-fabricated engine mount and transition cowling manufactured in Sindelfingen. The electrical system was upgraded to a 24V standard to support German fighter instrumentation. Engineers integrated an oil tank and a cooling system layout derived from the Bf 110 G, though the original Spitfire V water radiator was retained. Despite being nearly 50% smaller than the Bf 109 G's twin radiators, the Spitfire unit exhibited only a 4% lower cooling capacity. A Bf 109 G-sourced VDM constant-speed propeller was also fitted.
Flight testing, conducted primarily by Flugkapitän Willi Ellenrieder, demonstrated exceptional handling and performance metrics. Stripped of military equipment, the modified Spitfire weighed 2,730 kg, approximately 300 kg less than its operational configuration. This weight reduction, combined with the DB 605 engine, resulted in a climb rate exceeding that of a standard Bf 109 G by 5 m/s. Top speed near ground level was 25 km/h lower than the Bf 109 G due to the Spitfire's 5 m² larger aerodynamic area, but velocities equalized at altitudes above 10,000 m. The airframe also exhibited superior ground handling and takeoff stability compared to standard Messerschmitt fighters.
The evaluation program yielded positive aerodynamic and operational data regarding the DB 605 integration. Following preliminary testing in Echterdingen, the aircraft's performance was verified at Rechlin before returning to Daimler-Benz for continued use as an engine testbed. The program was abruptly terminated on August 14, 1944, when a United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) bombing raid targeted the Stuttgart airfield, resulting in the complete destruction of the DB 605-equipped Spitfire along with other prototype aircraft.